I Kissed Alice

WHAT LEFT ME WANTING:
Iliana fought her way into the Alabama Conservatory of the arts partially to advance her artistic aspirations and partially to stay with her best friend Sarah. The girl is competitive and territorial in equal measure, which causes more than a few problems, but she’s also passionate about the Alice in Wonderland fancomic she writes with I-Kissed-Alice. Rhodes is Sarah’s roommate and a gifted artist from a rich family. She’s won countless competitions in the past with her drawings, but for months now, she hasn’t been able to draw a single thing.

Well, other than the fancomic she’s working on with Curious-in-Cheshire.

The girls have been lightly flirting for months online, but they’ve got no idea who the other is and Rhodes’ qualification for a Capstone scholarship she solidly failed to meet the requirements for has lit the fuse on their long-brewing issues. Things are about to blow up in both their faces.

If you’re one of those people who requires their main characters be likable, please drop I Kissed Alice now. Iliana and Rhodes are complex girls and the reason they hate one another is actually a pretty good one. Can’t say I’d feel any different if I ended up in either of their situations.

Sarah, the connective tissue that brings the girls into conflict with one another again and again? Whoo boy, there is a lot to say about Sarah and you’ll wonder why either girl ever wanted anything to do with her in the first place. She’s untrustworthy practically from the get-go. The way she plays Iliana and Rhodes against one another and can’t stand up to either of them when they do her wrong certainly doesn’t help. For all the criticisms I have, I love this messed up friendship between the three girls for how familiar it feels.

WHAT LEFT ME WANTING:
Iliana and Rhodes’ interactions as Cheshire and Alice lack the kind of camaraderie I’d expect of co-writers who have been working together for a year and mildly flirting the entire time. Even so, once the girls’ identities come out, it’s not an easy road to romance like “oh wow, you’re the girl I’ve been crushing on for ages, never mind how we’ve treated each other before.” It takes time for each of them to reconcile who the other is online versus in real life, which fits with real life and the route the novel takes.

FINAL VERDICT:
Perhaps with a little more time spent on how the girls came to work together on their comic, I’d feel a little more positive toward I Kissed Alice. Even so, it’s an engrossing queer enemies-to-lovers tale about art, privilege, and mental health. Just throw color theory out the window before looking at the cover in case it tampers with your expectations. Maybe someone should give it a redesign to be a little more honest.