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Splintered

(Splintered #1)

A.G. Howard (Goodreads Author)

3.94 · Rating details · 49,448 ratings · 7,460 reviews

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 ...more

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Hardcover, 371 pages

Published January 1st 2013 by Amulet Books

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· 49,448 ratings · 7,460 reviews

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Dec 21, 2013 Emily May rated it did not like it

Shelves: young-adult, fantasy, coverly-love, 2015

This book literally made my jaw drop. I'm still reeling from some of the offensive, annoying and downright incorrect things that made it past editors, proofreaders and buyers.

I could point out the way mental illness is sensationalized for a bit of drama and Alyssa's mother is just put in a straitjacket and wheeled off to a padded cell, even though straitjackets and padded cells haven't been used much since the introduction of psychotropic drugs in the 1950s and especially not for someone in her ...more

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Sep 08, 2011 A.G. Howard added it · (Review from the author)

I'm not giving it any stars because it's my brainchild. :) But I will say that I love my heroine and her two guys (the good one and the naughty one) and I had a blast warping up Wonderland. ;)

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Feb 08, 2015 Kiki rated it did not like it

Shelves: books-to-use-as-weapons, ya, love-stinks, lost-the-will-to-live, choking-noises, mayhem-and-misogyny, lolwut, what-has-been-seen-cannot-be-unseen

White girl anthem time, because literally, ew, I can't.

Literally.

Ew.

I can't.

So the other day I was watching Grey's Anatomy and I knew I was making a mistake because, being a casual viewer (and by casual I mean that I can stomach perhaps one episode every seven months) I wasn't invested enough in the convoluted story or the characters to ignore all of the insanely far-fetched medical and social oversights: a woman is furious that her brother died because "I'm a neurosurgeon, and I could have White girl anthem time, because literally, ew, I can't.

Literally.

Ew.

I can't.

So the other day I was watching Grey's Anatomy and I knew I was making a mistake because, being a casual viewer (and by casual I mean that I can stomach perhaps one episode every seven months) I wasn't invested enough in the convoluted story or the characters to ignore all of the insanely far-fetched medical and social oversights: a woman is furious that her brother died because "I'm a neurosurgeon, and I could have saved him!" even though by law you cannot operate on your own family; a woman with a broken neck giving birth in an elevator, with no spinal block or stabilizing equipment save for a flimsy neck brace, being told to "stay very still, or your neck will break more!"; a woman who just turned the machines off on her brain-dead husband being back at work after like two days on bereavement leave; the chief of surgery planning to marry the owner of the hospital and then, after one fight, calling off the wedding; surgeons walking around the hospital in gowns and masks and gloves, eating food; surgeons at the ambulance bay with long flowing hair left loose; a man being surprised that his wife has changed after a stint performing life-saving surgery in a war-zone; and a pair of interns left alone with a pregnant woman with a broken neck and subsequently nearly killing her by loosening her neck brace.

The list goes on. And it reminds me of this book and the absolutely absurd way it plays out even just from a medical angle. A nurse carries a syringe full of drugs in her pocket; a woman is put in a strait jacket in a padded cell; a young woman with a family is locked away on a ward indefinitely with only scheduled visits.

The nurse with the syringe in her pocket? What the fuck. Struck off. You cannot carry drugs around like keys. Even worse is that strait jackets and particularly padded cells are scaremongering horror fiction: using strait jackets, or indeed any extreme physical force, is these days widely considered a breach of human rights. There is no if, and or but - the author was sensationalizing mental illness. A patient like Alyssa's mother would never ever be confined to a strait jacket and certainly not a padded cell.

Alison would be assessed, medicated, and put back out into the community. Probably with home help. She's a young woman capable of looking after herself. Gone are the days in which mentally ill people were immediately holed up behind bars. But that's not tantalizing enough, is it, A. G. Howard? That's not sensational or exciting. It's not thrilling to see someone with mental illness take her medicine and live a normal life.

This book is FUBAR in terms of how it deals with mental illness. Like holy fuck, I cannot get over the nurse with the syringe in her pocket. Her POCKET! That shit stays on the drug trolley and then goes straight in the goddamn sharps bin when it's done. How did nobody catch this? How? This book went through an agent, an editor, and a whole publishing house, and no one thought to themselves, "Is that even allowed?"

Look, I should have known before I even started this. The blurb sort of piqued my interest, because I love parallel universes and girls who fall into them, but Alice in Wonderland always just stank to me. I never liked it. I don't even like the Disney movie and I literally like all of the Disney movies.

