Gr 8 Up–Seventeen-year-old Alice is attacked by a Nightmare the night her father dies. She is saved and mentored by Addison Hatta, a handsome and mysterious Curiouser who decides to train her in becoming a Dreamwalker—a destroyer of Nightmares with magic weapons—in Wonderland. Her overprotective mother worries about her in their urban Atlanta community. Her high-maintenance best friend, Court, anticipates a huge birthday celebration at a time when it clashes with Alice's secret and near-deadly Dreamwalker life. Alice finds herself attracted to both Hatta and friend Chess. When Hatta is poisoned with the Madness at the hands of the Black Knight, Alice has to find the Heart and Eye antidotes, which have been hidden and misplaced in Wonderland. She receives help from unexpected characters on a life-defining journey to defeat the Black Knight, Nightmares, and Fiends—and to save herself from losing her head. McKinney has infused this urban contemporary retelling of Lewis Carroll's classic Alice's Adventures in Wonderland with a Buffy the Vampire Slayer sensibility and "Black Girl Magic." Readers will enjoy the acerbic sarcasm and comedy. The inclusion of various cultures, skin tones, languages, ages, and sexual orientations is expertly woven into the narrative and world-building. Teens will root for Alice as a strong, multidimensional black girl usually unseen in YA fiction. The novel's pace slows at times, but it will keep readers in suspense.
VERDICT This is a must-purchase where refreshing urban fantasies and retellings are in demand.
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