"Alice in Wonderland, but dystopian" was not a concept I ever expected to encounter. And, if somebody pitched it to me, I wouldn't expect it to be good.
And yet, I encountered this, and it was good. I've seen it described as reminiscent of The Hunger Games, which is something I can't judge because I've never read The Hunger Games.
It's about sixteen-year-old Alice Liddell, who lives in dystopian England. (It's realspace that's dystopian in this, not Wonderland.) People with the mysterious Wonder Gene are banned (yes, they banned a gene, it's weird) because they are supposedly cooler than other people and can access the mysterious pseudo-alternate dimension of Wonderland.
They've also banned... some technology? They have trains, but smartphones (aka "pocket screens") and earbuds aren't allowed. They still have books, sort of, but all the books are terribly made and not very good.
My favorite part of this book (other than it being about people who are older than 12) is the hilarious nomenclatorial references to various Alice in Wonderland characters. Such as Minister Mocktur Telle, the scientist Katherine R. Pillar, and the love interest Chess Shire. Not to mention the more obvious ones like Madi Hatter.
Oh, I suppose I should describe the plot too. Alice's older sister Charlotte is arrested for having the Wonder Gene, and Alice tries to find her before getting involved in the Wonderland Trials (a tournament thing held every year to determine the Queen of Hearts's successor, which nobody has ever won).
Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: T for romance and mild violence.
4 stars.
(Endnote: It also namedrops Minecraft in an illegal book about the games of the past.)
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