Review: Insanity by Cameron Jace

Insanity by Cameron Jace

Published: 20th December 2013 by Jawigi Publishing

Genre: Young Adult / Fantasy
Page Count: ?
Format: eBook
Source: Author

Synopsis: After accidentally killing everyone in her class, Alice Wonder is now a patient in the Radcliffe Lunatic Asylum. No one doubts her insanity. Only a hookah-smoking professor believes otherwise; that he can prove her sanity by decoding Lewis Carroll's paintings, photographs, and find Wonderland's real whereabouts. Professor Caterpillar persuades the asylum that Alice can save lives and catch the wonderland monsters now reincarnated in modern day criminals. In order to do so, Alice leads a double life: an Oxford university student by day, a mad girl in an asylum by night. The line between sanity and insanity thins when she meets Jack Diamond, an arrogant college student who believes that nonsense is an actual science.

Goodreads

Purchase: Amazon UK* / Amazon US

Cameron Jace: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

*When purchasing through this link, I will receive a small amount, once I have enough saved up I will put it towards a giveaway.

Review: 

3.5 / 5 stars

I was fortunate enough to receive a copy of Insanity for review from the author, this will in no way effect my opinion of the book.

Insanity follows the adventure of Alice, a possibly mad girl, locked away in the underground of Radcliffe Lunatic Asylum. 

Her only guidance of sanity is her friend, Tiger Lily, a potted flower and when she responds to Alice, Alice knows she's currently hallucinating. 

Whilst dealing with her possible insanity, knowledge of killing all her class and a phobia of mirrors, she also has a lot more on her plate.

After a failed attempt at escaping, a fellow inmate of the Asylum - Piller the Killer - requests her help to become a hero by day and madwomen by night.

Outside of the Asylum, a serial killer is on a rampage, murdering girls and leaving them with grins sewn to their faces. The killer of course being The Cheshire Cat.

And it is Alice's job to save the recent girl being taken by him whilst solving the puzzles he's left behind, and most importantly the puzzle of herself. Is she The Alice? Or does Piller just hope so? And is Wonderland truly real, or are these people just mad?

So as you can see, there is a lot of elements to the story and it's very heavily on Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, which surprisingly is not something I've read, only seen the Disney version. 

I learnt a lot about Lewis Carroll's (sorry I can't refer to him as just Carroll or my mind is going to start thinking we're talking about The Following television series and combining the two would end drastically) world he built, or well in this case, saved. 

I really enjoyed reading the book throughout, the story was fast paced with nice short chapters meaning I could pick it up and put it down when needed, which is perfect for my hectic schedule lately. 

There was a lot of parts to the story that slowly unfolded themselves which I think was perfect because it helped hold my attention and it felt great when everything fell into place.

What's more is that, for me, it wasn't necessarily one of those books where you're trying to guess what is going to happen, you just kind of enjoy the ride, which I love.

The only downsides for myself is that sometimes I felt the chapters didn't flow too well which I think is more the writing than anything, and that for me I didn't really like Piller as a character.

I mean I get that he's a bad guy, and also the one initiating the whole adventure that Alice goes on but at times he felt more like a character that was there to fill in all the holes and give information dumps rather than a character as a whole.

However, with that being said, I think the sequel will lessen that aspect as Alice is now more awake and aware, so she can start piecing things together herself.

Sidenote: This is the second book I've read recently from an American author who's set the book in the UK, which is super nice, but for some reason it still felt very American too me. I think one of the main things is that our phones are always referred to as mobiles, never phones, and it was odd reading it in that context. Other than that none of the slang or wording felt too out of place, I don't where I was getting the vibe from but it was there.