Splintered (Splintered, #1)

by A. G. Howard

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. Read all the books in the New York Times bestselling Splintered series: Splintered (Book 1), Unhinged (Book 2), Ensnared (Book 3), and Untamed (The Companion Novel). Get books 1 through 3 in the Splintered boxed set, available now!Praise for Splintered:STARRED REVIEW "Fans of dark fantasy, as well as of Carroll’s Alice in all her revisionings (especially Tim Burton’s), will find a lot to love in this compelling and imaginative novel." —Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books"Alyssa is one of the most unique protagonists I've come across in a while. Splintered is dark, twisted, entirely riveting, and a truly romantic tale." —USA Today "Brilliant, because it is ambitious, inventive, and often surprising — a contemporary reworking of Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,’’ with a deep bow toward Tim Burton’s 2010 film version." —The Boston Globe "It’s a deft, complex metamorphosis of this children’s fantasy made more enticing by competing romantic interests, a psychedelic setting, and more mad violence than its original." —Booklist " Protagonist Alyssa...is an original. Howard's visual imagination is superior. The story's creepiness is intriguing as horror, and its hypnotic tone and setting, at the intersection of madness and creativity, should sweep readers down the rabbit hole." —Publishers Weekly "While readers will delight in such recognizable scenes as Alyssa drinking from a bottle to shrink, the richly detailed scenes that stray from the original will entice the imagination. These adventures are indeed wonderful." —BookPage "Attention to costume and setting render this a visually rich read..." —Kirkus Reviews "Wonderland is filled with much that is not as wonderful as might be expected, and yet, it is in Wonderland that Alyssa accepts her true nature. The cover with its swirling tendrils and insects surrounding Alyssa will surely attract teen readers who will not disappointed with this magical, edgy tale." —Reading Today Online "Creepy, descriptive read with a generous dollop of romance." —School Library JournalAward: YALSA’s 2014 Teens’ Top Ten

• ISBN13: 9781419706271
• Publish Date: 1 January 2013
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 29 June 2021
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Abrams
• Imprint: Amulet Books
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 384
• Language: English
• URL: https://abramsandchronicle.co.uk/book/9781419706271-splintered/

Reviews

[Berls]

This review was originally posted on Fantasy is More Fun

My Initial Reaction...

I LOVED the narration. I REALLY LIKED the parts in our world. I was SO BORED in Wonderland. :( After all the hype surrounding Splintered I had high hopes and even got started off on a great note. But Wonderland just didn't do it for me.

The Narration...

Rebecca Gibel's narration was fantastic. I thought she brought the characters to life extremely well and she nailed some pretty difficult accents to boot. I wonder if I would have made it through Splintered without her reading it to me, honestly. Probably not.

The Characters...

Alyssa - the main character from whose point of view Splintered is told- drove me nuts. At first I really liked her. I mean she was a little creepy with the way she killed bugs for her art projects, but when I understood that it was because it was the only way to keep herself from going crazy because the bugs talked to her, it was ok. I mean, it's a Wonderland retelling. I expected nuts. I also felt sorry for her because of the situation with her mom - who's been in a mental institution for years - but I also didn't love the way she acted towards her mom.

What I didn't expect was indecisive, wishy-washy, and sometimes plain old mean. IDK how everyone who loved this book felt about Alyssa (I'm purposefully not looking at reviews until this is written), but her indecisiveness really drove me batty. She has this really good guy friend that she likes as more than a friend, but she goes back and forth from wanting him to wanting Morpheus (who I can't for the life of me understand why she'd like him). And there came a point, for me, where her indecision was just cruel.

The guys in this cruel triangle - Jeb & Morpheous - were polar opposites to me. Jeb OBVIOUSLY cares about Alyssa and she keeps lashing out at him (sorry to beat a dead horse, but it annoyed me). The things he's willing to do and go through for her should really spell it out for her. Morpheous, on the other hand, was a total dick IMHO. IDK how I was supposed to feel about him because I only really got glimpses. He's a very main character - but for the Wonderland part where I was so bored my attention drifted a lot. So who knows, maybe I would have seen moments about him that I liked more, to be fair. But from what I saw, not a fan.

The Story...

So here's the deal with Splintered I really enjoyed it whenever the characters were in our world. I know this for a certainty because there was a moment after my ennui had really set in that I found myself super engaged with the book again. Guess what? They weren't in Wonderland.

