Friday 4 January 2013

Review: Splintered By A. G. Howard


I've never been a massive fan of the Alice in Wonderland tale. While I've always loved the aesthetics of Wonderland and the idea of it - when it came to the actual stories, I never particularly enjoyed them. The Alice in Wonderland Disney movie creeped the crap out of me as a kid - and not in a good way - and when I read the original book by Lewis Carroll a few years ago, I found only a few bright spots in an otherwise tedious tome. Still, when Tim Burton's adaptation came out, I was ridiculously excited - it looked like it would be the Wonderland tale to capture my heart. But again, the reality of it let me down. It had all the right ingredients, but there was still something off about it and I was very disappointed. Then, more recently, Splintered started doing the rounds in the book blogosphere. Many, many people raved about it. I became intrigued - could this finally be the right Wonderland for me?

After reading Splintered the answer is a resounding no. It bears a lot of similarities to Burton's Wonderland tale, including Alice's (or in this case, her successor Alyssa's) role in the story. But I liked Splintered even less. I did enjoy Howard's unique and dark take on Wonderland's creatures and landscape, and the plot itself (the female line in Alice's family is cursed until someone fixes the mistakes she made in Wonderland) has a lot of potential - but unfortunately this was all vastly overshadowed by weak, unlikable characters and an irritating love triangle. Without the romance - or at least with the romance taking a back seat - this could have been a great book, but as it is, the romance is front and centre and all I wanted to do was see its head chopped off by Queen Red.

Alyssa is a weak, passive character. Things happen to her, others control her, and she barely thinks for herself let alone acts. Towards the end she does grow and take action, but for me it was too little, too late. Her passiveness was reinforced repeatedly by the two douchebag love interests. Jeb, her best friend who is secretly in love with her but dating Alyssa's bully for who-knows-what reason, is a controlling, domineering dick. He, too, changes a little at the end, but again, it's too little, too late. Meanwhile, the other corner of this triangle, Morpheus, is an arrogant, creepy puppet-master  pulling everyone's strings, but especially Alyssa's. He spends some of his time as a giant moth and used to be a caterpillar - THE Caterpillar. So not sexy.

The secondary characters are richly described in appearance but don't go much deeper than that. To her credit, Howard has a knack for details; her Wonderland leaps off the page thanks to her vivid, colourful descriptions. Unfortunately it wasn't enough to salvage the book for me. Strong characters will always win out over pretty descriptions, and although Splintered has a plethora of the latter, it has none of the former. This book really wasn't my cup of tea.

Rating: 2/5

Fine Print
Published: January 2013, Amulet Books.
Source: I received a review copy from the publisher via Netgalley.
Get It: Book Depository.

16 comments:

  1. What is with the absuive/controlling love interests? I have had it up to here with it! -_-

    Also, the Caterpillar? Really? No thanks.

    It sounds like a massive shame all around, based on what I have been reading in reviews. The idea of Wonderland actually being a land of fae I really like - just seems sad that the characters and story did not live up to it.

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    1. Me too! It's the Edward Cullen effect :-/

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    2. I feel this applies to crap like Fifty Shades of Grey..lol

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  2. We all ready talked a little about how I disliked this but I wanted to recommend an iteration of Wonderland to you. There's the video game: Alice, Madness Returns. It's a horror game though, so I don't know if you'd like it or not. But for me, it was everything an adult-aimed Alice should be. And I'm a big fan of the original works, so I'm really critical of any derivative work. But this game took all the pieces of Alice and worked them in this new and genius way.

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    1. Oh, thanks for the rec! I'll definitely check it out. Do you know if it's available for PS3 or is it PC?

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    2. I think it should be on PS3, I have a copy for Xbox. It's a gorgeous game, the visuals are stunning (as you sorta expect with Alice) and although it's a horror game it isn't super scary or anything - or at least I didn't think so.

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    3. Oh, awesome! I'll have to buy it with my Christmas money I think :D

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  3. What have I done?! I actually had pre-ordered this book. Can't believe I chose it over The Lost Girl. T_T Weak protagonist is something I'm never able to tolerate.

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    1. Well the cover is really pretty!=, so at least there's that.

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    2. I was considering reading this *because* of the cover, so I guess this shows that you really shouldn't judge a book by its cover!

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    3. I still do, I know I shouldn't but I do ;)

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  4. You know, Belle, this is why I love you --- your refreshing honesty. I've really wanted to read this book (especially because just about EVERYONE raved over it), so it's nice to see the other side of the coin. While Alice isn't my favourite classic tale (or Disney movie), I have always been intrigued by the idea of it. And like you, I was immensely disappointed in Burton's version. Something was definitely lacking.

    And seriously, what is it with people writing fickle, passive main characters? It's either that or they are just TOO perfect at everything. What ever happened to the "Everyman?" I miss that guy/gal.

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    1. Aw thanks Nikki! Yes, I am very over the too perfect and/or passive main characters. Again, I blame Twilight ;)

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  5. So I'm going to look it over, because I do love Lewis Carrol and I LOVED Burton's movie. lol But I do fear it might not quite add up to my expectations since basically every other spin off from that book so far has ended up disappointing me. Sigh...

    Btw, Thanks for the great review! :D

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  6. You said: "Alyssa is a weak, passive character. Things happen to her, others control her, and she barely thinks for herself let alone acts."

    And I could not agree more. This was my main issue with the book. Well, that and the romance. Alyssa was a passive character and was just dragged from scene to scene. She was literally a tool for the other characters to use, and not until the end did she actually do something herself. It annoyed me. I am not a fan of passive protagonists. I can get that from almost every YA out there. I was looking for something more from this book.

    I agree with you that this would have been a very different book without the romance. I said in my review that I felt the romance was tacked on by the publisher as a selling point. I don't know if this is true or not, but that's the way it felt to me. I would have liked this book a lot more without the romance.

    Great review, Belle!

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    1. Thanks Kara!
      I think you may be on to something with the tacked-on romance, which would be a real shame. I used to want romance in everything, but now I find I tend to appreciate stories without pointless romance. I still love a love story, but it has to have purpose within the story.
      It makes me think of Brave, I was pleasantly surprised to find there was no romance in it at all! I liked the way it explored mother/daughter relationships instead - because there are other kinds of relationship than boy/girl.

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