Book Review: The Hatter’s Daughter

Reviewed by Andrea Marks-Joseph

A dynamic coming-of-age adventure in Wonderland

Two young royals must leave their home—what we know as Wonderland, and they call Brigantia—to find someone who can rescue their homeland from a mysterious, powerful, rapidly expanding darkness.

You don’t need to be deep into the Alice in Wonderland lore to understand or enjoy this story, but if you are, you’re about to have a blast. Author W.A. Simpson has transformed this world into something new, interesting, and totally dynamic.

In this world, Alice is known as “the Heroine,” and her adventures form the base of local legends. This isn’t her story, even if she does show up at the end. Our protagonists are Faith and Rowan, and the story is told from their alternating perspectives. Faith, the titular Hatter’s daughter, lives a charmed life in Simpson’s interpretation of Wonderland. Brave and bookish Rowan, the Prince of Hearts, is the son of the Queen and King of Hearts. Unlike Faith and “unlike the rest of his family, Rowan desired to explore what lay beyond the borders of Brigantia.” The Hatter is Faith’s adoring, supportive father; the Cheshire Cat, whose fur tickles Rowan’s nose into sneezing, appears as a helper when needed.

We meet Faith on her birthday—literally, the story opens on the day of her birth, during which she remembers being held by her mother and almost immediately sent down into what we know as Wonderland to live with The Hatter.

The story jumps to Faith’s 21st birthday, which is (at first) another perfect day in her perfect world. But then everything changes: Faith has a dream, a vision of a future where something dark is trying to invade Brigantia, and the natural world is crying out for her help. She isn’t certain what it is, and she’s not sure why she’s the vessel to deliver this message and carry the responsibility of rescuing Brigantia, but she knows that it is urgent and important. 

At the beginning of this story, when all she had to worry about was which of the royals from other palaces would be attending her birthday party, she realized that there was only “one person she really wanted to be there. Rowan, Prince of Hearts, son of the Queen and King of Hearts.”

Both of them, it turns out, individually inspired by a love of their homeland, embark on the same adventure. Lucky for us, they reunite along the way. Together, they discover a dark magic that has turned crops to poison, put people into a permanent slumber, and radiates a putrid smell that lingers. The effects are like a decay in the once-idealistic Brigantia, turning not only their plants to death, but the eyes and hearts of people to black sludge. It even happens to Rowan at a point, when he’s caught up in a fierce spell of anger and catches a glimpse of himself in the mirror: “His eyes were coal-black in their sockets. Rowan cried out, filled with fear and surprise.” 

Their partnership is so authentic. It feels true to the experience of reconnecting with someone at that age after so long, equipped with the same ego and attitudes that arise with the way they were both raised. And yet it still feels so honest in that they genuinely want to reunite and trust each other.

Both Faith and Rowan gain wisdom, courage, and more independence as they go through the trials and tricks the darkness throws at them. There’s a really fun dynamic at first where they’re interested in seeing each other again but also find the other person annoying. Still, they’re both mature enough to put their kingdoms first and move past the annoyance to solve the problem plaguing their home.

I loved reading their relationship strengthening and them growing more protective over each other (in equal measures). It’s a union between two brave young people but also of two loving families who love their kids. It’s satisfactory in a way that will appeal to readers who love an adventure and aren’t interested in investing too deeply in a romance plot—though readers who want a blossoming romance won’t be disappointed either. 

Author W. A. Simpson made sure to include laugh-out-loud funny moments, too: Faith and Rowan have lived quite an isolated life, raised in palaces and never having left Brigantia, which apparently has meant they never tasted spicy food. It’s genuinely hilarious when, “‘He could swear his tongue was on fire. ‘How do we stop this?’” I giggled more than a few times along the way, from heading out to find Alice, their Heroine, without knowing anything else and expecting to find her, to Faith having never opened a faucet before. This is the first time in twenty-one years that Faith must fend for herself at home, and she’s stunned by the way she can get water of two different temperatures from different levels. The possibility of this seems almost another feature from a new magic.

This is an effortless and believable read. Whether we’re exploring Faith’s perspective on her adoptive home, Rowan’s perspective on his father’s behavior around his all-powerful mother, or their shared narration on the rot, we’re discovering what feels like truth. Simpson explores themes of men who can’t (or won’t) control their emotions, to the detriment of kingdoms, and women who break all the rules they’ve known to save as many people as they can. There are family dynamics of various types, and there’s joy in the angles of reference to Alice in Wonderland. 

Shocking plot twists await in the second half of the book too, right until the very end. The Hatter’s Daughter is a breeze to read, complete with the whirlwinds of a dynamic leading couple. I loved every minute of it!

Thank you for reading Andrea Marks-Joseph’s book review of The Hatter’s Daughter by W.A. Simpson! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.

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