I think the problem was that I have never read Alice in Wonderland, nor do I have any desire to. I've seen the movies like one time each. And I enjoyed them. I watched the miniseries as a kid and loved it. But in no way can I call myself a true Wonderland fan. I don't know all the elements and it's not a place I've ever fantasized going to. This is a book for the people who are die-hard fans and would jump on an opportunity to visit Wonderland - at least IMHO. Because there's no doubt in my mind that the places that bored me to tears were moments that played off the original story and would probably get true fans super excited. And I even suspect it was done well.

The story revolves around the mental illness that runs in Alyssa's family - or supposed mental illness. Her great grandmother was THE Alice of Alice in Wonderland and ever since her, the women of the family have been a bit off their rocker. Alyssa unlocks the secret as to why and sets off on an epic adventure to save the women of her family. It has the makings of greatness and I can understand what people saw in it, that's for sure.

Concluding Sentiments...

So if you're a Wonderland fan, I'd say give Splintered a shot, you'll probably like it a lot more than I did. If you're not, I'd stay clear or you may emerge from it bored and a wee-bit crazier than you went in :)

[cornerfolds]

This review is also available at Cornerfolds.com!

This was me throughout the entire book:



(I have never before felt the need to include GIFs in my reviews, but this is an exception.)

I don't even know where to start with this review - there were just so many amazing things! Let me start by saying A.G. Howard is a genius. A.Freaking.Genius. Though the first couple chapters dragged a little, once Alyssa went into the looking glass, I couldn't put this book down! Like, I legitimately got under my husband's skin by ignoring him for half a day over this book. Everything about Splintered is perfect. The writing is absolutely magical. The flow of language, the world building, the character development - everything was amazing. Splintered is written from the first person perspective - something that doesn't always work. But here, I can confidently say it was the right choice. There are twists and turns galore and I never knew exactly who to trust or what would happen next.

Wonderland - where do I even begin? The author paints a spectacular picture in words as she takes readers through a Wonderland completely different from the one we've come to know. The creatures are all fantastic in so many ways. For example, the White Rabbit... His name is actually Rabid White. The flowers aren't quite flowers and the Cheshire cat? You'll have to wait and see. But my favorite of all the Wonderland creatures is, of course, the hookah-smoking caterpillar.



Speaking of the caterpillar, his name is actually Morephus, and he's one of the two love interests in this story. I love him. LOVE him. Sure, he does a lot of things to serve his own interests, but he never really stops looking out for Alyssa. In fact, one of my favorite things about Morpheus is that he doesn't swoop in to save Alyssa every time she gets herself in trouble. Instead, he gives her the tools to save herself and lets her work it out - he lets her stand on her own. Morpheus is sexy in a dark and mysterious way (and he definitely knows it), but he's also loyal to a fault.

Which brings me to love interest number two: Jeb. While he seems to be an okay guy, Jeb just didn't do anything for me. It's not that his character was irritating, underdeveloped, or anything of that nature - he just wasn't my type. Unlike Morpheus, he does try to save Alyssa from everything - even before they get to Wonderland and sometimes from things she doesn't want to be saved from. The love triangle in this book is probably the best one I've ever read. Usually they annoy me, but this one just made sense - primarily because the two men were from two completely different worlds.

I loved that Alyssa wasn't overly whiney or dependent upon the men in the story. Of course, she did need saving from time to time, but what heroine doesn't? Overall, she held her own, made her own choices (even some I wanted to scream at her for), and was generally awesome. The one thing I didn't understand about Alyssa was why she was picked on for being a descendant of the "original" Alice. Granted, it has been quite a few years since I was in high school, but I don't think someone would have been picked on for being related to the inspiration for a famous children's book. In any case, Alyssa overcomes the bullies and remains a strong, vibrant protagonist.

The entire time I was reading, I was silently begging this book not to suck. I've been let down by so many YA books recently that I was honestly just waiting for something to go wrong - but it didn't. Splintered is such an amazing book. I will confidently call it my new favorite. Unhinged found its way onto my Kindle last night... Seriously, guys, you want to read this!

DNF

[Katie King]

**3 Stars**

I thought Morpheus was a fairly good character. When he wasn't trying to get in Alyssa's pants, he was busy using her to further his own selfish goals. We do see a softer side of him that added depth to his scheming and seducing. He is both a guide and an obstacle on the journey.

Alyssa saving Jeb was her most redeeming moment. Looking back to the beginning of the book and comparing that Alyssa to the one at the end is where you'll find the most growth. Her sacrifice is the most unselfish thing she does.

