A delightful twist on a classic tale

By Carolyn Brewer
George Washington High School

According to Frank Beddor’s “The Looking Glass Wars,” Lewis Carroll’s classic “Alice in Wonderland” is not the truth, but the mistaken recollections of Alyss Heart’s stories to him about her home world.

Alyss is Princess of Wonderland, daughter of Queen Genevieve and King Nolan and niece of Redd Heart, the Queen’s sister who was banished after leading a rebellion against Genevieve.

After the most distressing of events, Alyss is forced to flee Wonderland with Hatter Madigan, the Queen’s bodyguard, through the Pool of Tears, a body of water where many have disappeared into but none have returned.

Now trapped in the “real” world, our world, and separated from Hatter Madigan, Alyss is forced to survive and live where people continually misspell her name and where her memories are thought to be products of an overactive imagination.

When Alyss joins the Liddel family, she becomes close to their friend, Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who later takes up the pen name “Lewis Carroll.” It is in Reverend Dodgson that Alyss sees the potential for getting her true story out.

Alyss can’t wait to see this history text of Wonderland — so imagine her distress when she sees her name misspelled and her memories turned into complete nonsense. Feeling utterly betrayed, Alyss vows never to speak of Wonderland again to anyone and severs all ties to there — including talking to Reverend Dodgson.

But then, 13 years after she left Wonderland, Alyss is greeted by a long-lost friend who arrives to take her back through the Pool of Tears to her true home.

Beddor does an amazing job of transforming the original nonsense characters into ones that could exist. Hatter Madigan, the Mad Hatter, becomes an extraordinary warrior; Cat, the Cheshire Cat, is a deadly assassin, and Redd, a combination of the Queen of Hearts and the Red Queen, is a villain whom readers truly can fear.

“The Looking Glass Wars” is a great counter story to Carroll’s while still using characters that readers can easily identify. And if you enjoy “The Looking Glass Wars,” you’re in luck - it’s the first book in a trilogy of the same name. The second book, tentatively titled “Seeing Redd,” is due out in the fall.