The Wonderland Trials by Sara Ella

The Wonderland Trials (The Curious Realities Book 1) by Sara Ella. Enclave Publishing, 2022.

Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll is one of those love/hate it kinds of books. I happen to love it, and now I want to reread it after finishing The Wonderland Trials, a “love letter to Alice and fairy tales and children’s literature and games,” according to the author. Trials is not only a love letter, it’s a Christian love letter, not obvious or preachy, but bringing up Biblical concepts and allusions in an artful and intriguing way. And that makes me think the author and I would have much in common if we were to enjoy a nice cup of tea together.

Still, I’m from Texas, not London, and my cup of tea would probably be a glass of sweet iced tea. Ms. Ella, on the other hand, lives in Arizona and as a young person she immersed herself in Disney’s Alice in Wonderland, not just Carroll’s Alice. Her American nationality shows. The story is good, but the references to British culture are sometimes a bit off. Do people really eat Yorkshire pudding for dessert? And I caught at least a couple of instances of words that were slightly misused. Can you concur when no one has said anything to concur or agree with in the first place?

Nevertheless, I found a lot to like about this story of a girl named Alice who makes a journey into Wonderland to search for the lost competitors in the Wonder Trials. The sense of confusion and nonsense and riddle that pervades the story made my head ache just a little–along with Alice. And I’m still not sure where this journey is taking us as readers any more than I know where Alice and the other members of Team Heart are going. This is only Book 1, and it ends . . . unfinished. I’m not fond of cliffhangers, especially if I enjoyed the story.

And I did enjoy this story despite its minor glitches, so I’ll make an exception. Alice is an interesting, well-rounded protagonist, and her love interest Chess Shire is intriguing and a bit mysterious. Oh, yes, this book is firmly in the Young Adult speculative fiction camp, but also clean and romantic in a playful way. It’s just right for the 13-17 year old crowd, which happens to be the age group of most of the team players and main characters.

By the way, why is a raven like a writing desk?

2 thoughts on “The Wonderland Trials by Sara Ella

  1. Have you read The Lost Wonderland Diaries series by J. Scott Savage? I especially liked the second one, Secrets of the Looking Glass. This also sounds promising going to add it to the TBR and see if I can locate it.

  2. Pingback: Retelling a Classic Story for Young Adults | Semicolon

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