[TCB]≡ PDF Alison Wonderland Helen Smith 9781935597759 Books

Alison Wonderland Helen Smith 9781935597759 Books

Download As PDF : Alison Wonderland Helen Smith 9781935597759 Books

Alison Wonderland Helen Smith 9781935597759 Books

There are some very narrow minded reviews of this book. They're put off by the novel's prose and style, I think. I want to slap them. The book is called Alison Wonderland. With a title like that you should expect something a bit...askew. And if you don't get that, you should be disappointed.

In Alison Wonderland there is no rabbit hole or looking glass to toss you into a new world. You only have to dip into the prose of author Helen Smith to enter a world recognizably ours but has been jumbled up. It's as if God had bumped into the table that holds the world.

I was charmed by the book - the stories, the characters, the plot and the occasional acts of fellatio.

The reader may want to keep Mark Twain's warning at the beginning of Huck Finn in mind when reading this book...."persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot." There is a plot - thin as spider's silk - but the joy in the novel is the characters and the writing.

There is a scene of a man being beaten that ends with:

"They could kick him until he dies. When he thinks they won't stop, they stop."

That's just fun to read.

Then there are just nice little sentences scattered throughout the novel. Such as:

Smoking makes me feel guilty and the guilt makes me feel melancholy."

or

"I never realized before that taking care of someone else makes you love them more than when they take care of you."

The book is slightly mad. It's characters are mad. Mad like a quirky aunt. Or a hatter. Mad in the best sense.


Tags : Alison Wonderland [Helen Smith] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. After her husband leaves her for another woman, twentysomething Londoner Alison Temple impulsively applies for a job at the very P.I. firm she hired to trap her philandering ex. She hopes it will be the change of scene she so desperately needs to move on with her shattered life. At the all-female Fitzgerald’s Bureau of Investigation,Helen Smith,Alison Wonderland,Lake Union Publishing,1935597752,Contemporary Women,Detectives;London (England);Fiction.,Friendship,Mystery fiction.,Private investigators;England;Fiction.,Women private investigators - England,Audiobook; Audio; Book; CD; Fiction; Literature; Literary,England,English Novel And Short Story,FICTION Literary,Fiction,Fiction - General,Fiction Contemporary Women,Literary,London (England),Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945),Mystery fiction,Private investigators,FICTION General

Alison Wonderland Helen Smith 9781935597759 Books Reviews

When I buy a book, I often read the reviews first – just to see what I am getting into. Helen Smith’s “Alison Wonderland” offers a mix of reviews that range from the heights of angelic praise to the very dregs of hate and even loathing. I have to confess, I was intrigued – what kind of novel could inspire such reactions?
With mixed hopes, I dove in to the narrative. What I found was a delightful tale that bordered on whimsical. Alison Temple has a phrase when someone asks her why she is still single, “I’m waiting for Mr. Wonderland and when I find him, I’ll get married.” That statement alone should tell you what you are getting in for on this ride (though she HAS been married before, small spoiler.) The entire novel flows like that, with a touch of effortless humor intermixed atop a Private Investigation Agency that has more eclectic personal than cases.
Charming and effortlessly funny, this is a novel to spend a pleasant afternoon with.
Alison Wonderland
By Helen Smith

Alison Templar hires a detective agency to find out if her husband is cheating on her, unfortunately he is so she leaves him in a blaze of glory and decides to work for the all-female P.I. firm that she had hired. Taron, Alison's crazy best friend, hires Alison to help her find an abandoned baby for her mother to apprentice in magic. All the while there are people who are after Alison because she may know too much.

This book is not for everyone but if you are a fan of the Christopher Moore style of writing then you will love this book. It's crude and funny and with a touch of magic the author manages to bring to life a novel that is so ridiculous it's hilarious. Taron is my favorite character with her outlandish ways and her farfetched stories that hold just a hint of truth behind them. It was definitely an interesting read! Though like I said not everyone will like this novel it has sex and drugs, even a few other things not for the faint of heart.

I was sent a free copy of this book for review.
"Alison Wonderland" is one of the first books I ever bought for, and read on, my first - I believe I read it when it first came out (definitely had a different cover at that time). However, I still remember how the book made me laugh out loud, something I hadn't been doing too much of as I was going through a very difficult time personally. I had so much fun "meeting" Alison and the great cast of characters, and going along on this crazy ride with them! It was a blast. There were also times I felt so touched when reading the book; the scenes with Alison and the baby were especially endearing to me because I had a new-ish little one at the time I read it. I think Helen Smith is a great writer, not just in her ability to tell a tale, but in the choices of words she uses and the way she puts together sentences and paragraphs.

What initially attracted me to this book was the clever title, BUT you should know that this is really NOT an homage to "Alice in Wonderland" and is not intended to be evocative of that novel. Please don't go into reading this with that expectation, otherwise you may be disappointed. Alison is NOT Alice!! But I loved Alison as a character; I felt I could really identify with her, and she was such a "real" character in a way that so many leading ladies in novels are NOT these days. She is not the most gorgeous, skinniest, most fashionable, emotionally wooden, etc, with every single man she encounters in the book falling in love with her (I rather hate those types of characters, don't you?!). I prefer characters with whom I can relate, and Alison is an actual, "average" woman who has real problems and true feelings (and is sometimes a little neurotic!). I loved her. Her escapades are great, and going along with her as she becomes part of the detective agency was an absolute blast.

I must admit to being disappointed - and a little flabbergasted - that there are so many 1-star reviews on this book, because I truly did love it. I hope that you will give it a chance, if what I have said about the book speaks to you. I, for one, bought every other Helen Smith book that I could get my hands on after reading "Alison Wonderland"!! Have fun, and happy reading!
There are some very narrow minded reviews of this book. They're put off by the novel's prose and style, I think. I want to slap them. The book is called Alison Wonderland. With a title like that you should expect something a bit...askew. And if you don't get that, you should be disappointed.

In Alison Wonderland there is no rabbit hole or looking glass to toss you into a new world. You only have to dip into the prose of author Helen Smith to enter a world recognizably ours but has been jumbled up. It's as if God had bumped into the table that holds the world.

I was charmed by the book - the stories, the characters, the plot and the occasional acts of fellatio.

The reader may want to keep Mark Twain's warning at the beginning of Huck Finn in mind when reading this book...."persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot." There is a plot - thin as spider's silk - but the joy in the novel is the characters and the writing.

There is a scene of a man being beaten that ends with

"They could kick him until he dies. When he thinks they won't stop, they stop."

That's just fun to read.

Then there are just nice little sentences scattered throughout the novel. Such as

Smoking makes me feel guilty and the guilt makes me feel melancholy."

or

"I never realized before that taking care of someone else makes you love them more than when they take care of you."

The book is slightly mad. It's characters are mad. Mad like a quirky aunt. Or a hatter. Mad in the best sense.