The Dark Side of Alice in Wonderland is a nonfiction book focusing on various interpretations and properties surrounding Alice in Wonderland. The first few chapters focus on contextualising the life of Lewis Carroll/Charles Dodgson and Alice Liddell, with some discussion of the darker elements. I found the very first chapter decent enough but I skimmed most of the second as I am not hugely interested in Carroll's life outside of his work as an author. However, these chapters may be of interest for history buffs and I did enjoy the discussions of Carroll potentially being Jack the Ripper, farfetched as the theory might be.
The rest of the book has each chapter focus on a theme (eg. drugs, sex, horror etc) and then talk about various adaptations or experiences that are Alice-themed based around that chapter topic. I enjoyed this section of the book the most and I felt like it covered a wide range of different adaptations/experiences. The chosen topics all made sense and fit the 'dark' theme well, on top of just being interesting topics in of themselves.
I think this book fell slightly flat for me for two main reasons. Firstly, I didn't realise it would be focused so much on the discussion of properties outside of the book itself. I know Alice in Wonderland is short but I would have liked a bit more of a focus on how elements from the book fit with the chapter topics, with the discussion centered on the book itself rather than everything created from it. Secondly, while this book does cover an impressive range of adaptations/experiences (no easy feat) the result is a little shallow in parts. Some things get a good chunk of thought/page space dedicated to them but some are almost name-checked without adding much.
Having said that, I still think this is a well-researched and very engaging nonfiction book. I did genuinely enjoy reading it and I felt like it does cover everything you would expect a book like this to. The writing is extremely accessible without sacrificing any academic merit. If you love the world of Alice in Wonderland, then this book does have a lot to offer you.
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