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There are currently 46 member reviews
for Outside Wonderland
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Teresa R. (Evansville, IN)
Entertaining Beach read
I really liked the premise of this book but it just didn't develop as I had hoped. It is wonderful to think that our loved ones are watching us from above but the premise just fell short. It was an easy read- perhaps too easy. The characters were fairly interesting but the book lacked depth.
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Barbara B. (Alta Loma, CA)
I REALLY Did Try!!
I really did try to like this book about 3 adult siblings, who were orphaned when they were young. The parents looking down upon them from Heaven just did not connect to the story line for me. it took me a few chapters to remember who James was.
The siblings made so many bad choices & never seemed to be happy with what they had. I tried to find a connection to their experiencing death at young ages, but I really came up short.
Perhaps, this book will be a good beach read.
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Gigi K. (Lufkin,, TX)
Family from the here and hereafter
Parents viewing adult children "here" from "there".
A quick read, the author is able to write about behaviors and feelings of adult siblings acting on their emotions who don't seem to believe in deferred gratification or doing the next right thing. It is not a book I'd recommend to a friend but would leave on public transportation for the next rider.
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Cam G. (Murrells Inlet, SC)
Outside Wonderland
Outside Wonderland is an imaginative novel about a family who has suffered the loss of each of their parents at different times in their youth, and the difficulties they encountered in their adult lives. Unbeknownst to them, the parents are residing in the "Here" ( or heaven) and are able to watch them from above.
If you are looking for a quick enjoyable read this is the book. It doesn't have a lot of depth, and the characters are rather mundane.
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Harriette K. (Weston, FL)
Outside Wonderland
Although the story kept me interested enough through to the end, and there were some very good lines here and there, I found "Outside Wonderland" rather predictable. The device of giving "the departed" a window into the living world is a delicate one, and this time the author lost me. The story of the three sibs who made their ways through life after the devastating deaths of their parents would have been interesting enough. At another time of year, I would call this a good "beach read".
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Kenan R. (Liberty, MO)
Outside Wonderland
As I grow older I become increasingly less tolerant of self centered characters making “rookie mistakes”. So I have to say that while I liked Outside Wonderland - I did not particularly like any of the Stenen children, and felt their woe-is-me attitudes that offered them the mutual “out” for self absorbed, lousy decision-making, made for insipid and uninteresting protagonists. That said, I didn’t dislike the book, in fact I found it to be a fast and generally entertaining read. I much preferred the interaction in the afterlife between the Stenen parents and felt their relationship was much more real and potentially interesting than those of their offspring. I also felt the prose in the “Here” (afterlife) sections was vastly superior to that in the “There” or real life moments. I liked Outside Wonderland fine as written; I would have loved it had all been written like those incandescent glimpses of “Here” were.
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Debra F. (Alton Bay, NH)
Watching from "Here"
You will journey into the lives of three adult siblings who lost their parents as children; Alice, Dinah, and Griffen, (named after the characters in the Lewis Carroll stories).
Each one, in very different ways, tries to cope and to find happiness in their lives and the world. As you watch them try and navigate their way in the world, you will also see their lives through their 'parents' eyes up in Heaven, ("Here").
Loss, betrayal, faith, love and family are some of the themes running through this novel
If you are not open to religious themes, this novel may not be for you.
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