Disney’s 1951 adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland ended with Alice waking up and heading home for tea, dismissing her journey as just a very strange dream. But an upcoming sequel Disney is releasing to celebrate the film’s 75th anniversary sends Alice back down the rabbit hole again.
Heather Fawcett, author of Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries — is set in 19th century London years after the film. Alice’, pens Wondrous. In it, Emily’s parents wish to wed her to a Baron so as to guard their fortune, yet she desires nothing more than founding a traveling magic tea shop instead. Upon returning to Wonderland to pursue her ambitions, she finds that several versions of Alice have surfaced there, each asserting themselves as the genuine one. The Queen resolves to settle the matter by having them halt a trio of mock dragons, with failure earning exile from Wonderland for all time.
Alice Escapes Her Estate
Alice abandons her duties and flees, reaching back through a window, lifting her suitcase over the sill, dropping it below her, and making it to the bottom where Tansy waits, watching with glee. She thinks Tansy would laugh if she fell, but instead the niece enjoys the spectacle of her triumph. When Alice’s feet touch the ground, Tansy claps.
“Thank you,” Alice said. She knelt before her niece, feeling she ought to say goodbye in a wise way Tansy would remember as she grew older. But before she could, the little girl turned and dashed away. Their adventure was over, and now she was off to stuff herself with strawberries until she was sick.
Alice set her suitcase down and walked away from it, pushing guilt aside along with an odd pinch of regret.
Fields and Dragons
Alice’s father’s estate is large, woven with fields, forests, paths and streams. It takes her a long time to cross it. She glares at the fields, overhearing her parents talk in hushed voices about selling them if she doesn’t marry the Baron soon. The fields are pretty in daylight — sheep-trimmed grass and wildflower meadows — but now they are hidden in darkness.
A familiar anger rises within her. “I am not a field!” she wants to shout. Her parents don’t equate the two at all. A daughter can be bartered away, while a field cannot.
She hurried along until she arrived at the public park that borders her father’s estate. Darkness and unfamiliarity surrounded her, and she felt a strange sense that turning around would reveal someone following her. Once or twice, she thought she could hear their footsteps. It seemed possible that her own ghost was behind her, the ghost of the girl who first fell down the rabbit hole, chasing her as she’d chased the White Rabbit.
These ghoulish thoughts only made her run faster.
The Rabbit Hole Glows
The moon lit up the rabbit hole at last, and she pushed herself into it, scraping her knees in her hurry. The space inside was tighter than when she had entered it before. She reached the top edge, where the slope went down, down, down, and there she paused.
The hedgehog bit her encouragingly.
“Ready, Hedgewitch?” she said. The hedgehog bit her encouragingly. How she missed Dinah, her sweet-tempered cat! But her parents had taken Dinah away last year and given her to a distant cousin, partly as a punishment and partly as a reward to dangle in exchange for her good behavior.
She supposed she would never see her again.
A strange assortment of smells wafted up from that dark hole: the salty brine of the ocean, freshly baked biscuits, lush gardens and trees. She drew a steadying deep breath, because she didn’t know if she would ever go back home. And she didn’t care.
As she launched herself from the cliff’s edge, the sensation was not so much of descent as of Wonderland rushing to meet her, eager and warm, like an old friend welcoming her home after a prolonged separation.
What We Know About the Book
| Detail | Fact |
|---|---|
| Author | Heather Fawcett |
| Previous work | Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries |
| Setting | 19th century London |
| Protagonist | Alice |
| Conflict | Arranged marriage vs. travel magic tea shop |
| Quest | Stop three mock dragons |
| Consequence | Exile from Wonderland |
A Sequel Worth Reading
The YA novel Wondrous returns Alice to Wonderland decades after the original film. The stakes are personal for Alice, whose parents wish to sell the family estate and marry her off to a Baron, even though Alice dreams of owning a traveling magic tea shop. The excerpt displays a strong voice, vivid imagery, and a protagonist under real pressure from her family.
This passage presents a vivid fantasy setting. A hedgehog named Hedgewitch appears, along with the fragrances of ocean, biscuits, gardens and trees, and a trial involving mock dragons looms ahead, all pointing to a tale worth reading.
Release Date and Where to Read It
On Oct. 6, Wondrous arrives in bookstores and other outlets. Before its release, Random House and Disney shared an exclusive excerpt with Polygon.
This sequel gives Alice a second trip back to Wonderland, and the excerpt makes plain that her return is anything but routine. The story puts real pressure on Alice personally, while also raising the question of which Alice is the genuine one — a level of tension that the original film never had to carry.
A return to Wonderland decades after the original visit is at the center of the story, with Alice facing arranged marriage pressures while on a quest to prove which Alice is the true one. The excerpt shows a rich, character-driven fantasy adventure, and the book arrives Oct. 6.
The story picks up where the first one left off, and it gives the earlier material a fresh reason to exist. The character comes back, and her own identity becomes the central uncertainty, a doubt about which version of herself is genuine that the earlier film never had to raise.
See the video the story is built around at Polygon.
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