Date Finished: December 14, 2017
Page Count: 358
Genre: Fantasy
Shhhhhh, I
know a review has to be completed within three days of reading a book, but I
was swept away by finals and then Christmas and then a request from my uncle
and then visiting family. Even now its super cold and I can hardly type a thing
because my family keeps the house so cold and it’s hard to move my fingers. I
just want to write a review on this book because then it feels like I truly
read the book and hopefully reviewing it will help me remember how much I like
the book in the future.
So this is
the second rewritten story I’ve read this school year and I have to say it’s a
ways off from being better than the Dorothy
Must Die series by a long shot. Doesn’t mean Frank Beddor did a bad job
however as I thoroughly enjoyed, The
Looking Glass Wars. I found some of the descriptions a bit hard to follow
like when the action was being described occasionally, and there were little to
no descriptions of what characters looked like. Some of the dialogue was a bit
awkward as well. It sounded like people would talk in their everyday lives but
the way Beddor wrote it and the fact that the story took place in the late
1850s to the early 1870s made it seem out of place. I’d pull a quote as an
example but my memory of exact details is slightly foggy and I’ve got four days
of vacation left (not counting today) and I’d rather not spend too much time
doing homework
The book starts
at Alyss’s seventh birthday celebration. Her parents get killed, she and Hatter
(who’s the best character in the book by the way) flee through the Pool of
Tears, then get separated, and couple chapters later she’s like eleven years
old. What the heck? Then she’s practically sixteen when we come back to her
after visiting Hatter and the war going on in Wonderland (some of the best
parts in the book) or whatever the acceptable age of marriage was back (maybe
it was twenty one). Leaving out all those years Alyss spent in our world was a
good way for the audience to see Wonderland in civil war (which was cool) but
it led Alyss to lossing a ton of character development other than, “she’s a
straight arrow who won’t allow herself to believe in her outlandish past
anymore and because of that she’s lost her imagination (which may sound like
nothing but it means she can’t make anything appear out of thin air with just a
thought).” The whole losing imagination part wasn’t bad as we cot to see Alyss
regain her confidence and develop her powers once she returned to Wonderland,
but I still hate how little character development she was given. Since that was
all the things I disliked about the book I’m move onto what I liked and if you’ve
been with me for a while I’d assume you know I pay attention to the characters
of the books most.
Alyss in part three was cool since
that was when she returned to Wonderland and had to face her past and all the
crap that happened back then which meant feels and character development! Okay,
so there wasn’t a lot of feels but I still enjoyed seeing her go from helpless
and afraid of how daunting her situation was to a brave warrior queen who was
ready to reclaim her kingdom. Then you have Alyss’ best friend Dodge (odd name
me thinks he has), who is dedicated to his duty but still makes time for fun
with Alyss. Then his world gets wrecked when his father is killed by Redd and
he believes Alyss to be dead causing his character to take a drastically dark
turn. It was beautiful seeing him struggle with acting for the good of the
kingdom and his desire for vengeance against the Cat for killing his dad, and I
love that he still didn’t get to satisfy his thirst for bloodlust by the end of
the book. Also, I really liked the fluff between Alyss and Dodge that we were
given, especially that part in the beginning where it mentioned the picture
Alyss kept by her bed side of her as a baby and a three (or something) year old
Dodge kissing her cheek. That was the best Beddor. It was also nice that the
romance wasn’t the main thing about the book nor was it set in stone by the end
of the book. A romance that takes time is the kind of romance I crave.
The only
other characters truly worth mentioning is Alyss’ aunt Redd who was an awesome psychopath
and good at making threats as well as Hatter Madigan, the royal bodyguard. I
love how the Mad Hatter in this version of Alice
in Wonderland wasn’t just some crazy guy who had tea parties but rather was
an amazing fighter who was extremely good at his job. He was like Batman in a
way and I totally love that. As a matter of fact, the dude is actually probably
my favorite character from the book.
So there
you have it, great characters but the plot wasn’t good enough for me to mention
it at all. Some of it felt cliché (evil uncle/aunt as main antagonist) but
whatever, I liked the story. What really gave it the magic was getting to experience
this more violent and technological version of Wonderland and be able to see
how it was connected to our world. Very well done Beddor on linking Alice in Wonderland to a misinterpretation
of the reality you’ve given us. I’d recommend this book to those who like
rewritten stories, people who like fantasy with low doses of romance and/or
people who like to read about others creating things with their imaginations
and using it to fight each other. Imagination turned reality based combat is
the type of creative stuff I like to read about. Too bad the rest of the books
in the series weren’t as good….
No comments:
Post a Comment