Splintered
Author: A.G. Howard
Publisher: Amulet Books, 2013
Genre: YA Fairy Tale
Buy: Amazon ♥ B&N ♥ TBD
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.
Alyssa’s stunning art installations are filled with real bugs and flowers. She kills them so she doesn’t have to hear their chatter. It’s therapeutic! As long as she pretends, Al won’t end up in a mental hospital like her mother. This curse is all because of Alice—yeah, that Alice—and once Alyssa accepts this is all real, it’ll be up to her to fix it. With the help of her best friend and crush Jeb, and the sexy and mysterious Morpheus, Alyssa will travel through the dangerous landscapes of Wonderland. Will she fix it all in time to save her mother?
Splintered is a captivating story for any Alice in Wonderland fans!
A.G. Howard’s prose captured me from page one. Her storytelling has that curious quality between fairytale and total quirky weirdness that just totally works given the context. It’s dark, gritty, and bizzare. The plot drew me in and the connections to the original Alice, who is Alyssa’s ancestor, were a treat to read. Howard does a brilliant job of spinning things in a new light so I was more than excited to get to where Alyssa goes down the rabbit hole.
Unfortunately, once we get to Wonderland and Morpheus things just sort of…lost me. The first few scenes in Wonderland were great, very surreal, beautiful and scary. Howard certainly makes the characters and events her own while still echoing the original. But then the prose got bogged down with either too much clothing descriptions (I had a nightmare about Alyssa’s peach and red monstrosity of a dress, no joke) or too much love triangle business. The first issue was easy enough to ignore, but the second not so much.
Jeb came out as very controlling, instead of super concerned. The whole thing with the other girl also annoyed the heck out of me. They’re all in Wonderland and oh yes, let’s stop and talk about our feelings and the girlfriend I didn’t love but stayed with because I loved you but wanted to forget you because you shouldn’t be with me because I’m no good and…sweet baby jesus, give it a rest already. Oh, and this might be silly but Jeb’s insults were such a turn off. Honey, you’re like eighteen or something, not five. On the other hand, Morpheus was at least tolerable. He’s a manipulating bastard, but at least he’s honest about who he is. If book 2 has more of him, I will read it. For him.
It’s not that I hate love triangles. I usually enjoy them, but not this time. So, I kept turning the pages and growing more and more distant, and then the horror…I started skimming. I hate to do this, but I just didn’t care about the characters anymore. But there were some secondary characters that popped out for me, like the weird ferret thing who screamed Twinkle them all! From now on, this is my new go to phrase whenever I get pissed. The hatter was also a macabre but brilliant design.
I found it intriguing that I actually loved more the parts where Alyssa is in the real world, than the parts where she’s in Wonderland. That first part of the book lived to all the hype I’d been reading about the book, but the rest…meh. Though the Wonderland parts win in description—the grotesque creatures, the surreal landscapes, etc—I felt sometimes cheated by the lack of originality. I mean, it’s Wonderland, go crazy! Don’t slap me with a dune + wave of clams scene reminiscent of the dune + crabs scene from Pirates of the Caribbean, or have the rotting pixies be bald, slimmy, and speak like Gollum, or show me Sister Two’s garden shears for hands like Edward Scissorhands.
The ending caught my interest again with the interpretation of Alyssa’s ‘moves’ on the chess board and what it all means in the grand scheme of things. We also get a lot more Morpheus. All in all, Splintered has certainly left me with split feelings (*eyeroll*). I both love some parts and not care for others. It is still a book I’d recommend for any Alice and fairy tale fans.
Favorite Quotes:
~Labret~
“How adorable,” I mock. “Taelor gave you lip jewelry…and it’s sparkly.”He nudges the piercing with his tongue. “She’s trying to be diplomatic.”
Anger rises in a white-hot surge as I remember London and all the things Taelor said to me. “Of course she is. Because she’s eight kinds of wonderful, and that’s just her legs.”
Jeb furrows his brows. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Taelor has all the diplomacy of a black widow spider. Garnet’s her birthstone. You’re wearing her birthday on your lip. Talk about spinning you up in her web.”
~Darker side~
Without warning, Jeb snags one of the rings in my belt and spins me around. In one smooth motion, he lifts me onto the narrow, crescent-shaped table. My skin trembles beneath his touch as he scoots me all the way against the wall, his hips wedged between my thighs. We’re level—face-to-face. The fluttery feeling feels my head—and in the shadow of my darker side, a rush of satisfaction wells up, a perverse thrill that I can stoke his emotions to this gut-deep reaction.
