Splintered - Down the Rabbit Hole

"Welcome To The Real Wonderland"

Title:  Splintered
Author: A.G. Howard

Publisher: Amulet Books
Release Date: January 1, 2013














Jumping right into the thick of things with my first review (all constructive criticism is welcome), I chose a book that I feel most people would just pass by if they saw it on a shelf. I know that I almost did and I'm glad I gave it the chance. 

Splintered is a retelling of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, and the most wonderful read in the fact that it is a much darker version of Alice in Wonderland and really doesn't focus on Alice so much as her great-great-great-granddaughter Alyssa Gardner. Alyssa has the ability to hear the thought of the plants and insects around her, just like her mother Alison and her grandmother Alicia both who were considered mad. The other characters who stay with us throughout the novel are some familiar faces from Alice's adventures but not quite as you would remember them but they are all there and are one part fascinating, one part slightly morbid and dark, and one last part; fantastic in their roles. 

The main plot without to many spoilers is Alyssa is the first in her family since Alice Liddell (yes this would be the Alice) to wind up in Wonderland after so many years over the females in her family having been considered insane and unstable. Alyssa travels to Wonderland to break the curse that Alice had ended up placing on her female descendants. They all have an uncanny resemblance to Alice as Alyssa is mistaken for her quite a few times until they take a closer look. A childhood friend also follows Alyssa into Wonderland uninvited and from there we enter the book's love quartet I would have to call it. 

Even with the quartet of love it doesn't distract from the overall plot of the book in fact it plays a role throughout the entirety of the novel. The novel started off with a bang. Everything from the talking bugs, the revamping of the old favorites from Wonderland, even the Netherlings who are the inhabitants of Wonderland made me want to immerse myself into the Netherworld with them and become a Netherling myself. 

The ending of Splintered I will say could have left me wanting more (which it did) or it could have done just as well as a standalone novel. Thankfully A.G. Howard made this a trilogy focusing on the slightly insane world of Wonderland and she continued the story with Unhinged, which means did Alyssa truly break the curse on her family or not since there is a sequel? If you want to find out about Alyssa and her life from going down the rabbit hole, then I would highly recommend reading Splintered and returning to one of life's greatest fairy tale worlds; Wonderland and go back down the rabbit hole all over again. 

If you stuck with this I applaud you. Keep an eye out for the next Tale of a Book Nerd, who knows which book I'll go to next. Again all helpful criticism is welcome on what I can do to improve from here. Til the next tale is read. 

-Brian