“Dripping with darkness, chilling with its utter terror. This one had me transfixed and glued to the page!” -Book Haven Book BlogLucifer owes the Hatter a favor… cannot steal a soul that remains untainted. That is… unless an innocent offers it of her own free will.
THE WHITE QUEEN is a tale of pure horror by USA TODAY bestselling author Addison Cain. There is no white knight, for the twisted Hatter lurks in these pages… ready to devour your soul and haunt your dreams.
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Having read the original censored version in The Dark Forest anthology, I knew what I was getting into reading this. This unadulterated version is delightfully terrifying, horrifyingly intriguing, and downright twisted. I enjoyed every second of it! In true Cain fashion, the story is not what it seems from the start and has you following the breadcrumbs through truly dark places, twisty paths, and off sheer cliffs of wonderfully detailed and imaginative horrors. This is not a happily ever after story. It is not an erotically charged tale of love and sex… or at least not in the conventional sense. This is pure, distilled horror with a splash of terror and a sprinkle of dread. Read at your own risk, and be prepared to be wary of things that lurk in the dark as you settle in for bed at night. 10/10 would recommend.
Dark, frightening horror and torment
Poor Alice. She’s in the vicious hands of beloved literary characters gone wild. The author warns that this is horror instead of her usual dark romance, and she’s right. It’s a tense, subliminally-pervy, sinister take on “Alice in Wonderland.” The pervy stuff is mostly off screen or detached and not explicit.
This story reminds me of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” but with malevolence and nightmarish violence instead of Victorian feminist angst. Is Alice a reliable narrator? What she describes could merely be the rantings of the misunderstood Victorian-era mentally ill. Or is her torment real? That might even be worse. This story would make a great scary movie (seriously). You’re never sure what’s really happening, and The Hatter’s patient brutality keeps it all on edge.
There were also some hints of Dr. Who as well, such as “Blink” and “The Girl in the Fireplace.” I’ll never think about stuffed rabbits the same way again.
When I started reading I couldn’t put it down.Addison Cain is magnifysent writer.I cannot wait to read more of there books.Keep up the great work.You should definitely read this books.
If you want horror, this is horror of the finest!
Or the worst?
Either way, the devious way a young girls life is set up to be consumed by evil is frightfully fascinating.
With explicitly descriptive language Ms Cain drags you ever deeper into the purposeful madness of the Hatter. His relentless bullying and prompting to gain the unwitting admission of a young woman to wreck havoc in her life is chilling and addictive.
You’ll hate what you read, but you just can’t stop!
Add to that a family’s reaction and the following “cure” and you have the perfect horror scenario.
Even more frightening is the fact that reactions and methods like these were common practice in the not so distant past.
Be warned, this is not an easy read, and you won’t be able to put it out of your mind for quite some time!
Wickedly dark and devious. Addison Cain’s retelling of Alice in Wonderland is a story that I can get behind. Beware the white rabbit!
This quick tale of Alice and the characters of Wonderland was twisted and decadent!
The White Queen is not a romance tale, it is dark and horrifying!
Read at your own risk.
Dark, disturbing and twisted and unlike any Alice in Wonderland you have ever read. I loved it.
A Cruel interpretation of wonderland
I didn’t realise this was a version of Alice’s story as I often do I dove in with a look at the description.
Thou as expected with the author it was a dark version and yet as it seems normal for me I loved the twists it held, it’s short and took me 2 hours at most to finish. Do I recommend only if not the typical story is for you, there was no true triggers so it should be a safe read for most who enjoy the unconventional views as I do, personally I loved and want more.
I have read a lot of Alice in Wonderland re-tellings both light and dark and this one was definitely very unique in itself like I have never seen before.
Unlike to fairy tale story we are so used to reading, in The White Queen we aren’t following a cute rabbit into a tree and discovering a magic world full of madness. Instead, in this story we are following Alice’s slow decent into insanity for her entire life.
Great ending that I did not see coming and left me thinking for hours after about the lines between her fantasy and reality.
As dark, twisted and scary as it gets I had to finish to the horrifying end. Nightmare inducing for weeks
4.5 stars
If you are looking for romance or even A happily ever after move along. This is not a fairytale nor is it the Alice in Wonderland that you read as a child. It’s dark, twisted, and horrific. You will want to stop reading but you won’t be able to stop because this author is incredibly talented. I’m convinced that she is either a witch or a drug dealer because her words are crack.
