Even before I begin turning the pages of Mainak Dhar’s Amazon bestseller, Alice In Deadland, its cover announces it as having two things I hold rather dear — blood and gore that comes with zombies (hopefully a bit, not too much), and a gritty female protagonist (hopefully much, not just a bit).

However the book also seems to have chosen to border on some very dangerous territory that I am wary, almost disapproving, of — being ‘inspired’ by a classic. If you choose to touch a classic and let zombies loose in Wonderland — one with bunny ears and another with a hat — you’d better be very, very good at it or risk annoyance punctuated by disapproving snorts.