The Clockwork Alice

By: DeAnna Knippling

Narrated by: Karena Gregory

Length: 4 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

Everyone fears death, the great unwinding...

Ticking clocks echo through an enormous English country house. A watercolor over the mantle ripples. A woman sleepwalks, pulled by moonlight and dreams, until she stands under the painting, the last gift she was given by author Lewis Carroll, on the eve of her wedding.

Her name is Alice. And on the other side of the painting, Wonderland is calling to her.

One last time.

Tick...tock...tick...

In Wonderland, one only works in one’s sleep.

All proper Wonderlandians spend all night, every night, hard at work, winding the great clock of Wonderland - the Master Chronometer - of which all other Wonderlandians are but synchronized slave clocks.

At night, one understands that one is made of clockwork, although, of course, one pretends otherwise when one is awake. To do otherwise would make the current madness of the daylit Wonderlandians look like stark sanity.

Besides, it’s only polite.

©2017 DeAnna Knippling (P)2020 DeAnna Knippling

I was whisked away to Wonderland

Wow. Just wow. As I listened, I felt I entered some alternate reality. The narrator’s voices for the various characters were just perfect.

I want to go back to Wonderland (by reading the book again) but also don’t want to go back, because what if I just stay there? It was riveting but also disturbing. I was horrified by a character being torn apart, but the character doesn’t feel pain so it’s okay? And by the time a character is being tortured to get what they want out of it, it’s awful but also... just numbness? And decapitations? And... Wow.

I’ll definitely be looking for more books by the author.

So... I’m in that place where I like can’t go back but can’t go forward yet, but wow..... you wrote that. 😮

🤫 It’s also one of those books where I think “shit, I could never write a book like that, I sometimes dream of writing but I could never write something that has an impact like that.” 😮

Then I remember not all books have to be that impactful... I mean, there’s plenty of books I just read and then go on about my life and months later I can’t even remember what the book was about. 😬

Whimsy, wonder, heartbreak. Stir like good booze.

Take one part whimsy, one part wonder, and one part heartbreak. Mix and stir. It's a wonderful blend of joy and wistful pain, whimsy and utter terror. This is absolutely true to the playful but vaguely menacing spirit of Carroll's work. I'd class it with Valente's works in style and feel. I sank into this story like I'd slip into my favorite fuzzy sweater, and enjoyed it like a good whisky. It's a delight.

The Clockwork Alice review

A unique take on the Alice in Wonderland story, this was really interesting and appealing. A worthwhile audiobook.

Wonderfully Headspinning

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

DeAnna truly writes from the crazy wonderland experience. It was a little confusing at first but then things came together and made crazy sense. I enjoyed this book and would say to not think of it as a reproduction of any previous Alice in wonderlands but more of an alternate extension or continuation.
Karena beautifully narrates the story and gives it life in a fashion that cannot be repeated.

Totally different Alice

I received this book for free at my request but the opinion is of my own. Wonderland is calling for one more time. Alice has grown up, been married, and has had children putting aside all her travels to wonderland until one night she could hear the call from the painting that was given at her wedding. Should she return one more time or stay at home? Will wonderland survive?