I really like the world that Howard created. Taking something already as unique as Wonderland and making it even more so is fascinating to me. The lesser characters, the descriptions of the world and her tasks themselves really helped to keep me interested. The way she explained Lewis Carroll's role in the story was equally as good. Howard is a great world builder.

The subplot with Alyssa's mother left a lot to be desired. The author sets her up with this big plot element and then...we find out it was all an act to protect her. I wasn't convinced at all. The way the mother was written...there's no way it was all an act. As soon as she knows Alyssa is safe, she just stops and the workers at the asylum are convinced they just gave her bad medication this entire time. For the past 10 years? That seems to wrap up everything up too nicely.

Alyssa also had her own problems. I didn't feel any real growth from her until the very end. Most of the time she complained endlessly while someone walked her through the steps on accomplishing a task. Once completed, she felt so wise and was praised as such.

The way the ending worked out for Alyssa, her mother, and Morpheus was just a little too perfect for my taste. Alyssa made zero effort to save anyone, so good thing they saved themselves...for her.

Summary
Splintered really is a stunning debut, but not without flaws. While the general plot is good, in some places it was poorly executed. Flimsy characters wrap up this novel, preventing any real character growth. For a first novel, this book is well done. The world is impressive, along with the new versions of classic characters. It is enjoyable the majority of the time, but a few pet peeves may prevent that. I am curious about the next book in this series, Unhinged.

[Kelly]

http://www.divabooknerd.com/2014/02/splintered-by-g-howard.html
Splintered was incredible! The world A. G Howard created was magnificent, rich and deliciously dark. I was completely immersed from cover to cover, drawn into a world that was luscious, magical and impeccably written.

The writing was immaculate, it flowed beautifully and painted a very vivid image of Wonderland. But where the Lewis Carroll's original was a classic fairytale, Splintered is dark, sexy and eerie. I absolutely loved it. I'm not generally a fan of young adult Fantasy as a whole, but this one is spectacular. Even with a love triangle, it wasn't the typical cliched read. My only regret is that I didn't pick this one up sooner.

And I'm team Morpheus all the way.

[celinenyx]

Great concept and lovely world, but the story got ruined for me by the annoying love-triangle and even more annoying characters.

Alyssa is the daughter of a mad woman that thinks Wonderland is real. It doesn't help that she's a far descendant of the real Alice Liddell. But her mother might not be as crazy as she seems, and Alyssa soon gets wrapped up in family curses and lost childhood memories.

This book sounds absolutely perfect for me - I'm a great fan of the original Alice in Wonderland, and the cover looks beautiful and the blurb amazing. Splintered was a disappointment though. The Wonderland Ms Howard creates was interesting, but having to see it through Alyssa's eyes was cringe-worthy.

Alyssa is a strange hybrid between a cyberpunk/goth girl and a skater, befriended with Jeb that's a skater too (that wears ribbed tank tops though). We went off on a rocky start, since both Alyssa and Jeb are about the opposite from the "skaters" I know. But once we got past that and the story focusses more about Alyssa's crazy family and her own crazy skills (she hears voices from flowers and insects), I gladly forgot our past differences.

I like the general plot, but I hated how Alyssa runs around like a headless chicken. She never thinks things through. Ever. Yet somehow she never fully connects with the way things work in Wonderland. One of the awesome things about Wonderland for me is that everything is possible - it's an absolutely unreasonable crazy world. It felt as if Alyssa spends the entire book struggling against Wonderland. I was constantly waiting for her to become fully emerged, because her reluctance translated into a reluctance of my own.

The dynamic going on between Alyssa, Jeb and Morpheus (resident Wonderland moth-man bad-boy) is absolutely dreadful. Jeb and Morpheus are constantly bickering over Alyssa, about what she will and won't do, while she just stands by and watches them. What the hell? Grow a pair, girl. You decide for your own, and you should tell them to shut the hell up and demand some answers. Jeb is insanely patronising, and Morpheus is a lying son of a bitch, yet somehow Alyssa luuuurves them both. The romance and Alyssa's indecisiveness grated on my nerves.

I heard the sequel to Splintered, Unhinged is darker, and maybe that's more what I'm looking for. I hope Alyssa grows some common sense in the main while.

[alindstadtcorbeax]

RE-READ!!!!!

[Nessa Luna]

Read this review, and many more on my blog October Tune!

I have to admit, I have never read Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. I have watched the Disney movie (quite recently) and the one made by Tim Burton, and I have ordered the book a couple of days ago, though, because this story made me want to read the original one.

