Title: The Otherland Circus
Author: Kelsey Elizabeth Behm
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 1532044798
Pages: 158
Genre: Dark Fantasy
Reviewed by: Liz Konkel

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The Otherland Circus is a sinister and stunning celebration, but the Carnival will only lead to misery. Lizzie Lutwidge is tired of secrets. She knows her father and brother are working on a mysterious project at the Paupers Lunatic Mill and they don’t wish her to be part of it. She stands up to her father and succeeds in getting him to show her the experiments he’s conducting called the Alice Effect. Girls are dying by journeying into this violent Wonderland and Lizzie’s father would do anything to prove its real. When she uncovers files, she learns her father and brother secrets that will change her life and give her the answers she seeks about the Otherland.

Kelsey Elizabeth Behm unravels a dark fantasy which weaves inspiration from the classic story “Alice in Wonderland.” Several winks to “Alice” is found throughout with the most obvious being the appearance of the Cheshire Cat and the villainous role of Madame Red (in a dark mirroring of the Red Queen). The less obvious inclusions are just as poignant such as the use of Lizzie’s curiosity, her discovery of mushrooms, the talking animals, and the famed line “I’m late” used at the opening of Lizzie’s story. This line is uttered by her brother which puts him in an interesting parallel to the White Rabbit that drew Alice to Wonderland. Like the Rabbit, her brother sparks her first steps into this psychological Wonderland. Behm takes the weird wonder and twisted beauty of the original story, bringing out the darkness and the violence, mixing them together in this other world through dark imagery and bloody details.

Behm tells these stories, connecting multiple perspectives and bonding them through this twisted Otherland, while providing a look at the violence that befalls women and girls. These backgrounds also provide the inner workings of this psychological fantasy world with a circus at its heart. The circus is described as beautiful and so perfect it can’t be trusted, while also being a place where violence comes to life. It’s a dark and twisted take on the beloved world of wonder, with interchanging scenes flipping between the various backstories of the girls and Lizzie’s own journey to find justice for them. Lizzie’s side of the story is filled with mystery as she uncovers these experiments and works to uncover the truth about the existence of Wonderland.

The Otherland Circus is introduced with stunning descriptions that summon the girls to it, almost like following a siren’s call, and then twists them with this blanket of violence with mutilation and new identities which play homage to the classic Wonderland with names such as Panda and Ms. Pumpkin, but twisting these identities to have been derived through a violent entrance into the circus. Lizzie’s entrance is similar to the girls’ as she’s summoned forward, but where they end up in the deceptive beauty of the circus, she saw the true beauty of the land. The circus draws inspiration from the use of games in “Alice in Wonderland,” taking the dark inclusion of playing croquet with flamingos, and spinning into disturbing and dark games like seeing who can kill the Cheshire first and retrieve his smile. A dark fantasy that will take you on a psychological journey through the rabbit hole into The Otherland Circus.

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