Wonderland: a total dive down the rabbit hole!

“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…”

Wonderland sees us back with the incredible Juno Dawson and back in the world of Clean and Meat Market. As someone who ABSOLUTELY adored both Clean and Meat Market, I was VERY excited to hear that there was going to be another book in this world, with characters who were just as intriguing and wonderful. 

I was lucky enough to get a very early sneak peek of Wonderland last year at an event at Waterstones, and even from that early sneak peek, I knew this was going to be a book that I devoured and that Alice was going to be a wonderful main character. And let me tell you… this book did NOT disappoint! 

Wonderland sees us in the world of rich and famous teenagers living their lives of sex, drugs and rock and roll (not so much rock and roll, just raucous parties that are OVER. THE. TOP). Alice is a young woman who has secrets, she has a bit of a back story and she ends up desperately looking for her friend, Bunny. There’s a bit of history between Bunny and Alice, and Alice is desperate for something to hold on to there. While tracking down Bunny, Alice ends up at an incredibly over the top party, Wonderland. When she arrives there, she finds lies, murder, secrets, gossiping and sex. But what Alice really wants is to find Bunny, and to know her secrets. 

Reading this book transported me into some psychadelic Alice in Wonderland type trance. I read this book with a greedy need. I wanted to get through it. I needed to know what these rich teenagers were up to. I was intrigued by all of the secrets and all of the deception. I needed to know what the craic was with all of these characters. The aprty sounds like the most incredibly flambouyant waste of money, but my god, part of me wanted to be there. It truly is the party to end all parties. Alice herself has secrets (when Juno read us a sneak peek of this she omitted Alice’s biggest secret so I was SHOOKETH when I read it!) and it fascinated me. (I think ALL of us have secrets that we hide from others). 

There’s something really sexy about this book. It’s over the top, it’s flambouyant, it’s excessive. It’s dangerous. It’s power struggles and deception. It’s bad choices and hangovers. It’s elaborate parties and Queen Bees. It’s incredible characters and shot guns. It’s being followed through a forest and looking over your shoulder. You get a constant sense of there’s a buzz of danger and excitement from this book. (Juno does this SO well…)

Oh… and I loved the little nods to Lexi in this book. 

If you’re looking for a rabbit hole to fall down, into the lives of the rich and famous, filled with regrets, lies, secrets and murder… look no further. Juno is an absolute master of story telling and I can’t wait for EVERYONE to absolutely adore this book. 

My Goodreads review:

A massive thank you to the brilliant ed.pr for sending me a review copy of this book. I devoured it WHOLE. This whole series (well… world of Clean and Meat Market) has been absolutely incredible!

Have you read Clean or Meat Market?
Have you met the wonderful writing of Juno Dawson?
What story would you like to fall into?

I’d love to know your thoughts! 

S x