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.
EXCERPT: Excerpt from chapter 1
The writing on the wall says it's January 14th. I am not sure what year. I haven't been sure of many things lately, but I’m wondering if it’s my handwriting I’m looking at.
There is an strange key drawn underneath the date. It's carved with a sharp object, probably a broken mirror. I couldn’t have written this. I'm terrified of mirrors. They love to call it Catoptrophobia around here.
Unlike regular patients in the asylum, my room is windowless, stripped down to a single mattress in the middle, a sink, and bucket for peeing--or puking--when necessary. The tiles on the floor are black-and-white squares, like a chessboard. I never step on black. Always white. Again, I'm not sure why.
The walls are smeared with a greasy pale green everywhere. I wonder if it's the previous patient's brains spattered all over from shock therapy. In the Radcliffe Lunatic Asylum, politely known as the Warneford hospital, the doctors have a sweet spot for shock therapy. They love watching patients with bulging eyes and shivering limbs begging for relief from the electricity. It makes me question who is really mad in here.
It's been a while since I was sent to shock therapy myself. Dr. Tom Truckle, my supervising physician, said I don't need it anymore, particularly after I stopped mentioning Wonderland. He told me that I used to talk about it all the time; a dangerous place I claim I have been whisked away to when my elder sister lost me at the age of seven.
Truth is, I don't remember this Wonderland they are talking about. I don't even know why I am here. My oldest vivid memory is from a week ago. Before that, it's all a purple haze.
I have only one friend in this asylum. It's not a doctor or a nurse. And it's not a human. It doesn't hate, envy, or point a finger at you. My friend is an orange flower I keep in a pot; a Tiger Lily I can't live without. I keep it safe next to a small crack in the wall where a single sun ray sneaks through for only ten minutes a day. It might not be enough light to grow a flower, but my Tiger Lily is a tough girl.
Each day, I save half of the water they give me for my flower. As for me, better thirsty than mad.
My orange flower is also my personal rain check for my sanity. If I talk to her and she doesn't reply, I know I am not hallucinating. If it talks back to me, all kinds of nonsense starts to happen. Insanity prevails. There must be a reason why I am here. It doesn’t mean I will easily give in to such a fate.
"Alice Pleasance Wonder. Are you ready?" the nurse knocks with her electric prod on my steel door. Her name is Waltraud Wagner. She is German. Everything she says sounds like a threat and smells like smoke. My fellow mad people say she is a Nazi; that she used to kill her own patients back in Germany. "Get avay vrom za dor. I an coming in," she demands.
Listening to the rattling of her large keychain, my heart pounds in my chest. The turn of the key makes me want to swallow. When the door opens, all I can think of is choking her before she begins to hurt me. Sadly, her neck is too thick for my nimble hands. I stare at her almost-square figure for a moment. Everything about her is four sizes too big, all except her feet, which are as small as mine. My sympathies, little feet.
"Time for your daily ten-minute break," she approaches me with a straitjacket, a devilish grin on her face. I never get out. My ward is underground, and I take my break in another empty ward upstairs, where patients love to play soccer with a hedgehog’s head.
A big muscled warden stands behind Watlraud. Thomas Ogier. He is bald, has an angry-red face and a silver tooth he likes to flash whenever he sees me. His biceps are the size of my head. I have a hard time believing he has ever been a 4-pound baby.
"Slide your arms into the jacket," Waltraud demands in her German accent, a cigarette puckered between her lips. "Slow and easy, Alice," she nods at warden Ogier, in case I misbehave.
I comply obediently and stretch out my arms for her to do whatever she wants. Waltraud twists my right arm slightly and checks the tattoo on my arm. It’s the only tattoo I have. It’s a handwritten sentence that looks like a thin arm band from afar. Waltraud feels the need to read it allowed, “’I can't go back to yesterday because I was a different person then.’” I was told I have written it myself while still believing in Wonderland. “That Alice in Wonderland has really messed with your head.” She puffs smoke into my face as she mocks me.
The tattoo and Waltraud’s mocking is the least of my concerns right now. I let her tie me, and while she does, I close my eyes. I imagine I am a sixteenth century princess, some kind of a lucky Cinderella, being squeezed into a corset by my chain smoking servant in a fairy tale castle above ground, just about to go meet my Prince Charming. Such imagery always helps me breathe. I once heard that it was hope that saves the day, not sanity. I need to cool down before I begin my grand escape.
Q & A with Cameron Jace
Q: Is insanity an Alice in Wonderland retelling where fact and fiction intermingle like in your previous series the Grimm Diaries?
A: It’s not quite a retelling of Alice in Wonderland as much as inspired by it. It has all the whimsical and nonsensical wonderland fantasy parts, but it’s more grounded to reality because it happens in our time. Fact and fiction do walk side by side in this book. For instance, Lewis Carroll is present as character himself.
Q: Why did you call it Insanity?
A: Well, insanity is the main theme of the book. All what Alice has seen could be interpreted as madness in many ways. Also, when you read the book, it’s insane. I mean like really insane. You will either love or hate it. I don’t think there is a middle zone.
Q: Is the story told from many point of views like the Grimm Diaries?
A: Just a few, but most of the story is Alice’s personal journey.
Q: The Grimm Diaries was filled with research, how much did you put in Insanity?
A: I think the research in Insanity is even greater than the Grimm Diaries. The book is also more action oriented. Alice travels from Oxford, London, Vatican City then Belgium in a couple of days. Each city had to be researches and connected with Lewis Carroll and his books.
Q: The blurb says Alice’s sanity can only be proved through Lewis Carroll’s photography and writing. We thought this is about Wonderland.
A: It’s about Wonderland. The idea is that all puzzles, action scenes, and even romance have a Lewis Carroll background to them. The main reason why this book came to my mind is my fascination with both Alice in Wonderland and Lewis Carroll himself. If you learn the reasons behind each character and location in his book, you will love Alice in Wonderland even more. It’s no coincidence that we all relate to the book. It’s a masterpiece.
Q: You said Insanity is more of a TV pilot. How so?
A: I did write it as a novel but also as TV pilot. The reason is that once you get the idea of the book, the possibilities are infinite, and incredibly amusing. When outlining my plot, I found out it would take books and books to write it. So I wrote one story with a beginning, middle, and end. It’s satisfying on its own, but if I succeeded in peaking your interest you should like to read the next books. The beauty of it is that once you read one book, each other book will be a story of its own. It’s very much like a TV series.
Q: Anything you want to add?
A: I wish everyone and awesome Christmas and a Fantabulous new year :) And if I messed with you childhood memories of Alice in Wonderland a bit, don’t hate me. Lol.
AUTHOR BIO
Wonderlander, Neverlander, Unicorn-chaser, enchanter, musician, survived a coma, & totally awesome. Sometimes I tell stories. Always luv the little monsters I write young adult paranormal romance, urban fantasy, and science fiction mostly. The Grimm Diaries series is a seven book saga that deals with retellings of fairy tales from a young adult POV - it connects most of the fairy tales together and claims to be the truth about fairy tales. I live in San Fransisco and seriously think circles are way cooler than triangles.
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GIVEAWAY: To win an ebook copy of
Insanity by Cameron Jace, leave a comment with your favorite thing about Alice in Wonderland or your favorite childhood book. Winner will be picked January 10th.
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