THE LOST WONDERLAND DIARIES - J. Scott Savage


Celia and Tyrus are both library nerds - Tyrus because he loves to read and Celia because her mom is the new librarian in town. The two strike up a fast and sure friendship and Celia reveals to him her personal issue ... she's dyslexic. Most people don't understand what that means and she's usually assumed to be, at best, stupid and at worst, carrying a disease. Tyrus is the first person who really seems to get Celia.

In their new-found friendship, they find that they share a love of the works of Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll) and Tyrus informs Celia that Charles Dodgson kept diaries his whole life but after his death, his family discovered that four of the diaries were missing.  Celia admits that she's actually related to Dodgson - his great, great, many great grand-niece.

Going through a collection of old books in a box belonging to Celia's family, they come across four leather-bound books. With awe, Tyrus announces that he believes they are Dodgson's missing diaries.  But more importantly, while going through one of them, Celia and Tyrus become transported into Wonderland.

But the Wonderland that Lewis Carroll wrote about has changed.  Many of the characters are still there, but some have become ruthless monsters and Tyrus and Celia want only to return to their home. They will have to solve many riddles and puzzles and avoid being beheaded by the Queen of Hearts and they still may not find the secrets that will get them home.

I've long been a fan of the Alice in Wonderlands books and I'm a sucker for anything related to the books, but at the same time I am hesitant to read anything in this universe because it's not likely to live up to the original. J. Scott Savage's tale is a worthy offering, helped by the fact that this isn't Alice returning.

The math involved here is cleverly done and quite appropriate for the story and as a young reader adventure story, this is quite enjoyable.

As a "Wonderland" story...?  This is clever and fitting in many ways, but it lacks the magic and spark of the originals.  The darker nature of some of the much-loved original characters really doesn't work as well as it should.  The original Alice's characters were pretty dark on their own without giving them some nefarious motives.

This is often the problem when playing in someone else's world - to make it unique means messing with what's already there.  

Overall, I enjoyed this and would recommend it as an exciting fantasy for some readers, but it hurts a little bit to recommend it as an Alice in Wonderland adventure.

Looking for a good book?  The Lost Wonderland Diaries by J. Scott Savage takes readers back to Wonderland with two new young human guides, but it's not the Wonderland we left when we closed Lewis Carroll's books.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

3-1/2 stars

* * * * * *

The Lost Wonderland Diaries

author: J. Scott Savage

publisher: Shadow Mountain

ISBN: 9781629727868

hardcover, 352 pages

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

VINYL RESTING PLACE - Olivia Blacke

Image
 Juni Jessup and her two sister, Tansy and Maggie, have gone into business together in their hometown of Cedar River, Texas, opening a combination record store and coffee shop. Vinyl LPs are making a comeback after all, despite critics thinking the medium was dead.  But speaking of 'dead' ... finding a dead body in the supply closet just as they are looking to have a grand opening is not part of the plan.  Juni's life gets more complicated when their uncle, Calvin, already a suspect in the murder, disappears. And the police officer leading the investigation is Juni's EX-boyfriend (who passive-aggressively keeps putting himself back into her life). Convinced that her uncle would never murder anyone, Juni sets out to prove his innocence - which isn't easy since he's making himself look guilty - because Calvin is family and family is EVERYthing to Juni. As readers of my blog know, I'm not a big fan of most cozy mysteries, but the setting caught my eye and my in...
Read more

THE WALLED CITY - Ryan Graudin

Image
  Jin and her sister, Mei Yee, were taken and sold and then sent to the lawless Walled City to serve as prostitutes or slaves to anyone willing to pay. Jin managed to escape her captivity, but not the Walled City and she now lurks about, disguised as a boy and is trying to track down the brothel where her sister is still captive. Jin will work odd delivery jobs to earn a small bit of money and hopefully have a legitimate means of coming in contact with her sister's captors.  This is how she meets up with Dai, a mysterious boy who has somehow managed to avoid running with any of the gangs in the city but he seems to have his own unusual connections, which Jon could desperately use if she has any hope of finding Mei Yee. But Dai has his own desperate needs.  The story is told from the different perspectives of each character and we do bounce around quite a bit as the chapters are generally short. This never bothered me, which is slightly unusual as often I find this techni...
Read more

THE RAVEN THIEF - Gigi Pandian

Image
 With Tempest Raj now a member of the company, Secret Staircase Construction (a company who, as their title suggests, builds mystery-themed, secret rooms inside homes) has finished their first job. Their client now wants to celebrate to kick off her new beginning - new home and new life now that she's divorced from her cheating ex-husband, famous mystery author Corbin Colt. First up, a mock séance to remove any trace of Corbin from the property, led by Tempest's friend, Sanjay.   But during that séance, while all those gathered sat in a dark room holding hands, Corbin's dead body crashes the party, falling across the table in front of everyone. There were eight people in the room, and they were all holding hands, but all the evidence points to one of them being the murderer.  Suspicions point to Ash, Tempest's grandfather, because he was the only one with Corbin's blood on him. Of course, as a doctor, he was also the only one who checked on the body - ...
Read more