Overall Rating and Opinion of Splintered

[judysh]

I guess I am a little too old to appreciate the punkishness, although I do like steam punk, but be that as it may, as a child I remember not being totally enthralled with Alice in Wonderland, so I am not surprised that this descendant of the original Alice is not to my liking either. As a book though, the writing is great, character buildup and plot are all up there, so I would give it a number of stars.

[Lhall22]

I really enjoyed this book. The story was a nice twist on the Alice in Wonderland story we are all familiar with. I liked this book so much I read the second one, Unhinged, and am now anxiously waiitng for the third one. If you haven't read the second one yet, I recommend it. It really builds onto the first book

[subzerowon]

I loved it! The characters were really punk/gothic and thats right up my alley I read the second book right after I finished the first though. Can't wait for the third to come out!

Have you finished reading the second book? I am towards the end of it and had to struggle through it. I found it a tad boring and skipped some parts. The end is interesting though.

-- May 2nd, 2014, 10:19 pm --

I have finished the second book and it ended with a cliffhanger! I may give the third book a chance just to see how it turns out.

Yeah I finished it. now Im upset that the third one isn't due to come out till next year.

[L_Therese]

With all the creepy skewed elements of the Lewis Carroll story, this reminds me of a teenage-angsty nightmare version of the Tim Burton film.

[shayna]

The book was pretty good. I agree with a few of the reviewers above in that it did start off a little slow. However, I found the plot to be very intriguing! I love a good twist on a classic tale, and it reminded me of my younger years when I read a book that was also a sinister take on Alice in Wonderland. I have yet to read the other two books, and though they won't take priority over other books I think I'll definitely read them eventually, if not for pure curiosity as to how the trilogy ends.

[subzerowon]

Well, you can't say that the description of Rabid White wasn't the most alarming. Creepy he may be, but I think sister two takes the cake.

[sb164740]

I REALLY like this story, it was well written and very imaginative and a story I would highly recommend. I have a fascination with bugs so I really liked Alyssa's use of them as an art medium. For some reason the only thing I didn't care about was that she had wings and could fly (which I suppose is a weird thing to be critical of). Some readers have commented that the book was hard to get into or was slow but I didn't find that to be a problem for me (I guess because I can identify with Alyssa). I would like to note that until the end of the book I believed that she was actually hallucinating.

[cgrice]

I really enjoyed reading it. It took a while to get into it, but after that, it was really hard to put it down. The twists around the Carroll writing were interesting and easy to envision.

[L_Therese]

The great thing about Alice in Wonderland adaptations is that they are supposed to be weird and at least a little creepy. Most interpretations that I've come across see Lewis Carroll's story as a picture of the confusion and discomfort involved in reaching puberty (changing sizes, encountering new phenomena, confusion about things that used to be familiar), which lends credence to the nightmarish qualities that some adaptations use. The ordinary becomes extraordinary is an often sinister and unpredictable way. It's supposed to be scary and weird.

[David Dawson]

A few thoughts, to which I should probably attach the caveat that I never read much Young Adult fiction when I was a Young Adult, let alone now I am a young adult, so I'm not quite the target audience.

Nevertheless, there was a lot to enjoy about the book. I know a couple of people here have worried that it was a bit slow at times, but I thought it really zipped along (I've read it over the last couple of hours). It also did many of the things that the genre does very well - dealing with real issues (not just teenage relationships but also mental illness) very well, and it was genuinely sinister.

I thought the engagement with the original books was brilliant, and the author's knowledge of and love for Lewis Carroll's work really came through. That said, probably the most joyous thing about the original Alice books for me as a reader is the wonderful playing with language - at the tea party, with the caterpillar, with Humpty Dumpty, the Jabberwocky etc. It is well-written, albeit with the occasional veer into Dan Brown territory (slightly heavy on the adjectives), but can't reach the same levels in that regard as the original, but that would be a very demanding thing to ask.

Likewise I found myself wanting there to be more ambiguity as to whether or not the events actually happened or not, but that would have been a very different book and it's not fair to judge it harshly for not being something it was never intended to be.

Strangely, considering that it is fantastical, the one thing I found most difficult to believe was that teenage girls, even at their most vicious, would have found much bullying ammunition in someone being the great great great granddaughter of someone upon whom a character in a book was based. But that really is a minor quibble, overall I thought it was an excellent idea, well-executed.

[FelixAshwin]

I must say that I was a bit surprised that the author wanted to write such a genre!..But what surprises me the most is that i am enjoying reading the first book of the trilogy.I am more of a YA genre reader and splintered most certainly fits into it!Looking forward to completing the trilogy.

[Nimbus Wolfsbane]

I would probably give it 3/5 stars. I kinda liked the modern twist and the warping of wonderland but I still much prefer Lewis Carol's version.

[Emmybuddy]

It's not usually my type of book and I struggled to get drawn into it at the start but when I got half way through I couldn't put it down. Great for people out there who love Alice in Wonderland, the author does an amazing job or not disrespecting Alice in Wonderland or re-writing it, the author puts a wonderful twist on her own story. Would recommend to anyone who loves Alice in Wonderland.

[PluviophileReader]

You know for a young-adult book it wasn't too bad. I really enjoyed the horror-spin on Wonderland and thought that the story was unique and interesting. However, as always, I could do with out the teenage-love story. The book is written for teenagers, so I can't criticize it too much in this aspect but I did find myself rolling my eyes at the cheesiness of the male characters, Morpheus and Jeb and their interactions and devotion to Alyssa. I can imagine this story being written for an older audience as it would be truly horrifying and spectacular, and in my opinion, better.

As neat as this story is, I don't have a desire to read the rest of the series. Too many other books to indulge in! Overall I would recommend this book for lovers of the young-adult genre and even for those who love the original Wonderland stories.

[GKCfan]

Does anybody think that the plot seemed unnecessarily dragged out for the purpose of future novels in the series?