Feast or Famine: Wonderland

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

"I am a piece of a piece of me."

Morgan Mallory is a wreck of a human being. She hates herself and wishes with all her heart that she could be dragged to another world full of strange creatures and wondrous magic. When she gets her wish, it nearly kills her. Cheshire, a mysterious entity in the shape of an animesque catgirl, offers a way out: make a contract with her and become a demon, cursed and blessed with the hunger to consume everything.

Maven Alice is the girl that Morgan becomes, a girl that shifts between terror and desire like the two are intertwined. She is the plaything of an all-powerful deity called the Demiurge that takes a particular joy in putting Alice through torment after torment. She is the only one who can save the universe from destruction, but she might be the reason it's going to be destroyed.

She doesn't know if Cheshire can be trusted or if the Demiurge can be overcome, but one thing is clear: for a chance at everything she wants, she'll risk everything she has.

Books 1 & 2 have been stubbed and are now available on Amazon in ebook, paperback, and audiobook. Book 3 is almost complete.

Information

Status: Ongoing
Year: 2022
Author: VoraVora

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.4/ 5.0
Followers: 1,228
Views: 99,500

Chapters(11 total)

What readers say about Feast or Famine: Wonderland

“Overall this is shaping up to be fantastic already! This story combines deliciously selfish, broken, insecure characters, with a potential wishfulfilment that they have no reason to trust or believe, as well as, at least initially, what looks like a hostile…”
LucinaQTRoyal Road5.0 / 5
“Listen. This girl is exactly what you came in expecting when you started reading an isekai. She's peppy and cheerful and has exactly zero maladaptive coping mechanisms that manifest as entire internal monologues. She isn't immensely eager to make whatever t…”
Aaron Sofaer (aka Pastafarian)Royal Road5.0 / 5

Reviews

No reviews yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!

Community Reviews(10)

LucinaQTRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Overall this is shaping up to be fantastic already!
This story combines deliciously selfish, broken, insecure characters, with a potential wishfulfilment that they have no reason to trust or believe, as well as, at least initially, what looks like a hostile world that if not awards then at least respects ruthless risk taking. It's beautiful, the magic system is fun and engaging, being very focused on the individual and how they perceive or is perceived by the world. The subject matters can often turn quite dark, so if thanatophobia or various kinds of invasive thoughts, self-deprecation, or extremely low self worth is things that you find too relatable to want to engage with, consider steering clear.
The writing style is on point, fitting in well with the character's inner monologue and focus, rarely ever going onto long and attention-losing paragraphs of boring descriptions.
The story is a fun dive into an isekai world that is as vicious as it is intriguing, especially with the angle the main character has towards it.
The grammar's been just fine yet, haven't noticed anything, and fairly sure it gets edited out when there is something. The author's got several beta readers so most of it will probably be caught before ever touching RR.
The characters... The main character is pretty central to my enjoyment of this, and it's been absolutely satisfying to engage with her as and her self-serving mindset towards how to handle suddenly being thrown into the kind of worlds she always dreamed about. Not to mention, the amount of insecurities, fears, and character flaws that her entire personality seems built on. The other characters, admittedly only a couple so far, have been stellar, Bashe especially is comically placed as the straight man to the protags antics. Also lots of queers, because the best stories have lots of queers.
Aaron Sofaer (aka Pastafarian)Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Listen. This girl is exactly what you came in expecting when you started reading an isekai. She's peppy and cheerful and has exactly zero maladaptive coping mechanisms that manifest as entire internal monologues. She isn't immensely eager to make whatever trade for power she possibly can, and she isn't lying to herself and everyone around her with basically every breath she takes.
Wait, I mean the other thing.
This is one of the best stories I've seen on RR. You will read it and love it. You have no other option.
Likely LucyRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I think this book really is only good if you like the mc. Personally, out of the over 500 10+ hour fiction books I have read this is one of the most relatable. This is first and foremost a book about Alice and her struggles. It has an amazingly interesting magic system and a wonderfully crafted world but in the end it’s about characters. Alice will not be for everyone, the fact that I personally share so many personality traits with her is not something I’d admit if you weren’t a random person on the internet. If you like philosophy and overcoming mental health struggles in your stories this is a great choice. I would highly recommend reading it and sticking past at least the first 15 chapters.
LuciferLilacRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I mean, title says it all, really.
Personally I think that there's no such thing as a "perfect story"; that tastes and styles are all highly conditional and strongly influence what sorts of stories are good for you.
So, saying that, here's a story that I think relies on you being similar to the author- but if you *are* similar to the author, then it's going to be exactly that identitarian experience that you've been looking for.
I'm a trans, queer monsterfucker, and I love evil and incredibly unstable women that will break me. That's not a joke, I'm like. Actually damaged lol, I make Bad Choices and it's wonderful.
And given that? The author is speaking to my experience *so strongly* that I want this story to go on forever.
Our Protagonist, Alice, is. Uh. That? She's very genre savvy and self-aware, and she's *aware* of how fucked up she is, and a lot of the story is this tension between her self loathing for that, and her desire to love herself *anyway* in an unhealthy way.
Maven Alice wants to be loved, and she wants someone to tell her that she's more loveable *for* her fucked up damage. And I? I vibe with that.
So, if you to read someone who's *there*, emotionally speaking, then this story is for you, and I suspect most of the rest of the details are window dressing.
Other highlights? Well, the magic system is extremely, extremely engaging. I love a good magic system that's dependent on emotional resonance and metaphor rather than some scientific system.
Cheshire, Cheshire is also wonderful in how fucked up a concept she is, and argh.
Yeah! Read it if this description sparked something in you. I'm going to go and try my hand at writing something that channels what I love in the same way!
Cacophony__Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
For the longest time, when self-evaluating what kind of fantasy writing I most enjoy, I've written off edgy stuff because it's not my thing. I am no longer in denial.
Overall score: this story is deliciously self-indulgent in so many ways and, so far, it is an utter delight to read. While Feast or Famine is not a story that will appeal to everyone, it doesn't try to be.
Grammar score: the few errors that are able to slip past the beta readers and make it chapter releases are usually corrected after refreshing the page.
Story score: While the main plot has been interesting and quite solid so far, I am currently coming back more for the characters than I am the plot. I have enjoyed the setting and magic a lot so far, but I have a strong impression that its real strengths haven't been demonstrated yet, despite some exposition. The interludes are interesting, and the author seems to be making an effort to quickly tie them into the main story so that they don't detract from the readers' enjoyment of it. While the plot isn't the strongest yet, the setting makes up for it and I'm eagerly awaiting the inevitable moment where things kick off and start running. For now? Pretty good.
Style score: the narration is cleanly written, and the effectiveness with which it reflects the character delivering it is a mark of mastery. The main storyline is written in first-person, present-tense, which helps frame the story more snugly in the mind of the perspective character. The first interlude (as of yet no more have been released) is written in second/third person, past-tense, and this distinction is used to great effect. These aspects are small, but they add to the story when combined with the characters themselves, and are a mark of the author's mastery. My one complaint is over how frequently references come up, but the important ones are all explained, they make sense in the context of the character, and they aren't pervasive enough to detract from the story.
Character score: while
DeerliRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Feast or Famine is a story I can happily say I fell in love with by the end of it. It is definitely a darker work filled with trauma and violence, but despite the bleak setting I never found it hard to keep reading thanks to Vora's fantastic dialogue and humour. The heavy philosophical themes that cover the entire work are also explored in a way that avoids being too dense to parse and I think succeed in communicating their points well.
Alice in wonderland is definitely a well tread concept but I believe Vora achieved a fantastic new spin on the trope, the world she created for it being very alien to anything else i have read.
I am so very excited to see what Vora does next and I hope she keeps sharing her stories with us.
Also I think everyone in this story should get a hug please and thank you
AverichollieRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
We open into a Japanese horror story at the side of our plucky young protagonist amid Alice in Wonderland allusions and a terrible, skimpy little schoolgirl outfit. But our Alice is not quite well, the school isn't quite a school, and so on, etc, etc.
I admit that edgy Alice in Wonderland remixes are overdone. Nothing about this tale is overdone. It is, foremost, a character study. If you are a fan of dark minds, strange traumas, and interesting psychologies this is a story for you. And correspondingly, the characterization of our Alice is top-notch. She is devient, complex and with well developed drives. The other characters, too, are developed according to the needs placed upon them - but may of them debut in later chapters, and I will avoid spoiling them here.
Authors who attempt to include thematics and philosophy in their stories tend to look somewhat like a regurgitated Philosophy 101 course, but FoF neatly avoids this, featuring some actually pretty interesting (yet not too esoteric as to be offputting) takes, and all of it is within character and serves to move the story along. A+.
Obligatory comment on spelling and grammar: the author clearly works carefully to ensure that the text of the content does not interfere with the story.
It's clear that the author finds great joy in - anime, jRPGs, MtG, DnD, interesting psychologies, actually decent takes on philosophy, delightful edginess, and so on. If even any one of those things is your jam, then you are in for such a ride.
JeddestRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Cool characters, cool plot, cool worldbuilding, cool worldBREAKING and rebuilding, and an edgy, mentally ill protagonist. I tried to make guesses about the direction the plot would go a couple times, and i dont think i guessed right a single time. Just a very nice book. I give this book, which demands all or nothing from its protagonist, everything. 5 stars!
Addicted_Reader720Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I really liked reading this story and expect to continue liking it for a long while to come.
What makes Feast or Famine Unique is the Protagonist. Her internal monologue, to me at least is highly relatable, or at least comprehensible as the actual internal thoughts of someone in the situation the opening arc puts her in.
It's also cool how VoraVora depicts her mood swings and bouts of irrational action. Sometimes it can feel as though the irrational actions of someone in the story are just there to fit into a mold for how a character should act or are just there for plot purposes.
I'm sure that both situations are present here, but the internal thoughts of the protagonist in leading up to and during those actions are just as detailed as my internal thoughts when I make up some bullshit reason for doing something that I shouldn't do, to the point that you can accept a lot of pretty crazy stuff that goes on even in the first few chapters.
Real Quick on the Worldbuilding: It's great, no pure infodumps in the first chapters, and it really hits the sweet spot of 'showing' the crazy nonsense the Author makes up instead of 'telling'.
Hopefully my winding rant has persuaded you to give this a shot!
SoulCaptainRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
If the MC was haunting you she'd be the Ghost of Bad Decisions Past, Present and Future. In the best possible way.
Style: The PoV is written in the first person present, which, whilst slightly unusual, was definitely the right call for this protagonist. Vora would have a harder time communicating her... unique flavour of personality otherwise. The narrator's voice doesn't longer on things more than necessary which I think many of you will find a nice touch.
Story: This is an advanced review since I'm a beta reader and I'm through the first arc and know the worldbuilding beyond that. I like the worldbuilding of the setting lots. And as for the plot? It's fun, it does its job, it took me by complete surprise more than once.
Grammar: Nothing of relevance to report here. No issues that I have spotted.
Character: The true strength of this piece. A vivid and distinct individual, looking at the world through the MC's eyes is like a combination of the anticipation you feel when the Villain's about to fall into their own man-eating tapir pit and the slightly illicit thrill of watching someone you really shouldn't be rooting for win with over the top amounts of collateral damage.