I guess I thought a retelling would bring something other than fishnets, fuckboys, and sensationalised mental illness to the table. Oh, how wrong I was. ...more

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Jan 31, 2012 Melissa Marr rated it it was amazing

I LOVED this book enough that I'm posting my first ever detailed Goodreads review.

The writing is gorgeous--lyrical and evocative without ever descending into unnecessarily purple. The story is compelling (& the twist was unexpected), and the characters felt like they were real enough to have heartbeats. The author is also one of those wonderful creatures whose pre-finished books are clean enough to read. I read this in manuscript, pre-galleys, and the writing was so polished that I only ...more

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Sep 08, 2012 Madeleine marked it as have-but-haven-t-read-yet

Shelves: books-i-own, covers-i-love

seeing the cover

seeing it's another Alice in Wonderland idea

seeing that it actually sounds amazing

fangirling with everyone on goodreads

seeing the release date

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Jan 21, 2013 Demi rated it it was ok

Shelves: read-in-2013, 2-stars, gross-mysogyny-warning, forced-romance

Can we take one moment and wonder how much better this book would have been if Jeb wasn't in it? CAN WE?!

This guy was a major douchebag! Besides the fact that he was as good as useless to the entire plot, he had no respect all for Alyssa's opinions or decisions. "Jeb, I think--" "Shut the fuck up. I decide what you can and can't do."

Protective was not even how I would describe him. Controlling is still an understatement. He treated her like a fucking puppy. Its not even like I'm reading too much ...more

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Jan 19, 2014 Ayesha marked it as did-not-finish

Shelves: fantasy-and-sci-fiction, annoying-characters, books-i-would-love-to-burn, boring-plot, rip-braincells, over-hyped, burn-this-please, cringe-worthy

More reviews @ The Beautiful World of books

DNF halfway through...

What I felt about the cover-

What I felt when I started reading this book-

What I felt about the main character-

What I felt about the male love interests-

What I felt about the love triangle-

What I felt about the plot-

What I felt about the writing-

My feelings for the book-

My final verdict-
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Feb 09, 2015 Melissa ♥ Dog/Wolf Lover ♥ Martin rated it really liked it

Shelves: own, fantasy-all

Reread with friends at For Love Of A Book!

So after re-reading this I was quickly going down to a 3 star, maybe less - just because of Jeb's character. I mean he's hot and all and he's does good things sometimes, but for the most part he just sucks! I don't like the way he's controlling with Alyssa. I mean who is he to be telling her what she can and can't do or be with when he has a girlfriend. Whatever!

And even though Morpheus did some devious things in the book, I just love him and his ...more

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Nov 16, 2016 Lola rated it did not like it

Shelves: did-not-finish

Sometime during summer, I took this book in my hands, looked at it lovingly, and sighed before opening the first page and starting my reading of it.

Oh, it so isn’t the dark but magical story I anticipated. It’s been months since I’ve put it aside to rot next to other books waiting for my interest to rekindle, but I just think that will never happen, because the only thing I like about it is MORPHEUS.

So DNF for now (and probably for ever). Oh well, happily never after.

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Jan 07, 2012 Steph Sinclair rated it liked it

Recommends it for: Fans of retellings and Alice in Wonderland

Shelves: original-and-creative, i-liked-it, ebook, fantasy, netgalley, superb-world-building, triangle-of-love, dat-cover-yo, young-adult, fairy-tales

More of a 3.5 star rating.

Okay, so here is a little truth for you: There is no other children's tale that scared me most as a child than Alice in Wonderland.* I will never forget the first time I heard the story. It was by way of my grandmother and these cassette tapes she bought me called Porch Swing Stories. It was very generous of her, but let me tell you, those tapes were the devil. Pretty much all of the stories were purposefully cranked up in the creepy department and I'm convinced that ...more

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Sep 30, 2014 Hailey (Hailey in Bookland) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: owned, fantasy, retellings

SPOILER FREE REVIEW: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jN6NG...

4.5*

“You understand the logic behind the illogical, Alyssa. It's in your nature to find tranquility amid the madness. And that's what we're doing here. We are giving our food a fighting chance.”

