Alejandro's Reviews > Alice & Dorothy

Insanely...disappointing


OFF WITH THEIR MENTAL SANITY!!!

I had huge expectations about this book seeing that it was so high rated (at least when I noticed it) and it crossovered the topics of Wonderland and Oz in real life context in an adult approach involving sex, drugs and murder.

What else can one ask?

And I have to admit that the reading experience was like a rollercoaster, since at some points I was sure that I will give it a full 5-star rating and at some other moments each lower possible rating and sometimes gets higher again and later it gets lower, you get the picture.

I really believed that the first chapter is like a test, to see if you really want to get further into the novel since it has very kinky sex situations, careless use of drugs and gruesome bloody violence but most of all, it isn't written in any elegant way but very directly and raw.

At that point I was believing that it was a poor choice of reading since it seemed to be a vulgar book without class. At that point you still get only Alice, so I want to read at least to the meeting with Dorothy that I guessed was the whole point of the book.

I was interested about the concept of two girls in a psychiatric ward believing that they are "Alice" from Wonderland and "Dorothy" from Oz. It was a thrilling idea.

Wonderland was always linked with the topic of madness, however, Oz not so much, however there cases like the movie "Return to Oz" that while it wasn't too good, it was still interesting and logic to think that Dorothy maybe seemed to be crazy if she started to tell about her adventures with talking scarecrows and flying monkeys.

There is a very good approach on this book that I think it was one of his strongest points of originality. However, it wasn't enough that premise to hold the book and to present a decent tale.


THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE PSYCHIATRIC WARD

The two girls are in psychiatric evaluation due showing general abnormal behaviour, but not because they'd claimed to be "Alice" and "Dorothy".

So far it seems that in the reality of this book, nobody heard about the books of Alice in Wonderland or The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, since both made several comments that anybody could sum two-plus-two and reaching to the realization of how crazy they must be...

...but no, they are considered insane due showing rages of violence to others or to themselves, not because they claimed to be "Alice" and "Dorothy".

Dorothy always is trying to hunt tornadoes to reach a magic land that she called "Oz", but nobody seems to think that something is odd here since her full name is Dorothy Gale and indeed she has an Aunt Em and an Uncle Henry.

Best proof that in the universe of this story, nobody heard before of those both classic tales.

And while Alice & Dorothy are in the psychiatric ward is a pretty good reading, even some chapters with the doctor examining them are very well written in a truly smart way.

The personalities of Alice and Dorothy can be described using elements from their own books, since Dorothy is like the Cowardly Lion while Alice is like the Jabberwock.

Dorothy is childish (even since she is already an adult), sweet and shy.

Alice is insanely violent, unpredictable and totally wacko.

Alice and Dorothy made a quick bond, even taking in account that in this book, Dorothy is lesbian, and while Alice isn't lesbian per se, she didn't mind about it.

It's clear that she hasn't enjoying much the sex relationships with men so she is kinda open to the idea of accepting the feelings of Dorothy for her, also it's an easy way to manipulate her, to making her helping to escape from the hospital.

Until then, the book was quite engaging, but on the road the story took a wrong turn...


VIOLENCE, DRUGS AND SEX! OH, MY!

When they are on the road, there a lot of bloody violence, some lesbian moments and tiny bits of drug using.

I think that the story could be developed in a better way since while the narrative has good timing and logic, it's presented in a crude way without much imagination or elegance.

Even I felt quite odd some comments in the story about not "glorify violence", but more like odd, like hypocrisy since the book is clear that it's been sold like a story of "sex, drugs and violence".

So why trying to make such statements that they are totally out of place here?

Also, something that I didn't like is that Alice is way more like the main protagonist, while Dorothy is lowered to a role like a sidekick.

When you are reading about Batman & Robin, while there is an "&" in the title, you know that Robin is the sidekick of Batman. Batman is the lead hero and Robin is a companion.

However, since this was a "crossover" book, putting together two lead protagonists of their own books, when I read the title Alice & Dorothy, I was expecting a 50/50 of importance of both characters in the story.

It's that not only Dorothy is like a weakling sidekick without much utility in the story, but also, you don't get much of the elements and references of Oz, only some poor attempts here and there.

But instead you have heavily use of the recognizable elements of Wonderland.

So, I thought that why including Dorothy and the Oz world into this novel if the author seemed like uncomfortable with it or not knowing how to use it in a smart way into the plot?

At the end, it was a very good idea with a kinda standard development, with a too vulgar prose, and I honestly think it could be much better where it didn't explode its whole real potential as story.