“Oh, my goodness! Where’s a girl’s fairy godmother when she really needs her the most? Alice had just turned twenty-six and the eatery’s staff where she worked (The Madd Hatter Bar & Restaurant located on Washington Street, Hobohemia’s main drag), threw a small, surprise birthday party for her that night after closing. Twenty-six, yet somehow stuck waiting tables, deep in debt, tired as hell, still single, all alone, and now pregnant. This isn’t where she saw herself eight years ago when she left high school. It wasn’t the plan she or her parents had envisioned for her adulthood at all. Well, so much for plans, she figured. People planned—and God laughed up Her sleeve at the pathetic planners—as from afar, She watched their pitiable plots crumble and fail.” Thus, begins this trippy tale titled ALICE.
ALICE is a work of young adult fantasy-fiction possessing cross-generational appeal with a mash-up of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland/Through the Looking-Glass and M. N. Shyamalan’s, The Sixth Sense (in essence that iconic line uttered in the film: “I see dead people”). The protagonist is a Croatian immigrant busting her butt working to dig out beneath the debt incurred during the COVID-19 pandemic when food and beverage establishments were forced to close for many months. The impact on those willing to toil harder than most for minimum wage plus tips was devastating. With income cut off as if someone had flipped a switch, and if they were fortunate enough so their credit scores entitled them to own credit cards, most walked a tightrope from billing statements to billing statements. With little choice, many sunk into massive debt bundled with the burden of astronomical interest fees. The fictitious ALICE has just turned twenty-six, discovered she’s pregnant and is one of the multitudes who fell down that rabbit hole and was struggling to escape.
The book is approximately 24,000 words long. Adhering to a children’s storybook format it includes original illustrations throughout by Chicago illustrator Steven Krakow to capture the caricaturesque quality of the characters she encounters while working a final shift at The Madd Hatter Bar & Restaurant. These illustrations not only add content but context and texture. This work, while intended to stand on its own, has the potential to be expanded into a series based upon the protagonist and/or the other characters she interacts with throughout this tale. In fact, and in the right hands, it could even be developed as an epic film.
ALICE is authored by Stevie B, who at sixteen signed his first recording deal with a major label and has produced records and composed songs for Madonna and other international artists. Since 2006 many of his music and book reviews have appeared in assorted entertainment publications. In 2012, “Pajamas on a Sun Stained Beach,” his first published novel, hit the bookstores. That was followed by “The Freaky Fungal Family Tree” in 2021, as well as the upcoming “You’re Crazy – I Love You!”, “Chris and her Daughters”, and “Beneath a Lazarus Moon.” For nearly 40 years he’s owned and managed Mia Mind Music, a successful entertainment promotion and marketing company that has accumulated multiple gold and platinum record awards in association with various record companies and artists. Born a be-freckled, bewildered, bemused, and bashful, blue-eyed boy from Baltimore, Maryland, he now resides contently alone in Hoboken, New Jersey. In between publications, he offers short stories, thoughts, ramblings, and rants on his blog (https://www.thestevieb.com). Additional information also appears on his Facebook author page (https://www.facebook.com/thesteviebe).
ALICE has already been garnering quite a following in the U.K. In fact, one British storytelling show narrated by Jools King (who has agreed to the use of her voice for the Amazon audiobook version) recently dedicated thirteen episodes of the program to its retelling (https://youtu.be/kX_R6JfaODM – the music you hear during these episodes was compose and performed by the author). What’s most enjoyable about this novel is it plays to the mind of the inner child of every adult who’s ever grappled with the often un-realness of reality. Throughout the twelve chapters and an epilogue, its impressive cast of characters ranges from a hookah-smoking caterpillar who transmogrifies into a human bartender and then a butterfly, to; bloodthirsty queens, book-loving and eternally tardy white rabbits, madd [sic] hatters, Gods, ass-kicking knights, talking papier-mâché flowers, cats, insects, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, card-carrying members of a private club catering to the golden showers crowd called Wee The People, unicorns, lions, and on, and on… If you’ve ever dropped acid, peyote, mescaline, or done mushrooms, you have definitely been already introduced to ALICE.
