Insanity by Cameron Jace

About Insanity (Mad in Wonderland)
After accidentally killing everyone in her class, Alice Wonder is now a patient in the Radcliffe Lunatic Asylum. No one doubts her insanity. Only a hookah-smoking professor believes otherwise; that he can prove her sanity by decoding Lewis Carroll's paintings, photographs, and find Wonderland's real whereabouts. Professor Caterpillar persuades the asylum that Alice can save lives and catch the wonderland monsters now reincarnated in modern day criminals. In order to do so, Alice leads a double life: an Oxford university student by day, a mad girl in an asylum by night. The line between sanity and insanity thins when she meets Jack Diamond, an arrogant college student who believes that nonsense is an actual science.

My Rating: ***** (5 stars)
One thing I have realized about myself. Tell me the book is inspired by Alice and Wonderland, and I'll buy it. Sold. While I like some better than others, I always seem to enjoy the twists on the original. I must say, however, that Insanity has now moved up near the top of my list of Alice-retellings (only beaten by Splintered, which I love!)
















What did I love about this book? To start, the topsy-turvy nature of it. The synopsis gives you a big clue that you're in for a wild ride. When your main character is committed in an insane asylum, you know that she is not going to be reliable. And she is not, in the most glorious of ways. Alice constantly questions her sanity. She sees and hears things that others don't, or at least, they don't admit to. As the reader, you fall into the virtual rabbit-hole right along with her. And hold on, because it's a wild ride!

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Let's talk characters, because I loved them. Professor Pillar is interesting and about as untrustworthy as Alice's view on the world, Cheshire Cat is a worthy villain, and Jack Diamond is fun, and well, odd. Clearly, when you are dealing with madness, you meet some strange blokes along the way. My favorite minor character was Fabiola. She was great fun to read, and I hope we see more of her in future books.

I don't want to say too much about Insanity, because I think a big part of the fun of it is just diving in and going along for the ride. The ending gave me goosebumps, and I ordered a paperback of book 2 because I want to add it to my collection. That right there should give you an idea of how much I enjoyed this story.