Representations: https://trello.com/c/zvnkHl8b/148-off-with-their-heads-by-zoe-hana-mikuta

A punchy, actually pretty faithful complete reimagining of Alice in Wonderland!

This book took so much care with the source material and Wonderlands characters. Despite being in Korea, the rabbit not being a rabbit (or Cheshire being a cat) and all the other differences it still very much feels like a Wonderland book. The world building and magic systems are so incredibly cool - the saints, Jabberwockies, each person's unique magic and how it grows with them. It's so cool??? I really wish we got to see more about the saints though, more descriptions and saw more of them. There was mentions of some that could curse, but we never get to see any actually on page fighting I don't think.

Icca and Caro were both somehow strong lead characters, but also a bit all over the place. The unreliable narrator and "craziness" come through in the writing pretty strongly, it's not just us being told they're unreliable or crazy. But at points they did get a tad insufferable, just a little. Major lack of communication between them, to anyone, so if you don't like that trope this isn't for you. I would have liked to see a bit more of their progression with magic. It sort of cuts from them not being able to use it well, to having near mastery it seems. The side characters - primarily the Red queen and Cheshire were really neat. I especially absolutely loved the Red queen! She was absolutely fascinating as a character, and only got more and more so as the book went on.

Quirky writing was a bit distracting at points. A bit too much at points, a bit cringy as well (especially with some of Caro's remarks about confirming she was, infact, a raging lesbian..) which did bring me out of the book. A mix of writing styles, including a bit of second person thrown in mostly at random - though towards the end of the book that was used very nicely.

Overall, I think I'd honestly want a proper horror action story about a jabberwocky exploring Wonderland and culling saints because this world that's been crafted is just fascinating. But through all the bickering and back and forths between Caro and Icca, there wasn't as much explored as I hoped.