Words on Splintered by A.G. Howard (Splintered #1)

A retelling of Alice in Wonderland
Jan 26, 2015
2 min read

Alyssa Gardner may seem like an ordinary teen, but she is anything but. The women in her family have a history of mental illness, and Alyssa fears that she may be headed down the same path. She can hear the voices of plants and insects, and the only way she can shut them up is by putting a stick through them and using them for her artwork.

But Alyssa is starting to find that it is harder and harder to ignore her strange visions. And once she starts traveling through mirrors, well, she has to admit that she's probably insane. Following a series of riddles, she decends into Wonderland, folowed by her close friend, Jeb. Alyssa is no stranger to the story of Wonderland, thanks to the fact that nobody will let her forget that her great-great-great-grandmother, Alice Liddell, was the Alice.

But this is not the Wonderland of Alyssa's childhood stories. It is far more strange and twisted, even terrifying at times. Even worse, she is quickly ensnared by Morpheus, a childhood friend from her dreams. Morpheus entrances Alyssa, but she fears that he is lying to her, or at least not telling her the whole truth. Alyssa is supposed to be in Wonderland to fix the mess that Alice Liddell made, but Morpheus may have another purpose for her.

When we first meet Alyssa, it's in the slightly creepy setting of her using her bugs to make art. We soon see more of her as a heroine who is dedicated to helping the people she loves, ready to go to crazy lengths to keep them safe. She's spunky and fierce, and I love her for it.

Morpheus, on the other hand, is a total enigma. You never quite know what he's thinking, and even though you learn that he's not as selfish as he seems, he does seem to want to preserve himself above all else. Jeb is fiercely protective of Alyssa, which is cute, but he can sometimes be annoyingly overprotective.

Wonderland was, to be honest, not what I was expecting! Some things in this Wonderland were really creepy/morbid but it was also totally genius! I would call it seriously twisted. The plot was fast-paced and we were always learning more about Wonderland. This was one of the most interesting retellings of Alice in Wonderland I've read!