Alice (the Chronicles of Alice, #1)

This is the first book in The Chronicles of Alice series, a dark reimagining of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The story unfolds in a grimy, vaguely Victorian world divided between the prosperous New City and the Old City, a labyrinthine slum ruled by criminal bosses.

Alice, a young woman with a long scar running from her hairline to her lip, has been confined to a hospital for the mentally ill in the Old City for ten years. At sixteen, she and her best friend Dor snuck into the forbidden Old City for Dor's birthday. Only Alice returned two weeks later, covered in blood and babbling about a man she calls the Rabbit, who has blue-green eyes and furry ears. She had been raped, and her face slashed open. Her parents committed her to the hospital, where she is sedated daily.

Years earlier, a mouse chewed a hole in the wall between Alice's cell and the next, connecting her to Hatcher, a man ten years her senior who was committed after being found with a bloodied axe and five dead bodies. He remembers nothing of his past and takes his name from the weapon. Despite his violent history, he becomes Alice's only companion and tells her about a creature called the Jabberwock that he believes is imprisoned beneath the hospital.

One night, the hospital catches fire. Hatcher breaks free and unlocks Alice's cell. They crawl through smoke and jump from a third-floor ledge into the poisoned river. As the asylum collapses, a tower of flame shoots skyward, and behind the fire Alice glimpses a gigantic shadow spreading its arms. Hatcher insists the Jabberwock has been freed.

In the Old City's alleys, a man attacks Alice and attempts to rape her. Hatcher kills the attacker and guides Alice deeper into the City, following an instinct he cannot explain. Alice grows ill from sedative withdrawal. They reach the home of Bess, Hatcher's grandmother, who has Seer blood, a family gift that grants true visions. Bess calls Hatcher by his real name, Nicholas, and confirms the Jabberwock is real. Her vision foretells that Alice and Hatcher must recapture the creature, which cannot reach full power without an object a Magician stole from it.

Bess gives Alice a dagger and a rose-shaped pendant, an heirloom from a Magician ancestor that glows when Alice puts it on. She directs them to Cheshire, an information broker, and warns Alice to stay away from the Rabbit. Hatcher gathers weapons, Alice dresses in men's clothing under the alias "Alex," and they depart at nightfall.

In Mr. Carpenter's territory, sentries demand payment. When one touches Hatcher, he kills both guards reflexively with his axe. They shelter at a tavern, where men soon invade on behalf of the Walrus, another crime lord, demanding the keeper surrender women including a serving girl named Dolly. Hatcher and Alice fight them off, but the Jabberwock's shadow appears under the door. Alice faces it in fury, and a burst of red light erupts from her, driving the creature away. The keeper's wife declares Alice a Magician.

They reach Cheshire's rose-blanketed cottage. Cheshire, a small man with a predatory grin, recognizes Alice as the Rabbit's escaped captive. He tells the Jabberwock's origin: One of two Magicians embraced dark magic and became a monster. The good Magician forged a crescent-shaped blade infused with his blood and magic, defeated the Jabberwock, and imprisoned the creature. Alice realizes she knows this tale from her mother. Only the blade can destroy the Jabberwock. Cheshire directs them to the Caterpillar, a collector who may possess it, then ejects them into a magical rose maze. In the maze, enchanted roses attack Alice, but her hands grow hot and the roses catch fire, confirming she possesses latent magic. After further dangers, they are expelled before the Caterpillar's establishment, Butterflies.

Butterflies is a grotesque sex club where the Caterpillar, an impossibly tall Magician, displays captives in glass cases: a girl with butterfly wings sewn into her back and a genuine mermaid. He reveals that Dor sold Alice to the Rabbit for gold and tells Hatcher's forgotten past. As a young fighter named Nicholas, Hatcher defeated a fighter called the Grinder and caught the Rabbit's attention. The Rabbit coerced Nicholas into service, and Nicholas married Hattie, a girl the Rabbit freed as payment. They had a daughter, Jenny. When Jenny grew beautiful, the Rabbit sent men to kill Hattie and kidnap Jenny, selling the child in the East. Nicholas slaughtered the attackers and was committed to the asylum. The Caterpillar says the blade is likely with the Rabbit. Enraged, Alice slits his throat, causing the building to collapse.

They flee through tunnels with the freed captives. The butterfly girl, whose legs are broken, begs to die rather than face captivity again, and Hatcher grants her wish. The mermaid departs on her own. In the tunnels, Alice discovers she can speak to animals. Horse-sized rats warn that the Walrus, formerly the Grinder whose hands Hatcher crippled years ago, is hunting Alice because Dolly told him she is a Magician.

They stumble into the Walrus's territory and discover a room of gnawed bodies. In the fighting arena, Alice sees a giant white rabbit named Pipkin being whipped and recognizes the Walrus as the man who, during her captivity, forced her to eat drugged cake. Alice administers a healing potion to Pipkin, restoring the rabbit to full strength. Pipkin kills the Walrus. They free the captive girls, and Pipkin leads them to safety through the tunnels.

Above ground, the Jabberwock has massacred an entire neighborhood. Alice and Hatcher continue alone. In Heathtown, Hatcher enters the shanty where he once lived with Hattie and Jenny, weeps, and says goodbye to Nicholas forever. Alice's full memory returns: At sixteen, she stabbed the Rabbit's eye with his own knife, fled, and threw the blade into the river.

At the Rabbit's lair, Dor emerges, aged far beyond her years. Inside, the Rabbit sits shriveled on a throne, his spine severed and magic drained by Alice's attack. The knife she used was the Magician's blade, the weapon they have been seeking. Forged to drain Magicians, the blade absorbed the Rabbit's power and transferred it into Alice. The weapon dissolved in the river, but its power resides within her. Dor, realizing the Rabbit will discard her if he regains his strength, strangles him. Hatcher kills Dor with his axe, granting the death she sought.

Alice puts the soldiers to sleep with wish-magic. Outside, the Jabberwock waits in human form, a man with bottomless black eyes. Alice puts Hatcher to sleep to shield him from the creature's psychic influence and faces the Jabberwock alone. He boasts his power dwarfs hers. Alice, unafraid, asks for his hand. She recalls her childhood garden, watching buds transform into butterflies. Her pendant glows. She wishes the Jabberwock into a tiny purple butterfly trapped in a small green jar. His shadow screams and vanishes. Alice pockets the jar and tells the creature she will forget him.

Cheshire appears, revealing he orchestrated much of their journey so they would eliminate his rivals and clear the way for him to rule the Old City. Alice severs his surveillance magic. He fades until only his grin remains.

Hatcher takes Alice's hand. He knows Jenny is alive in the East, called Sahar. Alice wishes for the City's ministers to rebuild the Old City. They enter the tunnel leading out. Alice smells open fields, flowers, and rain. She runs, laughing, and when Hatcher calls after her, answers that she is following the white rabbit.