Wonderland by Juno Dawson - Book Review ⋆ Wonderfully Bookish

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 now she has a new enemy who wants her head…

Title: Wonderland
Author: Juno Dawson
Publisher: Quercus Children’s Books
Date Published: May 28, 2020
Genre: YA Contemporary, LGBTQ+

Date Read: February 9, 2020
Format: Paperback

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Wonderland by Juno Dawson – Review

Juno Dawson seems to have a talent for writing characters—especially in the “trilogy” (Clean, Meat Market, and Wonderland)—that I (and I’m sure a lot of people) cannot relate to in the slightest, in terms of living with an extortionate amount of wealth and dangerous hedonism. But I’ve never once feel alienated by Juno’s books. They’re always so fascinating to get a glimpse into the life of people on the “other side” – those who live lives that I couldn’t even begin to imagine.

Wonderland, just like Clean and Meat Market, sucked me in right away and didn’t let go. It’s so full of dark mystery, intrigue, and a kind of dirty glamour that I know I would absolutely never want to experience for myself. (In fact, it makes me feel perfectly satisfied living my regular, “normal” life.) It’s full of twists that I never saw coming, and I loved every page.

This book, I’d say more so than Juno’s others, deals with a whole bunch of heavy themes that affirm that it is definitely not for younger readers (see below for a big ol’ list of trigger warnings). It’s classed as YA, but I’d almost say it verges the line between older YA and adult. (This is where the “New Adult” age range needs to be a thing.)

As always, I can’t wait to see what Juno comes up with next!

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Trigger warnings

Wonderland has a big list of trigger warnings — including, but not limited to:

Drug and alcohol abuse
Serious mental illness
Suicide – attempted and witnessed
Attempted date rape
Body dysmorphia
Transphobia
Implied incest

There might be others that I’m not able to pinpoint but other people could. It is a dark story, so readers need to be aware of that.

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