I knew going into this book that I would either love it or hate it and to be honest, I more so expected the latter. Through the Looking Glass is one of my favourite books and as such I knew I would be drawing comparisons the whole time. Lucky ...more

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Dec 11, 2019 Chloe rated it it was ok

Shelves: audiobooks, 2019-reads

This started out really interested and I loved the dark twist on Alice in Wonderland, but it soon became boring and I really didn't care for the love triangle which ended up being a huge part of the book.

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Jun 10, 2018 Jessi ♥️ H. Vojsk rated it liked it · review of another edition

“He starts to hum, a haunting melody. No words ride the music, only the familiar notes of a forgotten song.”

Story
When I was little I could never quite decide which fairy tale was my favorite.
But the older I was, the more I was fascinated by Alice and her adventure in wonderland.
The thing I liked the most of it? The craziness, the insane and illogical things in it. And the huge amount of fantasy for creating a world like this.
But I always felt like the story was too childish, too naive and ...more

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Jan 06, 2013 Khanh, first of her name, mother of bunnies rated it really liked it

Before I start: how gorgeous is that cover? I mean really, if there exists such a thing as judging a book by its cover, I'm so there.

Alyssa is a descendant of the original Alice Liddell, the inspiration for Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland book. The women in her family suffer from a curse of madness, even the illegitimate by-blows of the family become stricken with insanity after they reach puberty. Her mother ends up in a mental asylum after trying to kill Alyssa when she was a small child, Before I start: how gorgeous is that cover? I mean really, if there exists such a thing as judging a book by its cover, I'm so there.

Alyssa is a descendant of the original Alice Liddell, the inspiration for Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland book. The women in her family suffer from a curse of madness, even the illegitimate by-blows of the family become stricken with insanity after they reach puberty. Her mother ends up in a mental asylum after trying to kill Alyssa when she was a small child, she and her father both suffer knowing Alison is mad; her father because he still deeply loves his wife, and Alyssa because she knows she is doomed to the same fate. They often visit her mother in the asylum, even if each visit is painful to them both, seeing their loved one in the grips of madness.

Alyssa has a close friend, Jeb, who is dating Taelor (I hate her already just by her name), the stereotypical beautiful, spoiled rich girl nemesis. Alyssa has been an outcast in school her entire life ever since Taelor reveals that Alyssa is descended from Alice Liddell. She is subsequently bullied and ridiculed by the other kids for her connection to the Alice of yore. I don't really understand the grounds for this: being related to the original Alice...that's pretty awesome. I would say it's more of a claim to fame, particularly in grade school, rather than anything over which to be ostracized.

Alyssa rebels by becoming a skater, wearing as much makeup, hair dye, and dreadlocks as possible to disguise who she really is (the fact that Jeb calls her "Skater Girl" really gives me Avril Lavigne vibes). When the latest visit to her mother in the asylum turns violent, her father is desperate enough to resort to consent to electroconvulsive therapy, Alyssa tries to save her mother by turning to the mysterious boy in her believed hallucinations. She finds herself down the rabbit hole in a darker version of Wonderland, and is accidentally joined by a stubborn and reluctant Jeb. In Wonderland, she meets the boy of whom she dreams, Morpheus, who has appeared in her dreams since she was a child. He tells her to go on a series of quests to fulfill her mission in order to save her mother.

The creatures she encounters along the way are definitely based upon the original Alice books, albeit remarkably more twisted. The recent adaptation of Alice by Tim Burton has got nothing on the creepiness of the creatures in this book. I love the clever spin and connection of the original tale with the methods that Alyssa uses to resolve through the dangers she encounters along the way.

I love the portrayal of mental illness, and the heroine is someone I actually like, despite my mental image of her being Avril Lavigne. I find it so hard to like most characters in YA novels; most of them are either too damn stubborn (coming from the cut-off-your-nose-to-spite-your-face school), too annoying and contrary, or just plain TSTL. I am happy to say that Alyssa is neither. She is smart, thoughtful, intelligent, and can figure shit out for herself.

I disliked the main love interest. Jeb doesn't seem good enough for her; he is overbearing, overprotective, and is the type who denies his own feelings FOR HER SAKE. No thank you, that's not my definition of love. I just wanted to smack Jeb away and leave Alyssa alone to do her thing, because frankly, she repeatedly demonstrates a capability of managing on her own.

