Alice by Heart by Steven Sater (who wrote the Broadway musical Spring Awakening as well!) was gifted to me by a dear friend as a Christmas present- it is the novel version of her favorite Broadway show by the same name. When your talented theatrical friend tells you a show is good, you listen! I ended up really enjoying this retelling of Alice in Wonderland as well. It was not necessarily the cozy pick-me-up I thought it was going to be during this covid surge, but it tugged at my heartstrings nonetheless.
This book takes place in 1941, right after the London Blitz of World War II. Alice Spencer and her best friend Alfred are fifteen, and trapped in a tube station shelter in London, hiding from the constant bombings of the city. Their homes are likely ruined, and Alice is fighting to hold on to any childhood joy she can as her dearest friend is dying from Tuberculosis on the quarantine cot at the shelter.
At first the format of this book was confusing to me- it went back and forth between past, present, and Wonderland in Alice’s imagination. I think it would have come easier to me had I listened to the musical first, but in the end I got the hang the prose anyways.
“Books are made to linger in.”
Alice and Alfred had been best friends ever since they were little- bonding through a shared love for Alice in Wonderland.
“I only measure time by when I’m with you and when I’m not.”
They had their own adventures, even when Alfred was sick in bed. The two traveled to Wonderland together in their heads almost every day. Sater clearly relates to the booklover tendency to crave being lost in a book- the perfect salve to an aching heart.
“Sometimes I’ve believed in as many as six impossible things before dinner.”
This time, as Alfred lays sick in bed again, maybe for the last time, Alice tries reading to him, but realizes Wonderland isn’t as she left it. The characters, such as the Queen (the Red Cross worker running the shelter) and even her most trusted and beloved White Rabbit ( Alfred) are seemingly trying to change up the story on her. This time, the pages are forcing her to accept reality, forcing her to grow up.
If you also struggle with the realization that you have to grow up whether you like it or not, I bet this book will resonate with you, too, in an unexpected way. It was nostalgic and comforting all at once- Sater somehow managed to capture that fleeting feeling of missing childhood before it’s even gone, and it is magical.
“For children, all stories are true.”
Rating: 4/5 pocket watches
xx, Lauren