Wonderland: An Anthology

Wonderland might just be the weirdest place in literature. A land where logic has no jurisdiction, where words don’t always mean what you think they mean, and threats lurk behind every corner, smile, and the increasingly-thin veil separating our very sanity from the chaos of what-could-be.

Wonderland encapsulates that magical, uncertain feeling that comes with Carroll’s famous otherworldly realm, collecting a plethora of tales inspired by the journey of Alice and all the strange people she meets. Admittedly, some of the stories feel like they’re in a contest to give the most peculiar, oblique take on the mythos, one that only tangentially references the material. Others are wonderfully, weirdly loyal to the material, like the story based on the Jabberwocky poem.

But whether she’s hunting monsters or running away from the responsibilities of real life, inspiring a kingdom or simply trying to keep her daughter’s life magical for just a little bit longer, Alice remains a fascinating prism through which different authors can reflect what Wonderland means to them.

This short story collection is more uneven than most, but that’s because every author included— whether you enjoy the story or not— swung for the fences in truly inventive fashion.