The plot was great in the beginning, but drifts off in a myriad of confusion in the latter third of the book. The plot became confusing to me, twisting more and more until I didn't really understand what was going on anymore. By the end, I still wasn't sure what happened to resolve the plot. The confusing latter plot and messy ending was my reason for taking off a star, otherwise, it was a beautiful, surreal, fantastically imaginative read. ...more

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Nov 05, 2016 Sana rated it liked it

Shelves: romance, young-adult, fantasy, cut-my-left-nut-off-instead, daddies, boring-af, literal-garbage, i-dont-get-the-hype

*there's probably going to be a lot of grammatical errors in this review because i'm a lazy shit*

i honestly don't know what to think of this one. to me it was bland, boring and plain, yet somewhat enjoyable.

bruh, this was seriously not the kind of Alice in Wonderland i expected to read about. i actually forgot what the tale even is, but whatever it is, it was definitely not this, like it was different??? and i just realized that sentence probably made like no sense, but what the fuck ever.

so *there's probably going to be a lot of grammatical errors in this review because i'm a lazy shit*

i honestly don't know what to think of this one. to me it was bland, boring and plain, yet somewhat enjoyable.

bruh, this was seriously not the kind of Alice in Wonderland i expected to read about. i actually forgot what the tale even is, but whatever it is, it was definitely not this, like it was different??? and i just realized that sentence probably made like no sense, but what the fuck ever.

so the beginning actually gave me a lot of typical ya contemporary with some magic realism vibes. it didn't really feel like an awesome magical fantasy retelling. it was rather bland and dull and seemed a lot like a ya contemporary to me. even when we got up to the "fantasy part" of the book, it still didn't feel like a "fantasy retelling" to me. felt like a ya contemporary magic realism fam.

the writing was kind of immature-ish and really dull and bland. like, the story didn't feel alive to me. idk why, but for some reason it lacked magic and simply felt dull??? it was very bland and i honestly felt no emotions while reading this except for annoyance. at jeb, particularly.

alyssa our mc, was the typical white, blonde hair, blue eyed pretty mc who doesn't really know she's so beautiful and has two guys lusting after her. *rolls eyes* she was extremely dull and annoying. she was whiny and downright annoying and i didn't like her??? like, am i supposed to like you? no thanks.

jeb was a controlling piece of dog shit. like, he needs to fucking calm the fuck down and stop trying to tell alyssa what to fucking do and stop being so fucking controlling to her. how the fuck do people like this guy?? he's a fucking shit.

morpheus on the other hand is fucking everything. unlike, jeb, the piece of shit, he's not a controlling, abusive asshole and pushes alyssa to do her best. he's fucking amazing and can i have him? thanks.

so like, overall, i'm disappointed, but hoping the next book is better.

...more

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Sep 07, 2012 Giselle rated it liked it

Shelves: ebook, arc

Splintered seems to be another instance where I appear as the black sheep. I've seen numerous positive reviews of the novel before I went into it, and came out feeling pretty disappointed. A book I even thought at first I would absolutely love, ended up being just a little too drawn out. I had little love for the characters, and the fascinating twists came a little too late to grab a higher rating.

I will say, the novel is not a complete let-down, especially for Alice in Wonderland fans. I, Splintered seems to be another instance where I appear as the black sheep. I've seen numerous positive reviews of the novel before I went into it, and came out feeling pretty disappointed. A book I even thought at first I would absolutely love, ended up being just a little too drawn out. I had little love for the characters, and the fascinating twists came a little too late to grab a higher rating.

I will say, the novel is not a complete let-down, especially for Alice in Wonderland fans. I, myself, have never been a junkie of classic fairy tales, but out of all, Alice remains one of my favorites. Thus, I was instantly taken by the plot in Splintered. It has great connections to the Alice story we've known for years, taking us into the lives of Alice's very own great-great-granddaughter--Alyssa. By 20%, I was fully enraptured in this tale by which time I had incredibly high hopes for, thinking it a for sure winner. Sadly, when the initial high of this exciting plot peaks, it quickly crashes into an adventure filled with so many detours and a tiresome love triangle. It made it hard for me to even finish it.

