The Dark Side of Alice in Wonderland by Angela Youngman

 

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Pen & Sword in exchange for an honest review.

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.

Overall Rating:

The History of Sweets by Paul Chrystal

 

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Pen & Sword in exchange for an honest review.

I was very excited to read this book. Look at that cover! This is essentially what it says on the tin, a brief history of different kinds of sweets and famous (mostly UK) companies. I live in York and I have a friend who lives in Birmingham so I had some background knowledge of the history of sweets with regards to the companies that operated in those areas. Chrystal clearly has a specialty in York knowledge so I did really enjoy that angle from a personal point of view.

This book hits all the key aspects you would expect and it is quite neatly organised. It firstly does a quick run through of different types of sweets, their historical origins and some interesting facts about their development. Next it hones in on some particularly important sweet companies and periods of time, before discussing advertising, wartime rationing and other factors of sweet history.

I really enjoyed reading this book and I felt like I learned a lot. I particularly liked the broad range of sweets it covered and I felt there was enough detail without it being overwhelming. This book is a little dry compared to some nonfiction books, but it was very readable and accessible. I felt it hit the information level just right and enabled me to seek out further details on certain things if I wanted to. Just be aware that it is written in a more academic style than pop-history.

Overall, I definitely recommend this book for a good overview of the history of sweets and chocolate. It was easy to dip in and out of and I had a lot of fun learning more about this topic.

Overall Rating:

Cursed Objects by J. W. Ocker

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Tantor Audio in exchange for an honest review.

What a wonderful treat for the spooky season! Cursed Objects is a nonfiction book all about various cursed objects/relics from around the world. It presents a whole host of various objects with their legends and mostly leans on the skeptical side, giving it a really fun and enjoyable tone. I really liked the format of this book. It is split up into fairly small chunks (each segment of the audio book is around 5-10 minutes) which makes for very easy listening. I loved that I could dip in and out of it, and that listening to the end of each section wasn't a huge commitment.

The audiobook itself is pretty short but it is absolutely packed full of information. It covers a large range and variety of cursed objects, and I found every story interesting in some way. I will say, while I did enjoy the audiobook enormously I would probably recommend buying this as a physical book rather than an audio one. It was a great  audiobook but you are told that the physical book has illustrations which I am sad I missed out on, and I think the information would have been slightly easier to digest had I read it with my eyes rather than my ears. But if you want something to listen or experience more casually, then the audiobook is definitely the way to go.

Overall, I strongly recommend this audiobook/book. It's a fun collection of spooky information told well, and I thoroughly enjoyed every second of it.

Overall Rating:

The Curious History of the Riddle by Marcel Danesi

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Quarto Publishing Group – Wellfleet Press in exchange for an honest review.

What a fantastic walkthrough of riddling history! I have been a lifelong fan of riddles. The Riddler from Batman is one of my favourite fictional characters of all time, and when I was a child I had a book about dragons which had a whole section dedicated to riddles. I couldn't have been more excited when I saw this book available to request, although I was a little skeptical it had anything to offer a devout riddle fan. I couldn't have been more wrong!

This book is split up into sections, loosely arranged in chronological order and walking the reader through the oldest riddles all the way to modern day more jokey ones. I found all of the sections well-written and very informative. There are riddles within each section and then a set of riddles to solve yourself after each section, with the answers at the back. In general, these were fun but they did vary in difficulty greatly. I appreciate it's hard to control for that sort of thing but the riddles from the first two chapters were near impossible, whilst later ones verged on too easy. Sometimes the hints were too direct as well which is why I can't give this book a full 5 stars. However, the informative sections were great. I particularly enjoyed the literary riddles chapter, and the section dedicated to the Riddler (which was a fantastic surprise).

Overall, this book was insightful and easy to read. I loved learning more about riddles and their place in history, and I had fun trying to solve the riddles throughout. This book would make a fantastic present and it's the perfect kind of read to dip in and out of. I highly recommend it to all fans of riddles.

Overall Rating:

.5