Alice was raped by a rabbit and she retaliated by taking his eye with the knife as like the rabbit put an ugly knife scar across the cheeks to Mama closed her eyes, gave a shuddering breath and then opened them again. When she did the ghost hadn’t left her face entirely but she looked more like Mama again. I'll keep this short because it mostly comes down to one thing. Horror. Now, if you read my review of Alice, you'll know I don't consider the book a horror in the common sense. Alice was a story of horrific events and horrific people. It isn't the type of book where one is afraid to turn off their lights after reading it. But it is a world where, if you found yourself in it, you would crawl up into a ball and weep over what humanity has come to. Years later, she's in a hospital. Her only friend is Hatcher - the man who talks to her from the next cell and also remembers very little of his life before. And then one night a fire at the hospital sets them both free, but their suffering is far from over. I turned around, ready to tell Sander off and demonstrate proper pig-snorting noises. That’s when I heard them.

I told Sander that we were hiding because we didn’t want to get in trouble, but really I wanted to know where the riders were going in such a hurry. I’d never find out if they caught sight of us. Adults had an annoying tendency to tell children to stay out of their business.Elizabeth returned her attention to her breakfast plate, pleased to have permission for all the jam she liked but not so silly that she didn’t realize Papa was trying to distract her. Still, she supposed she could let herself be distracted for the moment. I’m extremely sorry that my U.K. tour for LOOKING GLASS with Tim Lebbon was cancelled due to the COVID epidemic. I hope to see all of you in the future. Though you've already seen the star rating and know the answer is 'eh, maybe not.. it's good, not great.' Well, I suppose,” I said. “But it’s a lot harder, you know. You have to run very fast and laugh at the same time and also pretend that you’re chasing a pig and you have to make the pig noises properly. And you have to laugh like my opa—that great big laugh that he has. Can you really do all that?” An avid reader, Christina lives with her husband s well as son in Chicago. She enjoys novels and books of similar categories, including zombies and samurai. She is also very keen on long distance running, which is an activity she enjoys on a regular basis, when not writing up her many novels, of course!

Not since the Crisis came, decimated the population, and sent those who survived fleeing into quarantine camps that serve as breeding grounds for death, destruction, and disease. She is just a woman trying not to get killed in a world that doesn't look anything like the one she grew up in, the one that was perfectly sane and normal and boring until three months ago. We’ll tell his mother what we know,” Brom said, and I recognized the trace of impatience in his voice. “We found him in the woods like this.”Lauren didn’t really care about arcade games except maybe pinball, and she especially didn’t like going to the Dream Machine because lately it meant that she and Miranda would stand around watching boys that Miranda thought were cute. I wonder where they’re going in such a hurry,” I said. “Come on. Let’s get down onto the bank so they won’t see us from the trail.” Lauren knew Mom didn’t want her and Miranda meeting in the woods. Especially after last year. Especially after Lauren’s dad was found near that old cabin. Mom thought Lauren was macabre for going anywhere near the place where her father was murdered.

I found out everything I wanted to know about the Horseman anyway, because children always hear and see more than adults think they do. Besides, the story of the Headless Horseman was a favorite in Sleepy Hollow, one that had been told and retold almost since the village was established. It was practically nothing to ask Sander to tell me about it. I already knew the part about the Horseman looking for a head because he didn’t have one. Then Sander told me all about the schoolmaster who looked like a crane and how he tried to court Katrina and how one night the Horseman took the schoolmaster away, never to be seen again. I always thought of my grandparents as Katrina and Brom though they were my grandmother and grandfather, because the legend of the Horseman and the crane and Katrina and Brom were part of the fabric of the Hollow, something woven into our hearts and minds. I never called them by their names, of course—Brom wouldn’t have minded, but Katrina would have been very annoyed had I referred to her as anything except “Oma.” These conversations always left Katrina with sad eyes, and me with an unaccountable need to comfort her—unaccountable because we were at odds over every other thing. Overall: Yes, first book is brilliant and this one made me lose my interest just a little bit but this story was not so bad, just mediocre, a kind of Switzerland read: I did not like so much but I did not hate it either. Red Queen is the sequel to Alice, Christina Henry’s dark and twisted novel reimagining of the characters and worlds of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Considered to be both a retelling as well as a continuation, the first book impressed me with its portrayal of a whole different side of Lewis Carroll’s classic, and I’m pleased to report this follow-up is a very worthy conclusion to The Chronicles of Alice duology.And I guess that's pretty much it. I'm glad I finished the book as I was curious about Jenny, but I think the first book was better and it could have been a standalone. When she was little she used to snuggle close into her dad’s arm when that part came on and her heart would beat so fast, but there was nothing to worry about really because she was with her daddy. Of course it had been years since it scared her, but every year she snuggled up next to him. He always smelled a little bit of grease and oil, even after a shower, and also of the Old Spice Soap- on- a- Rope that she gave him every year for Father’s Day. Not one of them glanced left or right, so they didn’t notice the tops of our heads. They didn’t seem to notice anything. They all appeared grim, especially my opa, who never looked grim for anything.

Cristoffel van den Berg was killed by the Horseman!” Sander said, his eyes the size of Katrina’s teacups. I finally finished the second and last book in The Chronicles of Alice series. I took me more than two months to finish it. It's a good book. It's just that it's less thrilling than the first one. To my shame, I kept feeling sleepy while reading it. I think I expected more horror. I blame that on the Caterpillar and the Walrus. They were gruesome in Alice. The villains in Red Queen have reasons for doing what they do. They feel less scary. Highly recommended for adult readers who enjoy dark fairy tales, magic, and transformation through suffering. I've really become a fan of Henry and I can't wait to see where she takes this story next. If you enjoyed this tale, you may want to try The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins or The Circle by Mats Strandberg. I hadn’t liked Cristoffel very much. He was poor, and Katrina always said we should be compassionate to those in need, but Cristoffel had been quite the bully, always looking for a chance to take out his pique on someone. He ran in a little gang with Justus Smit and a few other boys who had no personality to speak of.

Full Series List in Order

Our story is a continuation of the first book. Alice and Hatcher have fled the city and are travelling through a forest. To give this book a purpose, it is revealed that Hatcher has a daughter that he obviously hasn't seen in forever, so they are going to look for her. I don't recall her being mentioned in the first book at all, but I'm hoping she was, because that's super weaksauce if not. This should've been a standalone. This book was completely unnecessary and I could've done without it. There were nods all around the circle from everyone except Brom, who scrubbed his face with his hands, a gesture that meant he was irritated, and doubly irritated on top of it because he wasn’t allowed to express that feeling.