To draw a picture of this love triangle: we have Jeb, a jerk who Alyssa is head over heals in love with. The boy next door who inadvertently becomes Alyssa's sidekick in this twisted wonderland, Jeb is not likeable at all. Mostly, he's boring, and any personality he does have includes him being irritating in his behaviour towards Alyssa. Sure I've seen worse love interests, he's hardly even in my least favorite, but his character is simply not attractive in the least. His obvious denied love for Alyssa, and their "we love each other but we can't because (insert lame reason here)" relationship is exhausting. Then comes Morpheus, a Wonderland native who is also madly in love with Alyssa and trying to win her over. I actually did not mind him. Sure he's a wanker, but he's abruptly honest about his personality so you can't help but just accept that he is who he is. We're not "supposed" to like him, so, as usual, I loved to hate him. :D

Honestly, I don't abhor love triangles as much as most, but I need to understand why it exist, and in this case it felt too much like the romance was there just because. It took too much attention off of the plot, which is by far the best modern Alice story I've read. The middle section could have easily been cut in half. Alyssa is taken on so many runarounds without getting any answers that it takes a lot of patience to get through this book. I'm not known for my patience…

I will have to say, however, that at the end I was thoroughly satisfied with the way the story played out. Cut out the romance, the long winded deviations, a boring protagonist, and we have ourselves a 5-star! (…crickets…) In all honesty, the main plot is fantastic. The plays on the original Alice, and the way the author makes it her own with unique twists is worth the read for that alone! I loved how we get a completely new "no, this is what actually happened" story. It's brilliant! This leads me to recommend this novel to any Alice fan, regardless of my issues with the less endearing parts of this novel. Just, be patient.

--
An advance copy was provided by the publisher for review.

For more of my reviews, visit my blog at Xpresso Reads

...more

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Jan 07, 2012 shady boots | #WatchPOSE rated it it was amazing

Shelves: covergasm, all-time-faves, 2013-faves, read-more-than-once, oh-my-god-marry-me

So I had to re-read this book, and I'm actually glad that I did, because a lot of the stuff in here--especially a huge chunk of the last half--I'd completely forgotten. Oh, and I have no idea why I ever considered myself Team Morpheus in the first place. He's kind of an ass. Actually I'm neither on Morpheus nor Jeb's side. I don't exactly love either of them. But I do love this book even now, exactly two years after my first read. I can finally read Unhinged now that I know all the necessary ...more

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Jan 16, 2012 Katie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: kindle-books

For this review, I will be utilizing the gloriously expressive face of Tom Hiddleston.

To Splintered, I would basically just like to say one thing:

When I saw the blurb for this book, I was a little unsure. I love Alice in Wonderland (both the book and the Disney movie...along with like, every adaptation there's ever been). But the bit about Alyssa maybe being crazy sounded weird, and I'd also heard some negative things about Alice in Zombieland, so I was sort of wary of any YA take on this ...more

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Apr 14, 2012 Megan rated it it was ok

I sure wish now that I'd taken the blue pill and not read this book...

On paper, a book might seem like many things. Some might seem like rage-inducing snooze fests directed at sexist people with a death wish. Incredibly epic, of course, is the preferred synopsis of choice. When I picked up SPLINTERED, glossed over the synopsis a few times, and took it in with a final hard look, I saw one word flash across my eyes – AWESOME. And that was what I took when I opened my Kindle and started this one. Sometimes, though, a synopsis misleads you. For me, SPLINTERED seemed epic in a Tim Burton-esque way. In reality, it was a one way trip to Hot Topic where they were having a blowout sale on Alice in Wonderland merchandise with Johnny Depp’s face plastered everywhere.

SPLINTERED is the story of Alyssa, the daughter of a woman afflicted with severe psychiatric issues, and the granddaughter and great-granddaughter of others similarly affected. Alyssa herself can hear bugs and flowers speaking to her. With her love interest Jeb, a brooding artist currently dating the high strung and stereotypical enemy Taelor, Alyssa goes on a hunt to destroy the curse, leading her down the rabbit hole right into Wonderland.

The first 20% of this book is a tedious exposition on Alyssa’s current life. Her mother is at Soul’s Asylum, where she eats only out of tea cups among other strange things. Alyssa skateboards and listens to music while mooning over artist Jeb, a boy who draws her in his sketchbook and dreams of going to London – on the dime of his girlfriend Taelor’s father, sadly – to start his career. There is a strong focus on the fact he has a garnet-studded labret piercing.

This was my first warning that I might not like this book. I never was into the goth, emo, Hot Topic-type scene other than secretly listening to Rob Zombie and Marilyn Manson on my iPod occasionally. SPLINTERED’s focus is not so much on a strong, well-plotted story as much as it is on concentrating on imagery that Tim Burton might be proud of if Tim Burton put in fake dreads and made Edward Skateboardhands instead of Scissorhands. SPLINTERED tries too hard to be cool, and loses itself in the process.

