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Disquietus
, April 27, 2014
(view all comments by Disquietus)
In the spirit of full disclosure, I will preface this review with the fact that I really did not like this book. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that I hated it, but I did scream in rage at it multiple times, and throw it across the room once I was finished. The reason I am giving it a 3 star rating, after almost an hour of internal debate, is solely based on the fact that while the story did not work for me at all, the writing itself was lovely. I can definitely understand why so many people raved about it to me, even though reading it was a bitter struggle for me the entire way through.
I will start with the positive. I love the cover. It’s so so gorgeous and definitely captures the spirit of Howard’s Wonderland. More importantly, the writing is good. Lush and evocative, lyrical and dark, and so incredibly descriptive. A.G. Howard is an incredibly talented writer. It was very easy to visualize Alyssa’s Wonderland. And what a Wonderland it is. This is nothing like the one you grew up with. It is dark and scary and seductive, and everybody you meet has a secret agenda.
So why, you ask, if the writing was so good, do I dislike this book so strongly? The story itself just did not click with me. The first 160 pages were a battle to read through, dragging on and on until I just about reached the point of marking it as a did-not-finish. It eventually picked up once Alyssa made it to Wonderland, becoming fast-paced enough to hold my attention as Alyssa journeyed through this netherworld, trying to make sense of the trials set before her. I will say that the twist at the end took me completely by surprise, despite all the clues that were dropped throughout the novel.
What really sealed the deal on my dislike though is that I did not like any of the characters. Alyssa was tolerable, at times. I enjoyed the fact that she’s this punk rock skater girl with a morbid desire to shut the bugs up she hears by sticking pins in them and turning them into artwork, but she was so frustratingly oblivious about so many things that seemed so obvious, and so wishy-washy about her feelings for Jeb and Morpheus that I just couldn’t connect with her. Her best friend and crush, Jeb had me in a constant state of rage. Some may find his over-protectiveness and need to control Alyssa’s every move charming, I just found it really freaking annoying. He claims to love her and yet he has no respect for her ability to make decisions for herself which, for me at least, translates into having no respect for her, period. Morpheus is creepy and definitely repulsive at times, but I still preferred him to Jeb because even though he’s a lying liar who lies, he at least seems to understand Alyssa and respect her to an extent.
I will point out that while I was not a fan, I can definitely see this appealing to most anyone else who enjoys the young adult and fantasy genres.
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