Name: Unbirthday
Rating: 3.809523809523809 (42 reviews)
ISBN: 9781484781319

Liz Braswell

Returning to the place of nonsense from her childhood, Alice, now eighteen, tries to stop the Queen of Hearts' tyrannical rule before the End of Time, and save her own world as well as Wonderland.

A Twisted Tale

Unbirthday

Briar's Reviews

Everyone has been RAVING about this series, and I figured: I love fairy tales, I love Disney and I love Alice in Wonderland, so why not?

I wasn't as enchanted with this book as I had hoped. It was a really cool re-telling/addition to Alice in Wonderland's lore, but it just didn't hit all the right chords with me. 

Let me explain:

1. This book is 500 pages long. It is WAY longer than it needed to be and droned on at times. That made this book super slow, and I am a fast paced kind of reader.
2. The Queen's executions and property stealing seemed random yet planned. I don't know why, but that part of the story kind of threw me off. It was weird. And we didn't even get to see too much of her...
3. The plot didn't grab my attention, if I'm being honest.

What I did enjoy:
1. Katz was a cool character. Alice having a love interest was new and very intriguing! I have to admit, I kind of liked it? Especially since this book didn't go full romance either. Just cute plot suggestions to add to her story.
2. Alice is a strong female lead with likes and dislikes and hobbies. I like that.
3. The story telling and writing style of Liz Braswell is wonderful. That definitely helped this story a lot.

Overall, this book makes me want to read the rest of the series, especially based on the reviews of other readers. Disney fans will enjoy it for sure!

Three out of five stars.

Brianna

Kayla 

*2.75* This book wasn't bad, but it wasn't entirely what I was expecting. I felt like this book felt more like the connected to the original Alice and Wonderland then compared to the Disney one. I have read one or two of the other twisted tale books and have enjoyed them. This one for me was a great concept but it was a little to slow paced for me, which made me drag my feet a little bit and took me almost a month to read. I also feel as though it could have been condensed down as the book is 504 pages.

What if Wonderland was in peril and Alice was very, very late? Alice is different than other eighteen-year-old ladies in Kexford, which is perfectly fine with her. She'd rather spend golden afternoons with her trusty camera or in her aunt Vivian's lively salon, ignoring her sister's wishes that she stop all that "nonsense" and become a "respectable" member of society. Alice is happy to meander to Miss. Yao's teashop or to visit the children playing in the Square. She's also interested in learning more about the young lawyer she met there, but just because she's curious, of course, not because he was sweet and charming. But when Alice develops photographs she has recently taken about town, familiar faces of old suddenly appear in the place of her actual subjects-the Queen of Hearts, the Mad Hatter, the Caterpillar. There's something eerily off about them, even for Wonderland creatures. And as Alice develops a self-portrait, she finds the most disturbing image of all-a badly-injured dark-haired girl asking for Alice's help.Mary Ann. Returning to the place of nonsense from her childhood, Alice finds herself on a mission to stop the Queen of Hearts' tyrannical rule and to find her place in both worlds. But will she able to do so . . . before the End of Time?

Alex Landau

I'm biased. I love all things Alice in Wonderland. This was no exception. 

With the Disney stamp on this, I wasn't entirely sure what to expect, but this book was absolutely amazing from the very beginning. Alice was a delightful young lady who clearly was still carrying a bit of Wonderland. 

Wonderland was... not what I was expecting and yet everything I wanted. All the crazy turns were amazing and the end left a giant smile on my face.

If you love Wonderland then you will probably love this. 

laura

* I got this book for review from the publisher for my honest thoughts*

I wanted to love this book. But i struggled with the pacing a bit and was not super invested in the story. I thought this book was very long and it was very complicated. I did liked alice going back to wonderland as adult. It was enjoyable read. I also liked the fact the Alice had to save the day again. it was fun read, but not my favorite.

Paige Green

Disclaimer: I received this e-arc from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: Unbirthday

Author: Liz Braswell

Book Series: Twisted Tales Book 10

Rating: 3/5

Recommended For...: retelling fans, Alice in Wonderland

Publication Date: September 1, 2020

Genre: YA Retelling

Recommended Age: can’t recommend, dnf-ed

Publisher: Disney-Hyperion

Pages: 512

Synopsis: What if Wonderland was in peril and Alice was very, very late?
Alice is different than other eighteen-year-old ladies in Kexford, which is perfectly fine with her. She'd rather spend golden afternoons with her trusty camera or in her aunt Vivian's lively salon, ignoring her sister's wishes that she stop all that "nonsense" and become a "respectable" member of society. Alice is happy to meander to Miss. Yao's teashop or to visit the children playing in the Square. She's also interested in learning more about the young lawyer she met there, but just because she's curious, of course, not because he was sweet and charming.

But when Alice develops photographs she has recently taken about town, familiar faces of old suddenly appear in the place of her actual subjects-the Queen of Hearts, the Mad Hatter, the Caterpillar. There's something eerily off about them, even for Wonderland creatures. And as Alice develops a self-portrait, she finds the most disturbing image of all-a badly-injured dark-haired girl asking for Alice's help. Mary Ann.

Returning to the place of nonsense from her childhood, Alice finds herself on a mission to stop the Queen of Hearts' tyrannical rule and to find her place in both worlds. But will she able to do so . . . before the End of Time?

Review: DNFed at 20%. The beginning of this book is really discombobulated and confusing. The pacing is really slow as well and immediately you're greeted with a ton of characters. The book is also obviously not just using the Disney Alice in Wonderland movie (and live action ones) for context but I'm not sure what the other sources they're using (although I'm getting Alice the Madness Returns vibes). I'll definitely circle back to this book when I get the finished copy but for now I gotta mull on this one. There are also some Lewis Carroll references in this book and references to rape/child molestation (honestly, those are one in the same with Carroll).

Verdict: It’s good, but not for me right now.

Ashley Moncayo

I've had all day to think about this book, and all I can say is WOW!

I absolutely ADORED this story so much! This Twisted Tale follows a different format than its predecessors, as it does not change a single thing from the original movie story. Rather, it starts 11 years after the events of the Disney movie, and it assumes that the reader is aware of said events in advance.

I loved that this felt more like a sequel than a reimagining of the original story. The parallels between Alice's "real world" life and those of Wonderland are absolutely perfect in every way. Almost like mirror images of each other...

Alice is more mature, and yet still keeps her curious nature from when she was a child, and I love that we got to see more of her character and what she stands for as a person.

I'm not going to lie, I really thought Liz Braswell was in over her head to try to re-create the whimsicality of Alice in Wonderland in her own way, but she exceeded my expectations 100%. I'm going to stop gushing over this book now, and just say that if you're going to pick up any of the Twisted Tales, I highly highly recommend this one!

Krystal Campbell 

There were moments of magic and then moments that dragged. I couldn’t really figure out if I loved it or was bored because my mind kept changing.

Unbirthday A Twisted Tale

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