Is it worth reading: Splintered by A. G. Howard.

Lately, I have been in a sort of book funk.  Actually, it’s been happening for about the last 4-5 months. I wasn’t feeling my normal love of reading. It seemed more like something I HAD to do, not the pastime I have loved since I was a kid.

I got to thinking and realized that for the last year or so I had stuck to one genre only. I scheduled so many reviews, blog tours, and posts that all centered on one genre that that’s ALL I had been reading. Now I LOVE my romance books, really love them, but I’m thinking it’s like eating only chocolate for a year. As much as you like chocolate, after a year of eating only that, you would start to hate it.

I needed to branch out. SO, I walked into Barnes and Noble, went up to some random person and asked them to pick out either one of their favorite books, or a book they had heard was amazing. ANY genre. This little lady was over by the magazines, and the teen/young adult section was right there. She reached over and grabbed Splintered by A. G. Howard. She said that her granddaughter loved the series and had just asked her to buy the last one for her. I was kinda relieved. What if someone picked out some book on philosophy or something?! Needless to say, young adult fantasy, I can, and will gladly, do.

Here’s where it gets awesome. I know you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. Only one time have I let a bad cover influence me to not buy a book, but many times an awesome cover has grabbed my attention and drawn me in. Call me shallow.

The cover and overall artwork of the whole Splintered series is phenomenal!! Even if this book had sucked, I would have kept it around. Here’s a few pictures (my camera’s kinda old so forgive the quality) :

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So, aesthetically, the book is amazing. What about the story? Actually, I could sum the whole review up in three words.           

MIND BOGGLING AWESOME!!

THIS is the way to retell Alice in Wonderland!! I love classic children’s stories retold with an edge. Anyone who plans to do that, please read Splintered and take notes. Splintered is Alice in Wonderland meets Tim Burton, with some teenage angst, but all told with the author’s unique creativity and imagination. I did not want to leave the pages of her version of Wonderland!!

I ranged the whole spectrum of emotion while reading this. From amusement and whimsy, to where page 331 solidly broke my heart, and page 335 stitched it back together. It was an eerie rollercoaster ride that I can’t wait to get back on with UNHINGED!!

           Needless to say, I am no longer in a book funk.

DEFINITLY go buy this 5 star read!!

~Wendy

 

About Splintered:

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.

BOOK LINKS

GOODREADS:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12558285-splintered?ac=1

Amazon:

B&N:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/splintered-a-g-howard/1109480697?ean=9781419709708

About the author:

A.G. Howard was inspired to write SPLINTERED while working at a school library. Her pastimes are reading, rollerblading, gardening, and family vacations which often include impromptu side trips to 18th century graveyards or condemned schoolhouses to appease her overactive muse.

SPLINTERED & UNHINGED, books 1 & 2 of her urbanized /gothic Alice in Wonderland series, are now available from Amulet Books. Book 3, ENSNARED, launches 2015.

website

http://www.aghoward.com

twitter username

aghowardwrites