Cheshire Crossing by Andy Weir and Sarah Andersen
The three meet here, at Cheshire Crossing–a boarding school where girls like them learn how to cope with their supernatural experiences and harness their magical world-crossing powers.
But the trio–now teenagers, who’ve had their fill of meddling authority figures–aren’t content to sit still in a classroom. Soon they’re dashing from one universe to the next, leaving havoc in their wake–and, inadvertently, bringing the Wicked Witch and Hook together in a deadly supervillain love match.
To stop them, the girls will have to draw on all of their powers . . . and marshal a team of unlikely allies from across the magical multiverse.
Rating: 
I was intrigued by the fact that this was written by Andy Weir, and then it is illustrated by sarah Andersen, so I bought it and decided to plunge in. Review are mixed so I went in carefully.
For starters, it is a graphic novel and it appears to be directed to younger teens. Alice, Dorothy and Wendy have been “dumped” into this boarding school due to their odd behaviours. They have been labeled many things, so it is is a slightly refreshing take to find that this school is more lenient even if it involves a “nanny” that is on the ball.
The Alice of this book reminded me a lot of the Alice in American McGees games. She is dark and Wonderland is a friend and foe, all in her head in a way. Wendy and Dorothy are a lot less familiar to me, not that I haven’t read the books but rather I have less fondness for a “beyond the original story” version of them.
However, they didn’t seem too out of character, just a “now what do we do with ourselves?”. There’s a lot of shenanigans and Alice definitely doesn’t help much make it easier, but regardless, I found it a relatively easy read.
If you haven’t read the stories behind the three girls, then you miss a lot of the “nuance” of the story, which adds references to their original stories over and over (the red poppy field from Oz, the melting “witches”, all of Neverland, Tinkerbell, Cheshire cat, etc) I don’t want to say all of them as some are subtle and some not so much, and I enjoyed the subtle ones.
At some point I read The Martian but that’s all I remember and so I didn’t have expectations exactly for this book. I think this helped me enjoy it more, it is a simple tale in that it jumps, does a lot of plot holes and continuity but it is all about the fun, the adventure and adding as much as possible into it as I think there wasn’t really a “sure, there will be more” but more of a “one and if we’re super ultra lucky, more?”
Still, it is enjoyable, fun references. Quick read of a graphic novel and probably ticks a lot of boxes for readathons.
