Book recommendation: Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll

I have one more classic-book recommendation for you, and then I promise we’ll get back to some more recent releases.

Today, I’m continuing the Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland series with Through the Looking Glass, the second (and final) novel in the series.

Like Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass takes us on a journey to another world. This time around, Alice steps through a mirror into a land where nothing is quite as it appears. Time seems to run backward, and travelling across the land is much like playing a game of chess.

I found that Alice didn’t change much between the first book and this one, but I did enjoy reading about her again. She’s still a sweet young girl who’s almost too innocent, and she makes for a wonderful companion through the odd land of the novel.

But one of the things that I most appreciated about Through the Looking Glass was that it was actually quite different from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. We get introduced to new characters (including the infamous Tweedledee and Tweedledum), and we get to learn the dynamics of an entirely different world. It makes for an adventure that’s fun and, at times, a little bit confusing.

Finally, like Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass is a fairly short novel, so it won’t take long to get through. I also found that it doesn’t fully follow Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, so any reader shouldn’t have a problem reading it before the first novel, or simply on its own.

Goodreads summary

In 1865, English author CHARLES LUTWIDGE DODGSON (1832-1898), aka Lewis Carroll, wrote a fantastical adventure story for the young daughters of a friend. The adventures of Alice-named for one of the little girls to whom the book was dedicated-who journeys down a rabbit hole and into a whimsical underworld realm instantly struck a chord with the British public, and then with readers around the world. In 1872, in reaction to the universal acclaim *Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland* received, Dodgson published this sequel. Nothing is quite what it seems once Alice journeys through the looking-glass, and Dodgson’s wit is infectious as he explores concepts of mirror imagery, time running backward, and strategies of chess-all wrapped up in the exploits of a spirited young girl who parries with the Red Queen, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, and other unlikely characters. In many ways, this sequel has had an even greater impact on today’s pop culture than the first book.