In this book, the Wonderland creatures are described to be quite a lot different from the ones you meet in the original story. Quite a bit more creepy. A white rabbit that isn’t quite a rabbit at all. A bandersnatch that looks NOTHING like the one from the Burton movie. There were a lot of creatures described in the book, and I would have loved for this book to have pictures in them, because I found it a bit hard to imagine some of the creatures, or places that were described.

I liked Alyssa, and Jeb, though I was a bit annoyed by the way he treated Alyssa, as if she was a little girl who couldn’t make up her mind herself. I kinda like it when a boy is protective over a girl, in a story, but Jeb took it a bit too far. He hardly ever let Alyssa make her own choices (though usually, she’d do it her way anyway), and I do hope he gets over it in the second book (because yay, there’s a sequel coming!). I had a bit of a love/hate relationship with Morpheus, because though he’s quite protective over Alyssa, and he wanted to help her, he was also (a bit of) an arse.

In the end, I’d give the book three ‘planets’, out of five, because though I liked the story, and the concept (I just really like Alice in Wonderland), there were some things (like Morpheus’ behaviour, and the lack of images) that I didn’t like. The big thing was the love-triangle-thing, which you could read about in the description already, so I don’t really think that’s a spoiler).

[Linda]

*I won an ARC of Splintered from The Midnight Garden and I'm really excited to read it!*

ARC received on 26 April 2013 - bit thanks to Wendy Darling and the rest of the wonderful ladies on her blog!

This and other reviews are originally posted on my blog (un)Conventional Bookviews

Splintered is an amazing mixture of a re-telling and a totally new story featuring Alice in Wonderland! I am still within the confines of the story, and I truly loved both Alyssa and Jeb, even Morpheus somehow managed to sneak his way into my heart.

[Joséphine]

Wonderland in the hands of A.G. Howard became a whole lot more grotesque and twisted than it already was when Lewis Carroll first imagined it. "Splintered" is a quasi sequel and adaptation of the much loved classic of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll; a modern-day tribute, if you will. Alyssa can not only hear animals but plants and objects too. Her way of silencing bugs in particular is to pour them into her art and making them part of her mosaics. After years of enduring such agony, she knows she needs to do something. Her mother has been institutionalized for those very reasons and Alyssa is afraid of ending up just like her. If she doesn't stop it, this curse will catch up with her too as it has the rest of the women in Alice Liddell's lineage.

Alyssa's mother has been sheltering Alyssa from the reality and magic of this under-land. It is no wonder Alyssa is terrified when she discovers that the stories of Alice are not fiction but were based on Alice's true encounters that had taken place in a world far darker than Lewis Carroll once described. In order to restore her family, Alyssa has to pass tests to make right in Wonderland what Alice did wrong. Amidst her family predicament she is also faced with a romantic dilemma. She  must decide for herself whom should she rightfully give her heart to: Jeb, a close friend from whom she has been hiding her feelings or Morpheus, her guide and apparent childhood friend.

Now, I love fairy tales. Even more so when they have twisted undertones and aren't as innocent as one might think. The more un-Disney-like, the better. "Splintered" did not disappoint in that aspect. Wonderland came alive for me once again in a very fascinating way. Howard introduced her own creatures and described them in such great detail, they came alive on the page. The setting was very vivid, making it easy to immerse in.

Jeb didn't entirely convince me though. I couldn't quite see the need for Jeb during Alyssa's adventures in Wonderland. Morpheus was her guide and his clues were directed at her. He had complete disregard for Jeb in the first place. Jeb made some parts a little cumbersome to read because he was so superfluous. But he did remind me that Alyssa is a lot older than Alice was. While I could have done away with all that romantic tension, Jeb embodied Alyssa's earthly desires as opposed to her netherwordly ones. That somewhat made up for his existence.

Morpheus was dodgy. That made him intriguing. I wanted to know what he was hiding and why he was so fixated on Alyssa. He annoyed me at times with his smugness. This mixture of feelings he evoked within me just goes to show how multi-layered the characters that Howard created were.

Another aspect of the book that delighted me went beyond the story itself. The attention to design of the book itself is impeccable. The headers at the beginning of every chapter are reminiscent of the whimsical embellishments that often marked fairy tale books of the olden days. The colour of the font is purple instead of black which emphasized this other-wordly character of the story. In fact, the last page credits Maria T. Middleton for the design. This, for me, made the whole package complete.

This review is also available at dudettereads.com.