Review: The Chronicles of Alice (Christina Henry)

During a trip to Waterstones recently, I came across a 2 part series called The Chronicles of Alice by Christina Henry; split into the books ‘Alice’ and ‘Red Queen’. I’m a huge lover of Lewis Carroll’s idea of Wonderland and have always preferred the much darker side of this universe than the one portrayed by Disney studios in their original 1951 film. I was not disappointed.

Beginning with ‘Alice’, the book introduces the protagonist. Henry’s Alice is a patient of a dire sounding mental institution in the Old City, where she was placed by her parents following her incessant mutterings of a white rabbit and a tea party. Despite being in solitude in her cell, she is not alone. We are instead introduced to Hatcher, the angry resident in the cell next door who gained his stay following his axe attack. While being a true lover of Alice and her stories, I have to agree that this initial idea made sense to me. If you knew of someone telling you about a tea party they had after following a white rabbit down a rabbit hole, wouldn’t you believe they were crazy?

Hatcher spends his time talking about a Jabberwocky; a dark force that he believes longs to be free, while being housed in the basement of their mental institution. If you’re an avid fan of Lewis Carroll, you will have realised the homage to Alice Through the Looking Glass where Carroll writes of Alice discovering the nonsense poem of the Jabberwocky. I thought the inclusion of the character was fantastic, particularly as a central feature of the book. Following a fire in the institution, Hatcher and Alice escape and fall into the dystopian landscape of the Old City; a grey and vile sounding area where overcrowding and female trafficking are commonplace. However, the fire leads to the release of the Jabberwocky, the invisible entity who causes strong, debilitating feelings of suffering wherever he goes. As a result, both Alice and Hatcher (who as a Seer, holds a mental connection to the Jabberwocky) embark on a journey across the Old City to defeat the Jabberwocky and the Rabbit; a character who becomes increasingly evil as Alice’s memories of him slowly return. No trip with Alice would be complete without an introduction to the Cheshire Cat, who is fantastically hindering in Henry’s story and really captures the dark yet playful spirit that he should have. The Caterpillar is also included, who like the Rabbit and the Jabberwocky is told as a dark entity who must be stopped in order to save both his area of the Old City, as well as those in his lair.

The first book of the series draws to a close with a slight anticlimax, as the long awaited reunion of Alice and the White Rabbit is over in just a few pages. However, the real ending comes with the defeat of the Jabberwocky and the acceptance by Alice that she is a magician and the only one who can wield the power to defeat him. Overall, ‘Alice’ is a fantastic introduction to the series and details each of the characters both before and as we come across them. My only complaint, which I must stress is extremely small, is that when we do finally come across each of these characters, their interactions with Alice and Hatcher are over far too quickly!

Nevertheless, I dove into the sequel ‘Red Queen’ without hesitation. This book continues from the original story, and follows Hatcher and Alice on their journey out of the Old City, into the luscious fields of the lands outside. However, in a true dystopian style; on arrival Alice is greeted by a far different sight. All around them are the ashes of scorched ground and the burnt remains of those freed from the Caterpillar in the last tale, who had dreamed of their freedom. Can Alice and Hatcher discover the cause of this devastation, and put the world right?

Well, of course they can as Henry writes yet another fantastic book. During what feels like another eternal journey, the characters meet magicians, giants, a mind-controlling goblin and flying ships with mysterious pilots who appear to be the cause of the trouble. However, the real gem of this book is the clouded introduction of the Red Queen; a character who actually isn’t a character at all. We first see her following Alice’s journey to the land of the evil White Queen, the being who killed her sister the Red Queen in order to claim all of the power for herself and thus throwing the world out of sync. The Red Queen appears to Alice in a tree, with a crown containing her magic and essence calling out to be worn by the protagonist and defeat the wicked White Queen. To skip over as many spoilers as I can, Alice eventually meets and kills the Queen who turns out to be a familiar face to our characters.

