Steph Reads: 'Splintered,' by A.G. Howard

I love all things Alice in Wonderland so I was completely drawn to this book, the story of a descendent of Alice who discovers that maybe the young girls tales were real after all. 'Splintered' tells the story of Allison who, after years of thinking her institutionalized mother is crazy for believing in anything Wonderland related, discovers that her family has been cursed ever since little Alice went wandering down the rabbit hole. The story follows Allison down the same rabbit hole and her attempts to fix everything that Alice disturbed during her visit so many years ago.
    I liked the beginning of this book as everything in Wonderland was revealed to be a much darker and twisted version of the famous Carroll tale. There are so many familiar characters but each with a slight variation on their well-known tales such as a rabid pygmy rabbit cursed with a flesh eating disease and a hatter with a hat measuring device growing out of his head. It was great fun reading this book and learning some more intricacies of Wonderland.
   This book kind of lost me in the second half when things take a turn and there is deception amongst the main characters in the book. I lost track of what Allison's motives were as they changed a bit and the romance toward the end of the book got a little bit teenage angst for me.
   For the most part, I really liked this book and would recommend it to all Alice in Wonderland lovers for a different take on the classic tale. By the end of the story, I got the vibe that this is the type of book perhaps written for goth or punk-loving teens looking for a romance story where the weird girl finishes first in the end.  I would pass on this if you're not that interested in Alice. I don't think I have much interest in reading the sequel.

On a different note, because I'm me I got completely inspired by the cover of this book. The art work is super captivating to me so I decided to do my best to emulate it!

On my eyes: various shadows from the 88 color BH cosmetics palette, Urban Decay eyeliner in 'Perversion.'
Cheeks: NYX Blush in 'Bourgeois Pig,' Hula Bronzer by Benefit
Lips: NYX red lipliner, Covergirl lipstick in 'Spellbound'

Pretty fun, huh?

Anyhow, the book was good but kind of lost me toward the end and made me feel like I wasn't the perfect audience for it. I could definitely see some people LOVING it, however!

xxSJ