Title: Splintered [Splintered 1]
Author: A.G. Howard
Genre: Young Adult, Fairytale Retelling, Fantasy
Length: 287
Rating: 2.5 rounded down to 2 Star
Series Review: 1, 1.5, 2, 3
Description/Synopsis:
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.
Review – MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS
Sigh. This book fell so far short from what I wanted from it that it left me sad.
I went into this book with such high expectations. I have heard wonderful things about it and I was really excited to the get a creepy retelling of Alice in Wonderland, not that Alice in Wonderland isn’t creepy to start with. But this book didn’t hold up to any of my expectations.
I tried really, really hard to like this book. I liked the idea that the family which the story is based around were the descendants of the original Alice is fell down the rabbit hole. I also really liked some of the imagery as well, specially when it came to describing the nature and the many many moths that popped up in the story, and I liked the idea of talking bugs. That is where the enjoyment ended however.
I founded the characters to be very flat. It was really jammed into us that Alyssa’s sanity is very thin, and that she was very alternative. The amounts of time her outfit was described in detail got really on my nerves. I get it. She is a punk chick with dreads and boots, I don’t need to be told again, specially when the clothes she is wearing haven’t changed since the last time we were told about it. The only character I was remotely interested in would be her mother because she is in the crazy bin but isn’t actually crazy. I would love to know more about her story and hear her side of things.
Then there was the dreaded love triangle. We start off with the childhood friend who is also tormented and is the only one that really understands her and can basically read her mind. Then we have the mysterious and deceitful moth guy who used to visit her in her dreams and understand her darker side. I really don’t understand the appeal with either of these two characters. Jeb is just boring and controlling and has borderline anger issues, and is so so so stupid. Morpheus, though the better of the two, is pretty much just a manipulative and filthy liar, when there was really no reason to be either of those things ever because Alyssa would agree to do pretty much anything if he just asked.
The whole plot of the story too wasn’t the best thing in the world. It did have some twists and turns in there that had me going, and by the time that I got to the very kind of predictable ending, part of me wanted to know what on earth would happen in the next book. This book really could just be read as a standalone so I don’t know what the next one will hold. That being said though, I don’t I will indulge that curiosity of what is to come because I don’t think it will be any better than this, and I don’t feel like its worth the time.
So yes, this was not my cup of tea at all. I do not recommend this book to anyone.
Till Next Time…