Alice in Wonderland and Splintered Review

Hey guys,

I don't know if it's just me that experiences this but I tend to go through phases. So for a while I'll be completely obsessed with reading anything I can get my hands on and then other times I'll be really into watching YouTube and TV. Recently I've been really into TV and YouTube and haven't had much time for reading, and I don't know if this happens to anyone else but when haven't read a book in a while occasionally no matter how much stuff I had to do that day I'll just have a sudden need to read.

Well this happened to me the other day. I have a lot of coursework to do and I was planning on getting a lot of the reading for one of my assessments out of the day, maybe even start writing the essay but then I just got the overwhelming need to read a book. So I ended up doing no work whatsoever and reading all day instead. Which means I still have a ton of work to do. The bright side of this is that I have a review for every
one.

When I gave in to my need to read, I as usual took to GoodReads to look at my to read list. I'm already reading Salem's Lot- Stephen King, but I wanted something much quicker that I can read in a day. Splintered is a book I've been hesitant to read for quite a while, so I thought what the heck and decided to give it a go.

Splintered is an Alice in Wonderland based book, and I've mentioned this in a video before, but Alice in Wonderland is one of my all time favourite things ever. Not just the book itself but it's the one thing that I'm totally on board with all of the different adaptations. I absolutely love the Alice in Wonderland cross with Gothic/horror/steampunky type things as well as the more innocent Disney version, so I knew this book would be something I'd either really love or really hate.

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.

I have to say it did have an eerily similar feel to it as the game 'Alice the Madness Returns' which is not a bad thing in my book because that game is so good, the dresses, the creepiness, the mental illness. SO FREAKING GOOD! In splintered the Wonderland world feels very similar, in that the creatures are not quite as friendly as how they seem in the book, but Alyssa is a lot more typical YA American teenager than the quite bad ass and scary Alice in 'Alice the Madness Returns.'


 If you have played that game and enjoyed it then you will almost certainly like 'Splintered,' and vice versa if you have read the book.  I thought the Tim Burton movie would have been more similar to this kind of Gothic madness based on 'Sweeney Todd' (Which is by the way one of my favourite movie's ever. I absolutely love Tim Burton movies) but he kept his adaptation very children's fantasy- which I love too, but I'm glad these creepy versions of wonderland exist along side it.

SO ONTO THE REVIEW!

Splintered had a good storyline in my opinion, it was very much a cross between typical YA fiction and Wonderland. It did seem to contrast a little bit when Alyssa first leaves the real world and goes to Wonderland. Like it didn't quite flow perfectly from one thing to another but after a little while it picked up again and it was easy to get caught up in the storyline. Like I mentioned above I did really like the creepy wonderland creatures, I like the idea that Alice was a child so she just saw the white rabbit as a bunny instead of a creepy creature etc. 

I was less of a fan of the young adult-y beginning and the romance but it wasn't overwhelming. The author kept that in the background and the Alice family curse in the foreground. There were still bits about it that were a little irritating, like the 'skater girl' nickname seemed a little forced and cringe worthy  like there's one scene at the beginning where she is skateboarding, and to me at least it seems like that's in there literally so he can call her skater girl for the rest of the book. Which is a little bit sickening. 

 I thought the world building was pretty well done. I particularly liked that it's insects and flowers that speak to Alyssa and all the woman in her family since Alice. That's quite random, it fit's with wonderland, and I can see how that would drive people mad. 

All in all I felt this was a pretty good adaptation and fits nicely alongside all of the other Alice in wonderland adaptations. If you are a big Alice fan then you should definitely give this a read.