Best vs First

I am having a disjointed affair with Alice. I'm into the second novel, Through the Looking-Glass, and I'm finding it remarkably difficult to stay interested. While there are parts that I find amusing, I don't think it's that exceptional of a story as a whole. It feels unstructured, like a bunch of absurdities mish-mashed together, without relevance or moral. The thought that keeps going through my mind is that you don't have to do it best if you do it first.

Other things going through my mind lately are appearances. I'm trying to perceive how the devil would look if he was human. Tall, dark, and handsome, of course; but how would his hair look? What shoes would he wear? How well would he fit in to society, if he were walking downtown? What prominence would he stand with, or would he slink into shadows and hide? Would he appear among plagues of rats and snakes, would he have an aide?

It would be easy to create this character if only I'd done it first.