The Frolicking

“When in doubt, frolic”

When I saw this was supposed to be an Alice in Wonderland x Midsommer mashup, I was stoked. I was expecting unhinged with insane creativity. Unfortunately, besides the rabbits and weird sacrifices, the similarities ended there.

Three college roommates go to a farm in the middle of nowhere to participate in The Frolicking- an Easter-themed event. Upon arriving, their worlds are turned upside down and they must individually face internal battles to escape. 

I found the beginning to be extremely descriptive, almost to a fault. Unfortunately, it started to fall off and there would be virtually no world descriptions. We would get vivid images of a pet rabbit's habitat/cage, but not for the actual Frolicking world. Amid all the action and terror, we lose those descriptors that would have made the scenes impactful. I genuinely could not picture this world at all because the only comparison we were getting was... yams. 

Like Alice in Wonderland and even Bunny by Mona Awad, you need to suspend your beliefs for this one. The conversations were over the top and cringy- not like a typical college-age person would speak. However, I don't necessarily mean that as a bad thing. I think that ends up playing a large role in the eventual character development. 

I ultimately wish there was more background on The Frolicking as a whole. It felt like we were just thrust into the event, so the scenes that were supposed to be wild and out there were underwhelming. 

Despite everything, I think this story was pretty decent. I typically don't enjoy books with multiple points of view, but this was well done and easy to keep up with. Even the ending felt rushed yet complete, which is hard to find in books not suspended in reality. 

I rate this a 2.5 rounded down to a 2. I would recommend this book if you're into quick reads where you need to suspend your beliefs and just dive in with no expectations. However, I do not think this book would be universally loved because of the aspects mentioned above. 

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.