This was an amazing book
Not quite sure what I just read. It was interesting to say the least. It was okay, but nothing overly special. It also was not dark, it read more like a Hallowen short story rather then dark and horrific. The book blurb says this book is dark, pure horror, with no romance and no white knight. Well part of that is true. There is no romance or white knight; there is graphic sex, random violence and old fashioned asylum practices.
This book reminded me of a graphic and demented version of The Yellow Wallpaper; only with some violence, sex and a strange re-telling of Alice in Wonderland mixed in. I went in with an open mind, but it was still different then I was expecting. It was not dark and it very loosely followed the original tale, and I do mean loosely.
I can’t say the book was bad, it wasn’t. It just sort of lost me to what I think it was trying to accomplish. If it had been longer or the over all plot a bit clearer this would have been a hit for me.
**Spoiler**
I reduced the rating by a star because there is not a trigger warning anywhere I could find and that includes other reviews. I have a very hard limit in reguards to animal abuse, negelect and/or violence. This book had talk and a scene with animal violence (killing if a rabbit). While this might be okay for some this is my limit and I was not aware if it going in, I was not prepared. Had I known I could have been able to skip the scene or not read the book to begin with. I just think it is a respect issue to have those warnings available for readers.
Absolutely love every book of Addison Cain’s…and I have pretty much read them all…some twice!! I really dislike this story!! Not one ounce of light, only darkness. The ONLY time I am happy it was a novella!!!!
extremely dark interpretation of Alice in Wonderland. There is no HEA.
Addison has added another dark tale to her twisted collection of stories. This is a dark fantasy story about a little girl named Alice, who suffers from horrors at night that are very real and can definitely hurt. The reader goes along with Alice as she ages and experiences the not child-friendly Hatter, Red Queen, and other characters that will make the reader very nervous at night. Although it was previously published with other works, this is the uncensored version. I am so happy this existed. Now I can enjoy Cain’s twisted mind without the Amazon God’s intervention. This is very Dark and not a happy story, hence the Dark part. But it is completely worth the read, as you won’t be able to stop thinking about it.
I am not normally a fan of horror, but for Addison Cain I will make an exception. I have loved everything Addison has written and, based on this fact alone, I had read this story when it was previously published in an anthology. While the anthology version was not my favorite Addison read, I was impressed (as I always am) by Addison’s ability to create vivid and complex characters and worlds in a short story format (something many authors can’t do in much longer books). With that said, I dove into this expanded version with an open mind, knowing that, at a minimum, Addison would deliver a well-written and well-crafted story. I wasn’t disappointed, as I loved this book!
While a dark re-telling of Alice in Wonderland, the characters are the only similarities between the two tales. The story builds in tension rapidly, and you feel like you are on a fast moving train with only one destination in sight – and that destination is a place you don’t want to go, but can’t avoid. There is no HEA here for Alice (or anyone else), but you will not be disappointed in this story. Even if you are not typically a fan of horror (like me), I would recommend giving this book a try. Only Addison Cain could make me enjoy such a twisted horror story!
What a unique take on the story, and wow, what an ending! This story really got to me, especially because I was reading it while very sleepy, heightening the horror elements surrounding a girl who is not permitted sleep. It is oh so wonderfully twisted and I definitely recommend.
When Alice in Wonderland meets Addison Cain, a twisted story is what happens.
Young Alice is plagued by nightmares, since she was very young. Nightmares that do not allow her to sleep. Her only safety is the Hatter, another twisted apparition that comes to her night. The Hatter does not only what to terrorize Alice he wants to make her his. Yet, how does one become the prize of ones nightmare? Alice will have to answer that question!
I really liked the story, but I was confused in some places. Enjoy!!!
There’s something magical about Addison Cain’s writing and her genius at playing the word game across so many genres like a maestro. With unwavering faith, I read her offerings without giving a glance to synopsis or even the title most times. And though I knew it was a spin on Alice in Wonderland, things got real. And dark, fiendishly so, and what a bizarre delight it was. Though easily consumable for a brief spell, the woven story is haunting, and took some time for me to parse my thoughts and feelings on the book. I can see why a censored version was offered in the anthology, but after reading the horrors lurking in Addison Cain’s mind up until the deleted scene, it’s just one of the many jarring moments to leave you cold but fascinated. I’m conflicted for loving the ending and the path that led to Alice’s madness, but it’s a beautiful retelling of a classic. It’s a fresh story that gets better with re-reads for picked up clues.