Book Review for Ally and Her Mad Hatter by S.N Hunt
I received this book for free. This does not impact my review in any shape or form.
Ally and Her Mad Hatter, by S.N Hunt, is a continuation of Alice and Her Knave, in which Alice’s daughter, Ally, descends into Wonderland and meets the Mad Hatter, who, whether he wants to or not, encourages her madness. After the death of her parents, Ally stumbles into Wonderland, where she is briefly mistaken for Alice. Once she realizes her mother was telling the truth about wonderland, and had killed herself because no one believed her, Ally decides to journey into the heart of Wonderland to discover what exactly it was her mother was so enamored with. From there, she can only unravel the lies her father wove, and shoulder the burdens both her parents have left her.
The characters have a lot of potential. I could see Ally’ descent into madness, especially since she had the same violent proclivities her father had before her. The Hatter on the other hand, had already gone down that dark path. Hunt had no problem showing just how dangerous this couple is; I would go as far as to compare them to Joker and Harley Quinn, albeit with way more love and sex. Despite this, I would’ve wanted Hunt to flesh out Ally’s dynamics with Alice and the Knave; they’re partly the reason why Ally’s here in the first place. Moreover, for Ally to play the part of the Knave, rather than another Alice, makes me wonder just how much of her father’s twisted heart did Ally inherit. I would’ve appreciated it if Hunt explored those tendencies just a little more.
What makes this so bittersweet, however, was how far the Hatter was willing to drag Ally down with him. If anything, I feel that the voices he pushes away so forcefully are a part of him. They whisper to him, and while he tries to fight them off, at the end of the day they’ll do his bidding, because they represent his true desires. He knows it won’t be long before Ally succumbs to Wonderland’s insanity. He knows just how dangerous this place is, and yet he’s willing to destroy her if it means possessing her. It reminds me of that song, Kill Bill by SZA, where the singer would “rather be in Hell than alone.”
The sex scenes were good, and although I was looking forward to some knife play, I’m okay with settling for cannibalism and blood and gore. I appreciated seeing the degradation of the other characters, and just how, at the end of the day, Wonderland isn’t some fairytale that you can escape to. While I did wish the characters were fleshed out more, I still enjoyed the book as a whole. As such, I would give this book a 4 out of 5 stars.