I never connected to any of the characters, including our heroine Alyssa. The rest of the cast became a massive blur punctuated by the occasional strange character that never was developed. By the time the book ended after a meandering course of wild goose chases and strange trips that made no sense, many of the characters became a singular mass of boring and blah. Likewise, the plot was muddled, confusing, and at times the imagery – remarkably well thought out, if a little too obnoxious in the descriptions – became lost in confusing schpiels about mooning and being angry with Jeb and Morpheus, the extremely jerky other love interest/man-moth hybrid thing. I’m still not sure about that.

SPLINTERED suffers heavily from an over emphasis on the romance and being different and loses itself in the process. We are drawn into a love triangle that I found to be rather unappealing, seeing as how I didn’t like Jeb or Morpheus. In fact, I quite hated Morpheus and didn’t see what Alyssa saw in him other than the moth that she was BFFs with when she was little, which wasn’t creepy at all. Oh, and the psychiatry in this book? It seemed like Tom Cruise at times was lecturing me. I must be glib.

VERDICT: Sometimes, a book and a reader just don’t mesh. This happened to me with SPLINTERED sadly. Too much romance and not enough plot make Megan a dull girl.

...more

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Dec 06, 2016 Heidi The Reader rated it it was ok

Shelves: young-adult, fiction

Alyssa is a descendant of Alice Liddell- the Alice who inspired Carroll to write his tale of white rabbits and fantastical creatures. But, Alyssa has a family secret: the women of her bloodline go insane when they come of age.

She tries to look on the positive side of this: "At least one good thing has come out of my inherited insanity. Without the delusions, I might never have found my artistic medium." pg 10, ebook.

Alyssa is in love with Jeb, a dark and brooding young man with a penchant for ...more

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Aug 06, 2015 Sarah rated it liked it

Shelves: a-failed-romance, the-vomitorium, beware-of-love-triangle, where-is-the-plot, fantasy, kings-and-queens, the-woods, the-fae-folk, urban-fantasy, raging-hormones

A.G. Howard’s Splintered is tied with Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland as the best modernized take on Lewis Carroll’s classic that I’ve read, better than Frank Beddor’s The Looking Glass Wars . That is a very low bar.

Our heroine, who narrates her tale in first-person present-tense, is Alyssa Gardner, the great-great-great-great…granddaughter of Alice Liddell, the inspiration for Carroll’s book. Her heritage is a well-known fact in her hometown, as is the fact that each woman in the family line ...more

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Feb 11, 2014 Natalie Monroe rated it really liked it

Shelves: pants-are-snowmen-and-they-are-june, bubbling-under-5-stars, pleasantly-surprised, possible-creepers, my-what-a-coincidence, i-spy-something-pointy, bye-bye-nineteenth-amendment, insta-love-add-water, surf-n-turf

Splintered reads exactly like The Iron King, except without the awesomeness of Puck and Grimalkin.

Both have incredible world-building. Even me, who has never officially watched Alice in Wonderland (Which come to think of it, is a serious flaw in my Disney education) can see the parallels Howard drew between the original and this wonderful reimagining. Old friends are here: the talking flowers, Cheshire cat, the Caterpillar (I'll get to Morpheus a bit later) and I absolutely loved the concept of ...more

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Mar 13, 2016 Lexy S.C. rated it did not like it

Shelves: to-burn

I have no words to describe how terrible Splintered was. Alice in Wonderland is a childhood favourite of mine, so I had pretty high expectations of Splintered. Unfortunately, I didn't like ~~much~~ anything about it. The plot was overdone. Way overdone. Alice the great-great-grandmother, then Alicia, then Alison, then Alyssa!? That is a bit much, don't you think?
I was expecting a bit more from the plot. A little more substance and a little less...

I found the whole thing a bit stupid. And don't even ...more

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Jul 22, 2014 Grace (LovingDemBooks) Z. rated it liked it

Shelves: books-i-own, signed-books, hardcover

Buy this book on: | Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Audible | BookDepository (FREE WORLDWIDESHIPPING) |

3 out of 5 stars (Please read my rating system below). I'm so glad that I finally got a chance to read this book! I met the author about 2 years ago so it was about time that I got a chance to read her work. Let me just say, A.G. Howard is one of the coolest authors you'll ever meet! I highly recommend going to one of her signings if you ever get the chance to. My favorite part of this book ...more

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Nov 11, 2013 Shelby *trains flying monkeys* rated it liked it

Shelves: read-2014, liburry-book

Splintered is based upon real life Alice Liddell's story as created by Lewis Carroll. Little Alice pictured here.

photo 1eeeaf41f71cbd92d4602974c9dd6975_zpsa1426101.png

The females in her line all are inheriting madness. They here bugs and plants talking. Refuse to eat off of plates (teacups please). Until we come across Alyssa-she does not want to end up in the mental hospital and will venture down the rabbit's hole in order to stop it.

