Down The Rabbit Hole With Alice, Again

Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland by Lewis Carroll was one of my favorite books as a kid. I read quite a few classical favorites, from Little Women to Frankenstein to A Tale of Two Cities, and many, many more besides. But there was something about the whimsical fantasy of Wonderland that drew me into those pages again and again.

Part of the allure was the visual descriptions that allowed me (almost) to transport myself into that world alongside Alice, the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat and the White Rabbit. And I adored the unique customs and language of the world — sometimes backwards, often roundabout to what I knew of the reality in which we all live.

Ever Alice by H. J. Ramsay kind of had a lot to live up to in my mind if it was going to be on par with how delightful I found Carroll’s tale. And, well, I am happy to say that it totally caught my imagination right from the very first pages and I abhorred every single time I had to put it down to return to real life for any reason.

I had this book sitting on my night stand for about a week before going on a family beach vacation, and I had to keep reminding myself not to pick it up and dive into it because I wanted to save it for my beach reading. I’m so glad I was able to wait.

It wasn’t that hard, really, because I was barely home in the week before we left between shopping to prep for the time away from home to what seemed like every single appointment of the month for my kids being squeezed into those days before we headed south. But, I spent several beautiful afternoons either on the beach or by the pool with Ever Alice’s cast of characters (some familiar, some new) and a nice, tall, frosty piña colada on hand at all times! Total heaven!

Along with familiar favorite characters like Alice, the Mad Hatter, Chester, the White Rabbit, and the Queen of Hearts we meet quite a few new and interesting characters like the queen’s son, Bess (an attendant to the queen), Nurse Hazel, and even (albeit very briefly) Alice’s mother. We learn a little about her family and the dynamics of her family life. 

Let’s Dive In

We begin with Alice in an asylum where everyone thinks she’s crazy as she tries to convince them that her time in Wonderland was real. The story soon takes a turn as Ralph (the white rabbit) appears and convinces Alice to return to Wonderland with him for an important mission. The reader will very quickly find themselves completely immersed in Alice’s new adventures in this fantastical land with the queen and the other Wonderland characters she comes into contact with during her time there.

Some examples of the backward or roundabout speech I love about the world of Wonderland that Ramsay incorporates in Ever Alice include “unimportant†(meaning important), “in the second place†(rather than what we might refer to as “in the first placeâ€), an underground organization in the book is called the Aboveground Organization, and a common term we might utter is turned around in this novel and comes out as “stickfiddles†instead of fiddlesticks. These quirky tidbits are not at all disconcerting or confusing, they are delightful and totally in character to the land and peoples you will meet within the pages of the story. I loved every word!!!

I read so many books that I often pass them on to others to enjoy or donate them to different places. But, this one will be joining my personal permanent collection. Absolutely! And I will read it again. I think I’ll dig out Lewis Carroll’s original and read them one after the other at some point. I plan to lend it to my adult daughter first, though, as she shares my affinity for classic authors such as Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, etc. 

Anyone who fondly remembers spending time with Alice and her Wonderland cohorts will enjoy this new story featuring the beloved characters created by Lewis Carroll. My kids are teens and older now, but I wish they were small again so we could cuddle up and I could read it to them.

Buy it

This title is available from retailers such as Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million (BAM!), and Amazon. You need only to open the front cover to return to the childhood wonder you remember. Or give it as a gift for a young reader you know.

About Ever Alice

Alice’s stories of Wonderland did more than raise a few eyebrows — it landed her in an asylum. Now at 15 years of age, she’s willing to do anything to leave, which includes agreeing to an experimental procedure. When Alice decides at the last minute not to go through with it, she escapes with the White Rabbit to Wonderland and trades one mad house for another: the court of the Queen of Hearts. Only this time, she is under orders to take out the Queen. When love, scandal, and intrigue begin to muddle her mission, Alice finds herself on the wrong side of the chopping block.