Cheshire Crossing by Andy Weir
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
What a cute book! I really liked the characters, especially Wendy! And Dorthy; she was adorable too. And I actually really liked Alice as well; such spunk! Basically I liked all of our protagonists!
I also think this was such an awesome idea for a book. A crossover of Dorothy, Alice and Wendy from The Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan?! I love the idea. I have actually read the original Peter Pan, and The Wizard of Oz, but not Alice in Wonderland (I think) and now that I’ve read this book, I totally want to go back and reread the originals!
Spoilers Below
Now, I know I’m supposed to be reading Halloween books right now, but I’m thinking about just moving on from the spooky books marathon at least for a few weeks because November 5th (the day that a ton of books came out this year) has come and gone and I have yet to finish one book since then (besides this one of course). I have to get reading! I cannot wait one more minute to finish Supernova and The Toll!
Anyway, I first found this book late one night when my brother yelled for me to get him a comic book while I was checking out at the library. I’ve had it on my list for a while and I didn’t think he would be into it, but I got it for him anyway and my brother ended up loving it. He gushed about it to me the next morning and now I finally got around to reading it too. So here are my thoughts…
I love Andy Weir and although I have not read any of Sarah Anderson’s work (a.k.a. Sarah’s Scribbles) I really liked her illustrating work. I will get around to some of her books eventually though… (i.e. most likely in 2025 once I have read all the books on my Want-to-read shelf :P) Anyway, I really liked the illustrating; it kind of like an anime but not exactly. And the drawing combined with the storytelling which was so immersive and really well done, made for a great book. Also, this book is so different from Andy Weir’s usual genre. I was completely surprised that he was the one wrote this novel and I actually did a double take when I saw his name on the cover. I was like ‘The Martian guy? That guy? Who writes the best space books? No way!’. But Andy Weir, I have learned, also writes really good classic retellings. 🙂
Sarah Anderson’s drawings were also super well done. I especially liked how the girls were drawn when they were younger: they were so adorable. I also noticed her drawing style in this book was pretty different from that of her other books. Basically, this novel is a crazy crossover book where the authors stepped out of their comfort zones and tried writing something new. I love it.
One little thing I liked about this book was how we got tons of little flashbacks of the girls from their original adventures. I also was super surprised that Dorthy and the rest were only 10 years old in the classics. I can’t believe they were so little! Because the Wizard of Oz movie portrayed Dorthy as a teenager, I’ve had that vision of her in my mind forever (oh curse you movies! Making me think of characters differently from how they are in the books! :P) and I was super surprised to hear I was wrong.
My only complaint was that the book started off just a bit too fast. We had barely finished the world building part of the book when the girls were immediately swept off to Oz. I just wish it could have been a bit more explanation in that department. I felt a bit confused because of that.
The only character I didn’t like was Nanny. Whenever there’s a character who is trying to keep girls ‘proper’ I immediately dislike them. Nanny was one of those characters. I ended up warming up to her at the end when she was fighting the Wicked Witch of the West and all, but still… I really didn’t like her overall. Another thing that was kind of weird about Nanny was that scene at the end where her eyes went all monstery and she saw the spirits of dead children or something. I was really confused about that part.
If I had to choose a favorite character though, I think I’d have to say Alice. I am really attracted to characters who are extremely sarcastic and witty, so she was my favorite. Also, it took me a second to realize that both Alice and Wendy were English (British) which was why they kept calling Dorthy ‘yank’ XD. I found that hilarious.
On the topic of the romance in this book, I really liked the combination of the Wicked Witch and Captain Hook, but I liked Alice and Peter even more. I was totally shipping them. I found that Peter growing up was so hilarious because it is something Peter Pan is not supposed to do… ever. But! Even more than that relationship I liked Tinker Bell and Peter. Ever since I watched the Peter Pan movie I wanted them to be together and it was so adorable to see that happen.
Lastly, my only other complaint about this book was that it was too short. I needed more! At the second-to-last page, I turned to my brother and literally said ‘So there’s a lot more right?’. The book ends on a sort of cliffhanger that could totally be made into another book and I hope it will be. The novel is still pretty recent though, so there might actually be chance.
Overall, I really liked this book. It was a nice graphic novel although way to short and I totally recommend it to all those classical literature buffs out there, as well as anyone else who loved the Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland or Peter Pan as a kid.
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