This author did an amazing job on bringing a fairy tale to life. Creepy and so very easy pictured in your mind, ...more

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Aug 07, 2014 Vanessa J. rated it did not like it

Shelves: love-the-cover, fantasy, young-adult, boo-girl-hate, 2016, i-want-to-murder-someone

I'm gonna be honest with you: I liked Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. It may seem like a bunch of nonsense, but I liked it. And the same can be said about Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There - this one being even more nonsense, but the plot was more clever... if something that makes no sense can be clever.

Of course I was gonna go crazy when I saw this was a retelling of that classic (if you don't believe me, just look at the pre-review below, which I wrote like two years ...more

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Aug 22, 2013 Cassie rated it did not like it

Shelves: audio, ya, fantasy, put-on-my-rantypants

Ugh. Unlikable characters, plotting issues up the wazoo, derivative world-building (Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland and Lewis Carroll's original book are NOT interchangeable, and it's really freaking obvious where the author rips off Burton wholesale)... No thanks. The audio had a much better narrator than the book merited.

Can the uber-possessive boyfriend thing stop now, please? Jeb, the main love interest (let's not kid ourselves that the love triangle was really a viable triangle in the Ugh. Unlikable characters, plotting issues up the wazoo, derivative world-building (Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland and Lewis Carroll's original book are NOT interchangeable, and it's really freaking obvious where the author rips off Burton wholesale)... No thanks. The audio had a much better narrator than the book merited.

Can the uber-possessive boyfriend thing stop now, please? Jeb, the main love interest (let's not kid ourselves that the love triangle was really a viable triangle in the first place, you knew she was always going to pick this douche), infantilizes and berates Alyssa at every turn. He appoints himself her knight and protector because she's too weak and fragile to make any of her own decisions and needs to be saved from herself. When we meet him, Alyssa is mad because he and her dad have mutually decided that she's too innocent and unworldly to attend an exchange program in London, even though Jeb is supposed to attend school in the city, too. Even though he and Alyssa are supposed to be besties, he's dating the mean girl whose teasing and rumor-mongering have made her a social outcast. WTF? And when Alyssa finally has the cojones to call him out on this, he explains that he only dated her mortal enemy to get Alyssa out of his system. Since Alyssa's a virgin (and this is a detail that's repeatedly expounded upon by Jeb), he decides he's too much of a bad boy for her and doesn't want to spoil her innocence. Um, let Alyssa make that choice herself, asshat.

Morpheus wasn't much better, but at least he gave her the tools to empower herself even if he tried to harness that power to benefit himself. Also, it felt like he learned something through the whole experience. Even if he was a manipulative, lying, selfish jerk, he managed to make a sacrifice at the end. Jeb will never NOT be a jackwagon and ultimately is given no reason at all to change, but Morpheus actually exhibits a little bit of character growth. But once again, it's the losing party of the YA-mandated love triangle that actually treats the heroine as an equal.

If, in the end, your heroine ends up being treated like a helpless damsel in distress by her ONE TWU WUV (like Alyssa is and characters like Bella and Luce and Nora before her), then can we finally do away with the pretense that she's empowered and strong? Because I'm sick of these kinds of off-kilter, unequal relationships being normalized. If Alyssa were empowered at all, she'd realize how much better off she is without EITHER of these pathetic excuses for love interests and demand a man that can complement her without coddling or condescending. ...more

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Jul 12, 2013 Natalia rated it liked it

Shelves: read-in-2013, young-adult, 1st-person-pov, love-the-cover, love-triangle, retellings, published-in-2013

Reread 10.07.2014

“Broken glass severs more than skin. It will sever your identity.”

description

Despite my one big and glaring problem ~~Jeb~~ with this book, I enjoyed it better the second time around. On my first read some things seemed a bit confusing, but now that I’ve finished the second installment as well and know so much more about the characters and their motivations, it was really interesting to pick up on all the clues and read between the lines.

A.G. Howard managed to create an enticing world, ...more

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Dec 26, 2013 Toni rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2015

"It's the Wonderland crew after a heavy dose of radiation poisoning."

