"The World Beyond the Horizon" by Angela Funk is a retelling Lewis Carroll would have loved

This is going to be a somewhat awkward review to write because I do not think I was the right audience for this book. However, it was for all the reasons I did not enjoy this book I believe Angela Funk is a storytelling genius. It is a contradiction worthy of Wonderland itself and reminded me so much of Lewis Carrol's writing - to the point I realized about halfway through the novel that the reasons I wasn't feeling this book on a personal level were the same reasons I didn't connect with the original Alice in Wonderland. However, from an objective standpoint, the author did such a wonderful job emulating the spirit of the original books, while turning it into something new.

Most of the time when it comes to Alice in Wonderland retellings, authors work to make sense of the nonsensical world Carrol created. They'll give explanations to the creatures and events, and add in a structure many people the original books lacked. However, the world of The World Beyond the Horizon is whimsical with an extra side of whimsy. Things simply happen, monsters appear, and any time the characters who fell through the black hole representing the famous rabbit hole attempt to make sense of the world, they are left with more questions. And as strange as the world is, the descriptions of it are some of the author's biggest strengths. You can easily visualize the way it looks and the way this planet affects all of a character's senses.

I also thought the characters were fascinating as three outsiders went through the "rabbit hole" instead of just one. And where Noah was clearly the "Alice" stand-in, I felt he with the addition of Katalina and Mark split what we normally think of the character of Alice into three separate entities. Katalina represented Alice's curiosity, Mark represented her stubbornness and anger, and Noah represented her spirit. I felt like this was the right decision as it allowed us to see the whimsical planet through multiple points of view, while all of them had their own reasons for wanting to save their world from its current inevitable destruction.

In addition, one of the surprising themes of this novel was the way it explored grief. Three months before the start of the novel, Noah's mother commits suicide by jumping off the edge of their (flat) planet. Noah is still in the middle of his grief, and due to choices his mother made in his childhood, has virtually no support system - and as a result, he is floundering. Sometimes he's ready to join his mother, other times he's fighting for a will to live, and others he's dealing with the guilt of allowing himself to be happy. This theme was handled extraordinarily well, and by the end, we could see Noah starting to take baby steps toward allowing himself to live - with it seeming like it might be the first time he's ever given himself that permission.

So if you are like me, and like your adventures in Wonderland to be more structured, this probably isn't the book for you. But for the people who long to fall down a rabbit hole, and experience the world like Alice did - this book should be added to your TBR immediately. It's a well-written look into the complexities and oddities of grief, all through the lens of a world we all wish we could live in. And where the second book definitely will focus more on stopping the currently inevitable apocalypse, I look forward to reading the authors' other work - and fully believe she'll have an amazing writing career ahead of her.