Alice Through the Blood-Stained Glass by Dan Adams

Alice in Wonderland meets the zombie apocalypse. What a great idea for a new spin on the Alice story. Especially when Alice goes from being an innocent 18 year old to wielding a .45 caliber handgun and a metal bar, both of which she uses to kill plenty of zombies. I could not put this book down once I started it, that’s how good it was.

The story starts off with Alice and her younger sister sitting in the park, passing the time on a hot summer day. All seems peaceful until Alice spots a man (the “white rabbit”) running toward them. That would not be strange, except for the fact that the man is wearing a suit. People don’t do that to go jogging. He then explains to Alice that the zombie apocalypse has happened and they need to get to the last helicopter leaving for safety. Unfortunately, the zombies attack Alice’s sister while the man, whom Alice calls Waistcoat, does nothing to save her. Thus begins Alice’s hatred of Waistcoat and her adventures through “Wonderland.”

From here, Alice quickly learns how to protect herself against the zombies. She meets the normal cast of Alice in Wonderland: the Cheshire cat, the hookah-smoking caterpillar, the Mad Hatter and Hare, and eventually, the Queen of Hearts. All of these characters are easily recognizable by their defining traits, i.e. the Cheshire cat has a maniacal smile, Hatter has a top hat, and the caterpillar uses mushrooms to aid in fighting the zombies. Alice becomes quite skilled with her gun and protects herself over many days. Eventually, Alice corners the queen and sees to her death, as well as Waistcoat’s. However, most of the supporting characters are also killed, either by enemy survivors or the zombies. The story ends with Alice going back to where her sister was turned into a zombie and putting a bullet through her sister’s head.

Alice in Wonderland is probably one of my least favorite children’s stories, so I was surprised when I decided to read this story. The cover may have been the deciding factor – a glaring Alice holding two handguns and wearing a bloodstained shirt. I was intrigued, and I do not regret reading this. Adams was able to bring together all of the important aspects of the traditional Wonderland tale and bring them into the zombie apocalypse. Just as I would start to become attached to a character, they would either die or Alice would leave them. But I guess that’s just how things roll when zombies are trying to eat everyone.

The only thing I didn’t like about this story was the ending. To me, it ended very abruptly. Alice kills her zombie sister, and then that’s that. She had left Hatter and Hare surrounded by zombies, and didn’t even try to help them, even though Hatter had been shot. She had even been in a relationship of sorts with Hatter, but just left him for dead. I wanted to know what happened to Alice after she shot her sister. I assume she was just waiting around for a zombie to come attack her, but there’s no way to know.

Overall, I would recommend Alice Through the Blood-Stained Glass to anyone looking for a good zombie book. I was able to finish it within a few hours, so it isn’t an overly long book. The story flowed very well, and it felt realistic. My only complaint is that it took Alice only a few shots of the handgun before she was used to using it. I feel like it should have taken her longer than that to adjust to everything that was happening around her. I guess this was just a case of necessity demanding her to adjust faster than normal. Even if you aren’t particularly fond of Alice in Wonderland, you should give this retelling a try.


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