18 August 2016

Review #508: Red Queen (The Chronicles of Alice, #2) by Christina Henry



My rating: 3 of 5 stars


“We're all mad here.”

----Lewis Carroll




Christina Henry, a national bestselling author, pens her latest book, Red Queen, sequel to her duology of The Chronicles of Alice which is a creepy retake on the Lewis Carroll's popular book, Alice in Wonderland . Alice's journey continues along with her only friend, Hatcher, after escaping from the horrifying clutches of an equally creepy mental institute but more challenges await Alice and Hatcher, once they step out of the city, and somehow Alice must get to her destiny, at any cost.




Synopsis:

The author of Alice takes readers back down the rabbit hole to a dark, twisted, and fascinating world based on the works of Lewis Carroll...

The land outside of the Old City was supposed to be green, lush, hopeful. A place where Alice could finally rest, no longer the plaything of the Rabbit, the pawn of Cheshire, or the prey of the Jabberwocky. But the verdant fields are nothing but ash—and hope is nowhere to be found.

Still, Alice and Hatcher are on a mission to find his daughter, a quest they will not forsake even as it takes them deep into the clutches of the mad White Queen and her goblin or into the realm of the twisted and cruel Black King.

The pieces are set and the game has already begun. Each move brings Alice closer to her destiny. But, to win, she will need to harness her newfound abilities and ally herself with someone even more powerful—the mysterious and vengeful Red Queen.



Alice and Hatcher escapes the wrath of the creepy mental institute and its devious creatures and their tortures. But once stepping outside the boundary of the Old City, Alice and Hatcher faces more troubles and more creatures as well as getting caught up in the war of a crazy White Queen and the cunning Black King. But to reach her destiny, Alice needs to find her inner self as well as need to trust someone better and more powerful than her only friend, Hatcher.

Christina Henry is back with the sequel to her hair raising book, Alice where our very own Alice is caught in a twisted web of horror and scary monsters with the book, Red Queen. Unfortunately, this time that hair raising thrill is missing from the story line, or any of those horrifying scenes. Moreover, the story reads like any basic and normal adventure story where neither the twists will shock the readers nor the characters will impress the readers. Only thing that stands out in this book is the journey of Alice's self-discovery of her true inner self, which the author has penned in a striking manner.

The author's writing style is good, but not strong or articulate, hence the readers will be left disappointed with the method of story telling or its writing. The narrative is normal, nothing daunting or engaging enough to keep the readers glued to the pages of the book. Right in the very start, the story begins with a bang minus the catching up with the cliffhangers from the previous book, but it begins with a decent start where some pretty Gothic action will surprise the readers, but later on, midway into the story, it loses its charm and becomes very dull.

The characters from the book are well developed and are depicted with so many layers that are peeled away as per the situation thereby projecting their true self and colors. The main character, Alice, is portrayed as a hopeful character with a bit of realistic and genuine demeanor that makes her sane and relatable into the eyes of the readers. Alice is strong, but gradually she learns to believe herself and the way she handles and faces all the hurdles is pretty amazing and the readers will be bound to root for her journey. The rest of the characters don't stand out that much yet they are quite striking enough to make the story fascinating.

Like I said before, that this book is missing all those pretty sick and mind-blowing actions scenes, instead, the author has focused the whole story into the romance of Alice and Hatcher. The whole story paints their sweet love story in a compassionate yet in a charming way. And most of the time, the central story line shifted to depict the young lovers' crusade. Although the portrayal of their love story is sensitive and emotional and the readers will find it alluring.

In a nutshell, this book turns the readers' expectations down, but on a positive note, the book depicts an enduring journey of a young distressed yet intelligent girl looking a little girl.

Verdict: A not so promising or positive end to the fairy tale of our dreams.

Courtesy: Thanks to the publishers for giving me an opportunity to read and review this book.
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Author Info:
Christina Henry is the author of the national bestselling BLACK WINGS series (BLACK WINGS, BLACK NIGHT, BLACK HOWL, BLACK LAMENT, BLACK CITY, BLACK HEART and BLACK SPRING, Ace/Roc) and the two CHRONICLES OF ALICE books, ALICE and RED QUEEN (Ace Trade). She enjoys running long distances, reading anything she can get her hands on and watching movies with samurai, zombies and/or subtitles in her spare time. She lives in Chicago with her husband and son.
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