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Ready to experience Wonderland like never before? This supernatural thriller re-imagines Alice’s story in an entirely new way.

Hunt down the Cheshire Cat before he kills again. Team up with ‘Pillar the killer’, escape the asylum, and solve the puzzles left behind before the next girl dies.

All your favorite childhood characters brilliantly reimagined in this crazy, wonderful, weird reading adventure!

Buckle your seatbelts, everyone, because this book is one crazy ride you won’t soon forget.

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Insanity by Cameron Jace

Publication date: June 2014
Pages: 249
Genre: Fiction, Fairy tale, Supernatural thriller, Mystery
Series: Book 1 of 12: Insanity

First line: The girl sprawled on the ground was dead…and loving it.

Young girls are being murdered and found displayed with strange grins. Left with a book of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, each new victim another riddle in the game Cheshire plays.

The grin didn’t conjure happiness. It was sinister, hollow, and nonsensical.

Alice lives in a small, desolate room beneath the Radcliffe Lunatic Asylum in Oxford, where she’s treated to the daily abuse and mistreatment of the staff. With no memory of how or why she’s there, only that it’s believed to have killed a bus full of her classmates, her boyfriend Adam included but.. Why would she do that?

I don’t even know why I am here. My oldest vivid memory is from a week ago. Before that, it’s all a purple haze.

Pillar is one of the country’s most dangerous psychopaths. Also held in the asylum, his ability to escape confinement becomes the bane of Dr. Truckle’s existence, and just what Pillar needs to blackmail the good doctor into agreeing to allow Alice to venture out in secret. After all, if he can’t keep Pillar in his cell, it’s not likely he’ll keep his job.

He understood now why the court accepted the Pillar pleading out due to insanity. He was insanity itself. Keeping him away from the world at any price was victory.

Pillar believes Alice is the real Alice and he’s determined to prove it. He makes a deal with this young mad girl: Follow his lead, unravel Cheshire’s plans, and unlock her past. But the question becomes.. does she really want to remember?

I’m caught between a serial killer I am supposed to catch, and another puffing nonsense in my ears.

They’re all mad.

Four Stars!

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Characters:

Alice Pleasance Wonder: Confined in a basement room of an asylum for reportedly killing her boyfriend and classmates. Has few memories due to repeated daily electro-shock treatments. Soon enlisted by ‘Pillar’ to aid him in stopping the Cheshire’s devious plans.

‘The Pillar’: Murderer and manipulator, Pillar is many things in this book, but mostly plays the role of both puppeteer and guide for Alice. Obviously not after Cheshire for altruistic reasons, but never revealing his true purpose, Pillar does play a surprisingly large role in putting a stop to the madness.

Cheshire Cat: Our villain in this crazy adventure, Cheshire is murdering young girls and leaving behind clues for Alice, attempting to prove(or disprove) her true identity. Is she the real Alice? Cheshire is a fascinating character that you may eventually become sympathetic towards. His backstory is dark.

Adam: The boyfriend Alice cannot remember but doesn’t believe she killed. She still feels a deep emotional connection towards him. He appears sporadically in her dreams with little nuggets of wisdom and warning but, beyond that, we really never find out much about Adam.

Jack Diamonds: Odd, full of himself, and a pretty frustrating character. I didn’t really like Jack in the beginning, he sporadically appears in the strangest moments and displays a lack of maturity that isn’t very charming(which, I believe, is done intentionally).. but he grows on you, even becoming likable.

About the book:

Girls are being murdered with strange ties to ‘Alice in Wonderland’.

Alice is trapped in an asylum but doesn’t know why, and thanks to wicked staff members, she’s subjected to electro-shock therapy regularly. (How she’s not a complete vegetable is beyond me.) Her only real friend is a flower she uses to check her mental health, she talks to it, expecting that when it responds she’s likely hallucinating. Pretty smart for a mad girl.

Dr. Truckle, the pill popping head of the asylum is beyond corrupt, and it takes very little for Pillar to use him for his own means. His demands? He wants to se Alice.. and from the moment of their meeting on is complete madness.

Pillar thinks she’s the real Alice and he’s going to prove it by helping her regain her lost memories of Wonderland. She makes a deal with this strange, crazy man.. He’ll provide her with a way to escape the asylum every day, she’ll hunt down the Cheshire Cat for him, and he will help her remember. But her little trips must be kept strictly secret from the ‘sane’ people(the staff).. a venture made easier by Pillars hold over Dr. Truckle.

Cheshire is abducting and killing more and more, leaving clues for the ever closer Alice, and creating chaos wherever they go. Soon the pieces are starting to connect and the picture they reveal is bad news for everyone.. they must stop Cheshire before he succeeds. Will Alice have it in her to face off against him?

Overall:

There is So much going on here.

At first I was unable to really get attached to any of the characters, they almost seemed two-dimensional and underdeveloped, although curiously entertaining. I just had to see what all the madness was about.

I felt like the story was interesting but not engrossing.. Surprisingly, even with all the chaos, it ended up being a pretty intriguing distraction.

I wanted to like this book more in the beginning, the characters were clearly unique, but I found myself frustrated instead. The quick pace, variety of crazy, and sheer amount of information made it seem rushed and messy. I had no intention of finishing the book and, had I not begun to see some evidence of a noticeable improvement in the characters depth and storyline development, I probably wouldn’t have. The writing remained quite messy but was interesting enough to keep your attention throughout.

While completely bonkers.. the characters do grow on you the further the story progresses and, with a willingness to suspend belief and embrace the madness, this book is a fun and entertaining distraction.

The author apparently attempted to throw in a little bit of everything, mixed it up, and called it madness.. And it was.

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As he leaves, I hear him hum the nursery rhyme:
When she was sane, she was very, very sane. And when she was mad, she was Alice

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