With recent events, I could not be silent. On my Twitter is a range of resources and I’ve linked here a thread of bail funds to support protesters who are arrested for demanding justice for victims of police violence. I’ve also linked to the two official GoFundMes for George Floyd, the Black Lives Matter Carrd and 74 bail funds. I will be doing this on every post. If you have the funds to donate, please do but if not, please support and uplift Black voices and sign the petitions.
If you’ve been following me for a while, you may remember that Emma and I cohosted a feature called Let’s Talk YA. We decided to revamp this during this world-wide pandemic to become a weekly series where we highlight books that are being published during this time that may not get the release they deserve. We will often feature a review or some other exciting bookish content. This was started last month with some awesome recent releases and you can check out the page at the top of my blog to see the other posts.
We strongly encourage other people to join in the conversation and promote upcoming books they’re excited about.
Today, I am reviewing a book by one of my favourite authors in YA, Wonderland by Juno Dawson. Thank you so much to ED PR and Team BKMRK sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review.
Alice lives in a world of stifling privilege and luxury – but none of it means anything when your own head plays tricks on your reality. When her troubled friend Bunny goes missing, Alice becomes obsessed with finding her. On the trail of her last movements, Alice discovers a mysterious invitation to ‘Wonderland’: the party to end all parties – three days of hedonistic excess to which only the elite are welcome.
Will she find Bunny there? Or is this really a case of finding herself? Because Alice has secrets of her own, and ruthless socialite queen Paisley Hart is determined to uncover them, whatever it takes.
Alice is all alone, miles from home and without her essential medication. She can trust no-one, least of all herself, and now she has a new enemy who wants her head…
Goodreads | Waterstones | Amazon
My Thoughts:
TW: attempted rape, drug use, overdose, death, suicide, sexual assault, self-harm, arson, grief, transphobia
This book just proved, yet again, that Dawson is a force to be reckoned with in YA.
Dawson never fails to tackle tough and demanding issues in an honest and raw way, acknowledging what teenagers of today are facing. She is unflinching in her honesty, offering an insightful interrogation of society. Wonderland is no different in this sense with a gritty and trippy dissection of mental health, sexuality, gender, privilege, trauma and corruption.
I really liked Alice as a protagonist; she was insightful, clever and flawed. However, she was able to grow and find out more of who she was, which made her hat much more three-dimensional and interesting. Likewise, the rest of the characters felt fleshed-out, though through a hazy mist, as you never got that close to most of them. To me, this shows how their bubble of privilege isolated them from both Alice and the reader, making them unable to face consequences for their actions in their upper echelons of silence and mutual secrets.
Wonderland is yet another phenomenal book that just cements Dawson’s status as a superstar of YA.
Let’s talk! Have you read Wonderland? What are some of your most anticipated upcoming releases in the next few months?
As always, don’t forget to check out Emma’s Let’s Talk Books post.
A Short Book Lover 
4 thoughts on “Let’s Talk Books #5: Wonderland”