Down the Rabbit Hole by Julia Crane

Down the Rabbit Hole by Julia Crane

Published December 3rd 2016 by Valknut Press

Down the Rabbit hole is a twisted tale of two sisters bound by blood and separated by magick. 

Alice is not the lovable girl the stories depict. A lifetime of pain and illusion has left her disturbed. Unpredictable. Dangerous. 

For years, she’s watched her twin sister – a girl born into light and destined for power – with great envy. According to the prophecy, only one of them will rule. Only one of them will survive. 

What will Alice sacrifice? The sister she hates, the man she loves, or the innocent lives caught in her twisted web of magick?

Note: I received a review copy of this book via Netgalley. This in no way influences my opinion. 

I really wanted to love this book. The cover is gorgeous, the blurb is captivating… but the story inside? Not for me. Which is a shame because everything else is just perfect. I struggled to get through the first few chapter and ended up DNFing this book at 14%. I was expecting something really epic and a great retelling of one of my favourite stories, but I just didn’t get it and I didn’t love it.

I know I didn’t get far in, but I felt like Alice (who was the predominant voice that I read) was extremely whiny. She was constantly moaning (or at least her thought process was) about how bad her mother is, and whether the prophecy is going to come true and the fact that she loves this guy, but he hates her and blah blah blah… It all mashed together at some point. She was a character that really grated on my nerves and all I really wanted to do was slap her. Really hard. Alas, she isn’t real. Thank goodness!

The romance felt really forced between Alice and… The stable hand. I can’t remember his name – this is an everlasting impression, as you can see. One minute he is claiming to absolutely detest her and he is doing everything in his power to make sure he doesn’t have to be within her presence for any period of time and then next minute he is saying that he does love her, but he hates it and he will only kiss her on his terms. He is really controlling… not a good way to go. Again, I didn’t get it. It was forced, there was absolutely no tension of any kind there and there was nothing to grip me into it. It was just one thing and then the next without a build up toward it!

When I got to Lacie’s voice and I found that I couldn’t actually distinguish her voice from Alice’s (I know they’re supposed to be twins… but seriously??) I just couldn’t take it anymore. I had to give up. I didn’t find out much about Lacie, only that she lives in the real world, got a speeding ticket and her dad is a bit of a douche. A rich douche, nonetheless. Thats about it.

Other than that, there isn’t much else to say. I was disappointed because I was thrown into a really random world, with absolutely no world building, characterisation and no building of the relationships between the characters. I was just disappointed. This book gets 1/5 stars.