Red Queen by Christina Henry
My rating: 3,5/5 ★★★☆☆
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...
My Review:
Here we are, once again, continuing the adventurous and twisted story of Alice and Hatcher. Red Queen is the second of the “The Chronicles of Alice” trilogy by Christina Henry.
As it happened with the first, I read the “Red Queen” almost just as fast. And I’m saying almost because I took the mini-break of two years. You all can see the sarcasm here. It wasn’t because of the story, but because I started it during a big transition of my life; I had to stop for a while. One thing brought another (aka: many other books followed) and I finally managed to pick it back up. I knew that it would take me only a few hours to finish it and that's exactly what happened.
It took twenty-four hours to turn the last page and I lay on my bed with the well-known feeling of breakup and loss. I know that many readers out there can relate to this. Henry’s writing style captured my interest from the very first moment when I read “Alice”; once I was done with it, I knew I had to buy the second. There is a sense of romanticism in her descriptions and as I said in my previous review, she makes it look like a fairytale. A twisted one but still, a fairytale. The author picked bits and parts of the original tale and gave them their own twist in the plot. The characters also kept growing - quite literally - and I liked the fact that our protagonist, Alice, wasn’t the girl who needed to be saved.
I enjoyed every part of the book equally, but mostly the last one. In my opinion, there was a mundane point somewhere in the middle, that left me a bit uninterested and that’s why I had to take half a start from it. The other star goes for the same reason as the first book. In this case, two of our most important villains needed more development and perhaps needed to have their own scenes in order to shine. You keep hearing from everybody all these terrible stories about the White Queen and the Black King, yet there are nowhere to be found until the very last moment. Their actions fairly give them the title of “Villain” but only through the mouths of others.
Lastly, if you like alternative stories and retellings, I absolutely recommend this series. Recently I got into my hands the third and, I presume, the last part of the chronicles, named “Looking Glass” and I just can’t wait to dive into Alice’s world one last time.
I hope soon, you will have another review/recommendation by me.
TW: Graphic scenes, violence and sexual abuse.
Take care of yourself and I'll see you soon, Alexa...
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