Book Review: The Looking Glass House by Vanessa Tait

Title: The Looking Glass House
Author: Vanessa Tait
Published: 2nd July 2015
Publisher: Corvus

Review

This year marks the 150th Anniversary of Alice in Wonderland, so naturally there are a few new books coming out or out to help with the celebrations; The Looking Glass House being one of them. I really was so excited to read this. I love the story of Alice in Wonderland and have already bought a 150th Anniversary edition of the book, so I loved the idea of finding out about the story came about, especially written by the granddaughter of the inspiration of the story Alice Liddel.
I also must mention the cover. I got so excited when I saw it, thought it looked beautiful and magical. The Looking Glass House then tells the story leading up to how the story of Alice in Wonderland came about. If I'm honest, I thought this story was going to be a lot more magical, especially as the cover looks just like that, but it wasn't. Although I did like reading the real Alice's story and how she was the inspiration behind Lewis Carroll's (pen name)  magical story, I really did not take to the massive hint in the story as to speculation around Dodgson's intentions around Alice and at one point I really did think that the story was going to take a VERY nasty turn, thankfully it didn't, but the hint was there!
Vanessa Tait is however a good writer and I commend her simple descriptions and the way she crafted the story and it still kept me reading to the end. I also liked seeing where Dodgson got his character inspiration from for Alice in Wonderland, especially the similarities between the Queen of Hearts and Queen Victoria. The character development itself is also really good, it was just the story that fell a little flat for me.
The Looking Glass House however is still an interesting story and a lot of it is of course true, but I would not recommend it to those who have a very innocent view on Alice in Wonderland.