Splintered is a book you just have to stick with. My opinion of the book has drastically changed as soon as I hit the 100 pages mark. It transformed from a dull and tragically angsty story, to a twisted and beautiful one.

Alyssa Gardner is a great-great-great-grandaughter of Alice Liddel- the girl whose dreams inspired Lewis Carrol's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Every female in her family that was born since Alice, has ...more

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Dec 29, 2012 Cassi aka Snow White Haggard rated it it was ok

Shelves: galleys, read-in-2013

Splintered is one of those books that has a great concept --the family of Alice Lidell (from Alice in Wonderland) is cursed with a special kinda crazy as a punishment for Alice's mistakes in Wonderland. Alyssa is only the latest in a line of women who hear the conversations of flowers and insects. Alyssa tries to hide the voices, killing the bugs and creating artwork while her mother wastes away in an insane asylum. Then she stumbles on a website about the rabbit hole and someone from Wonderland
Splintered is one of those books that has a great concept --the family of Alice Lidell (from Alice in Wonderland) is cursed with a special kinda crazy as a punishment for Alice's mistakes in Wonderland. Alyssa is only the latest in a line of women who hear the conversations of flowers and insects. Alyssa tries to hide the voices, killing the bugs and creating artwork while her mother wastes away in an insane asylum. Then she stumbles on a website about the rabbit hole and someone from Wonderland offers her a way to cure her families curse.

Sounds interesting right? I know! Except the book completely lost it's own plot and instead turned into a poorly done paranormal romance without any real focus.

Instead of focusing on Wonderland, which you know is kind of interesting, Alyssa is absorbed by Jeb--the best friend she's secretly in love with. All of their interactions and conversations just feel artificial. He constantly calls her "skater girl" as a pet name. Just a hint, taking your pet names from an Avril Lavine song is not cute.

Everything feels forced. Jeb has a girlfriend who is less a character and more of an obstacle to the central relationship. She's a prop not a person. The moment Alyssa and Jeb pass into wonderland she's only brought up to create conflict (and this happens continually). There is drama, otherworldly creatures, pursuing armies, but the characters continually stop to argue about their relationship status.

The arguments don't even make sense. Near the beginning before she goes into wonderland she tells Jeb finds out she's trying to get a fake passport from a guy who works at the skating rink (seriously those things have microchips now folks, it's not that easy) and he confronts her. She tells him to stay out of it. This is his eloquent and intelligent response.

"Out of what?" The pain in his voice rips me apart. "Stay out of your plan to hook up with some random loser, or stay out of your life."

You may be wondering where he got the idea that Alyssa was going to hook up with a random loser. So am I. In the context of the story his accusions came out of nowhere. Alyssa is a virgin and there's no evidence pointing towards that that changing anytime soon. It's just an unnatural way to create another obstacle. Once they're in Wonderland he also accuses that a "perv lured you here via a magical website" showing his winning intellect once again.

It was over-descriptive to the point of being purple prose, elaborating describing clothing hair and make-up, describing taste and scent in a way that didn't really make sense. The description was bothersome and at times downright confusing.

"The minute I'm free, I catch his thumb and nuzzle it. He tastes like grass and icing and all the flavors of Jeb, magnified."

First off the nuzzling is weird. Second she's tasting him. Third, grass and icing? Really? Later he tastes like chocolate and salt. At least the salt makes sense, but chocolate? I know they say to use the five senses when writing description but it needs to make sense.

Overall this book just did not work. I can't include every groan-worthy quote. The flaws, clumsy writing and shoddy storytelling overwhelm a good idea. Without the romance and some self control with descriptors this could actually be a good book. Unfortunately it's not. ...more

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About A.G. Howard

A.G. Howard

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#1 New York Times and International bestselling Author of gothic / fantasy & paranormal tales, mystical & romantic with a side of horror. A.G.'s dark Alice in Wonderland inspired Splintered series has been published in over a dozen languages.

Young adult, Adult, and literary romance. Repped by Jenny Bent.

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“Raising one hand, he tilts his hat to that sexy slant. "You want me. Admit it."
Even if he's partly right, I'll never tell him. "Why would I want you?"
He lifts three fingers to countdown. "Mysterious. Rebellious. Troubled. All those qualities women find irresistible."
"Such an optimist."
"My cup is never empty."
"Too bad your brain is." The words bite, but my smile softens with affection.” — 368 likes

“No one knows what he or she is capable of until things are at their darkest.” — 361 likes

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