Cheshire Crossing
by Andy Weir; ill. Sarah Andersen (Ten Speed Press, 2019)
Alice, Dorothy and Wendy brought together as troubled teens? Sounds good, but while Andersen’s illustrations are uncluttered and effective, Weir lays down a stilted, fannish, wet-dream tango, skipping about through Wonderland, Neverland and Oz and with every step diminishing their magical appeal.
Heartless
by Marissa Meyer
(Feiwel & Friends, 2016); audiobook read by Rebecca Soler (Macmillan, 2019)
Meyer seems delighted to revisit Lewis Carroll’s Wonderland but relies on it too much. Stripped of rehash the original content is torturously belaboured, seeding a mystery for dullards and styling a plodding romance that fails utterly to convince as the Queen’s backstory.
Doctor Who: The Mind Robber
by Peter Ling (Target, 1986); audiobook read by Derek Jacobi (BBC, 2010)
Peter Ling’s only Doctor Who novelisation is more competently written than many in the Target range. As a Wonderland homage, however, and as a pioneering work of metatextualism, the story trots out (and bottoms out on) visual flourishes better suited to television.