Splintered by A.G. Howard

Splintered by A.G. Howard

Alyssa Gardner hears the thoughts of plants and animals. She hides her delusions for now, but she knows her fate: she will end up like her mother, in an institution. Madness has run in her family ever since her great-great-great-grandmother Alice Lidell told Lewis Carroll her strange dreams, inspiring his classic Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. But perhaps she's not mad. And perhaps Carroll's stories aren't as whimsical as they first seem. To break the curse of insanity. Alyssa must go down the rabbit hole and right the wrongs of Wonderland, a place full of strange beings with dark agendas. Alyssa brings her real-world crush - the protective Jeb - with her, but once her journey begins she's torn between his solidity and the enchanting, dangerous magic of Morpheus, her guide to Wonderland. But no one in Wonderland is who they seem to be - not even Alyssa herself... 

My Thoughts:
Just to start this review off - I still don't know how I feel about this book. When I started it I really wasn't enjoying it. To be fair, I've never really been a fan of Alice in Wonderland or anything pertaining to that trope. When I was about 71 pages in, I really wanted to give up and stop reading. I wasn't enjoying it at all. The 'romantic interest' or whatever he adds to the story - Jeb, her protective crush - was annoying as hell and to be fair that opinion of mine didn't change through the book.

I am glad that I didn't DNF this book, for a few reasons.

1. I fell in love with Morpheus. He was such a great character and although as a reader I didn't know whether to trust him or not, I didn't care whether he ended up being the bad guy. I kinda hoped he would be the bad guy and get rid of Jeb.
2. It had such beautiful descriptions of Wonderland. I mean, this version of Wonderland was pretty twisted but they descriptions were beautiful and I'm not going to lie - It kinda made me wanna visit Wonderland and all the Netherlings.
3. Morpheus. Morpheus. Morpheus.
4. There was a beautiful moth man.
5. Also Morpheus.
6. AND ALL OF THE DIALOGUE BETWEEN THE NETHERLINGS AND EVERYONE. OH MY GOD THE DIALOGUE.

Splintered had a really interesting storyline behind it. I thought the twists that we thrown in were pretty cool and made me so happy because, well, I would've hated it a whole lot more if the story was exactly what I was reading...Does that even make sense?

I would've liked to see a bit more of the different 'original' Wonderland stories - the Tea Party with the Mad Hatter seemed to last around 10 pages and it just felt like it was over so soon. I did have another problem with the story and that was that it seemed to focus around romance too much. Now, don't get me wrong, I love a good romance but I just felt that this book needed a little less of it. 

All Jeb wanted to do was save Alyssa and get them out of Wonderland so they could live their happy lives together and all Alyssa was worried about for a good majority of Splintered was if Jeb was actually interested in her. And don't even get me started on the ending.

!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!

There was such a good ending already set up TWICE. Once with Alyssa leaving Wonderland and cutting her ties (erm...hello that scene at the last meal would've been a great place to end it) and the second time when she was saying goodbye to Morpheus. He was a huge part of her childhood and hell he was the only damn reason she went to Wonderland in the first place and saved her mother. Actually, writing this I've just thought of another good ending - with her and her dad. 

But, of course, it had to end with her and Jeb discussing their future together and living happily ever after whoop-dee-do.

Because talking about how annoying Jeb is really satisfies me I'm going to talk about it some more. I don't think I've ever been annoyed by a character as much as him. He had so much potential at the beginning but then he just turned into the side-kick from hell. Did he even have much purpose to the story or was he just thrown in to add some 'love-triangle, I'd die for you' bullshit. I mean, his entire role in the Wonderland Adventure was erased anyway and nothing major changed except that he was swapped for King Red who didn't even have one damn line in the whole book. So really, how vital could he have been other than to whine because the girl who 'belongs to him' has a connection with someone else and call him petty names every other sentence. 

!!!END OF SPOILER!!!

I did really enjoy Splintered though despite my problems with it - I thought that it was a fun, fast-paced read and it was really interesting to see a different view of Wonderland rather than the classic. I'm leaning towards a 3/5 stars for this one because it was really enjoyable however there were some issues within the book that I couldn't really get past. I'll probably continue on with the series - if only to see more of Morpheus, but I'm not sure if I can put myself through two more books of Jebediah Holt.