Review - Splintered (A.G. Howard)

   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.                                                             -Goodreads.com

 My Review

So I had a hard time with this one. I just really couldn’t get into it, I don’t know if it was because I’ve been so busy lately that I’ve only been able to read 15 pages at a time. So the story seems really slow, or if the story really is. Just. That. Slow. 

So anyway after about 120 pages I was about ready to give up. I really didn’t want to though; I had had such high hopes for this book. It promised everything that I was expecting but didn’t receive in Tim Burtons version of Alice in Wonderland. So I persevered, trudging along, while finding a cure for my incessant insomnia... enter Morpheus.  My interest was instantly peeked. Why hello, there dark, mysterious young man in black, how do you do? 

Unfortunately, this dashing young vixen was not enough to keep me entertained. After having the book on loan for almost 2 months, I was still yet to finish yet. It was time to throw in the towel on this one. 

There were some redeeming features of the book, and I can’t act as if I didn’t get some entertainment from it. But the story just felt like it was moving too slow in parts, and then suddenly everything would happen at once, and I’d be lost (in wonderland) again. I did particularly like the macabre setting and description of characters especially Rabid White and his flesh eating disease, and the cover was a absolutely gorgeous.

I will try and go back to this one and finish it at some point, after all I do have a morbid fascination with Alice in Wonderland. But for now I think I’ll just stick to playing Alice, The madness Returns.to get my fix.

My rating: 2/5