Splintered by AG Howard
12:07 AM
Publisher: Amulet Books
ISBN: 9781419704284
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy Retelling
Review by Phil
Synopsis (Goodreads.com):
This stunning debut captures the grotesque madness of a mystical under-land, as well as a girl’s pangs of first love and independence. Alyssa Gardner hears the whispers of bugs and flowers—precisely the affliction that landed her mother in a mental hospital years before. This family curse stretches back to her ancestor Alice Liddell, the real-life inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Alyssa might be crazy, but she manages to keep it together. For now.When her mother’s mental health takes a turn for the worse, Alyssa learns that what she thought was fiction is based in terrifying reality. The real Wonderland is a place far darker and more twisted than Lewis Carroll ever let on. There, Alyssa must pass a series of tests, including draining an ocean of Alice’s tears, waking the slumbering tea party, and subduing a vicious bandersnatch, to fix Alice’s mistakes and save her family. She must also decide whom to trust: Jeb, her gorgeous best friend and secret crush, or the sexy but suspicious Morpheus, her guide through Wonderland, who may have dark motives of his own.
My Thoughts (Spoiler Free):
I should start this review off by saying that Alice in Wonderland is one of my absolute favorite books of all time. I felt the need to tell you this because I set my expectations a little to high on this one. Don't get me wrong, I did actually end up liking this book, but I really thought I was going to love it.
In the beginning of the book we meet Alyssa, a young "skater-girl", who is the great great (great?) granddaughter of Alice Liddel, the girl who was the original inspiration for Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. Throughout her life she has been picked on for this, and to distance herself as much as possible from her grandmothers past, she dyes her hair weird colors and wears outlandish clothing. Oh yeah also she can hear bugs and plants talk, that is kind of important. She can hear them talk because of a "curse" that was put on her family years ago when Alice first entered Wonderland. Since then all of the females in Alyssa's family have been able to hear plants and insects talk. Alyssa's mother, Alison, also carries this "curse", but has been sent to a mental institution because people don't believe that she can hear the bugs and plants.
Once Alyssa finds out about the curse, she decides to go to Wonderland and break it, so she can set her mother free, and be free of the plague of bug and plant messages (I know that sounds weird but I had no other way to word it). Along the ride comes her want-to-be-boyfriend Jeb, and together they try to conquer Wonderland and break the curse Alyssa's grandmother started over 70 years ago.
Overall this book was pretty good. I actually really liked the beginning, I thought it was going to be a classic kind of adventure, and stay really close to the direction set forth by Lewis Carrol's Alice, but that wasn't really the case. Towards the middle of the book things just got kind of boring, and I didn't like how much the storyline and characters strayed from the original, but that is really just nitpicking. The end was awesome though, awesome enough for me to want to pick up the next book in the series "Unhinged", whose cover was just recently revealed.
I ended up giving this book 4/5 stars, my only warning is that you don't expect what you think you are going to expect form this book, because you won't be totally satisfied (if that makes any sense).
♚♚♚♚♔
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