The ‘Red Queen’ is another story of magic, and introduces us to yet more characters from Carroll’s universe that have been delightfully rewritten by Christina Henry. Similarly to the first book, the story lies in the journey that the protagonists take as the ending takes place in just a few pages which did leave me wanting more. However, I would happily recommend these books to anyone who enjoys the darker side of Alice in Wonderland, as they are fantastically well written and thought out, with Henry really making them her own. I cannot wait to read her next re-imagining, The Lost Boy being released on the 4th July 2017.

Review: The Other Boleyn Girl (Philippa Gregory)

My obsession with historical fiction started with the Cousins War series that I read a few months ago, my first experience of Philippa Gregory. I’ve recently finished her 2002 Romance Novel of the Year; The Other Boleyn Girl which follows the character of Mary Boleyn and the story of her involvement with King Henry VIII, her life outside of the affair and the rise of her sister Anne Boleyn to Queen Anne of England.

As with all historical fiction books, it’s important to remember that they are written by authors rather than practised historians and therefore inaccuracies are likely to happen. From my experience with reading the work of several authors within the genre, it seems that Gregory does take slightly more liberties on the historical accuracy than others but I believe that is because she includes slightly more obscure characters, for example not much is known about the life of Mary Boleyn. However, I do truly adore her writing style and I will be reviewing the book as a work of fiction, rather than with a comparison to any form of historical fact.

Before reading The Other Boleyn Girl, I had seen the 2008 movie adaptation featuring Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman and was fascinated at the concept of the Tudor king caught between two sisters from an insanely ambitious family.
The book opens with Mary as a newlywed fourteen-year-old girl at court, just before the return home of her sister Anne from the French court. Despite this she catches the eye of King Henry VIII and the Howard family soon pushes her into his bed before ensuring she becomes the favourite mistress of the king during his marriage to Queen Katherine of Aragon thus breaking their friendship. Mary’s recent marriage to William Carey was cast aside and she became pregnant with the king’s child, a son named Henry Carey. Her pregnancy became her downfall as the Howards thrust Anne in the eye of King Henry, in order to keep his focus against the Seymour girls and under their influence. Upon her return, Mary became the favourite once again but soon fell pregnant for a second time. This child was to be her last with the king as Anne rose to become the favoured Howard girl. The book then revolves around the rise of Anne Boleyn and her actions which led to King Henry VIII cutting ties with the Catholic Church in order to divorce Queen Katherine and take Anne as his wife. The book rotates between two story lines; Queen Anne’s desperation to conceive a son and her rumoured incest with her brother George, and Mary’s secret marriage to William Stafford and her longing for a country life with her children. Reading of the infamous rise to power of Anne Boleyn is captivating, particularly when told through the eyes of her sister and confident Mary. It is truly endearing when Mary falls in love with William Stafford and is able to marry for love for the first time, even if it initially led to her banishment from court.
Mary constantly turns on the wheel of favour with her own family, first as the favoured whore and then as a possible marriage partner for King Henry VIII when Anne initially falls from favour and then finally as an outcast. Philippa’s character is quite gripping and so wrongly treated by those who should care about her, which makes the whole narrative so intriguing as you wait to see what happens next.

I found myself longing to witness the lavish banquets, see the decadent Queen’s rooms and slap Anne Boleyn for her repeated attacks against Mary. While the historical accuracy of the novel may be called into question, as with any historical fiction piece, you cannot suggest that Philippa Gregory does not have a captivating writing style. Ultimately the story is a sad one, Mary loses first her brother and then her sister to King Henry VIII’s temper before she disappears into oblivion with her husband William Stafford and her two children, in an attempt to keep her life. However, for the first time, Mary is able to make her life whatever she wants it to be. The Other Boleyn Girl is a must read for any Tudor fan.

First Girl Museum Inc. Post!

Hi everyone,

I’ve recently started a Curatorial Internship with the Girl Museum, an online museum that celebrates girlhood throughout world history.

My very first online post as part of this has just gone live, and I’d love if you could check it out and tell me what you think.

Ancient Egyptian Makeup at the British Museum

I’m hoping to centre most of my blog posts around Mythological Girls in preparation for my exhibition on them, but I’ll be popping some other ones in there too. I definitely recommend the museum, the exhibitions are extremely varied and the blog posts are on so many different topics.

Thanks!