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Splintered
(Splintered #1)
by
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 h ...more
When her mother’s mental h ...more
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Hardcover, 371 pages
Published
January 1st 2013
by Amulet Books
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Start your review of Splintered (Splintered, #1)

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
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

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. ;)
...more

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 save ...more
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 save ...more

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 noticed ...more
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 noticed ...more

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
...more

seeing it's another Alice in Wonderland idea


seeing that it actually sounds amazing



fangirling with everyone on goodreads

seeing the release date





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
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

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

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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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...more


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 beauti ...more

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 fo ...more
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 fo ...more

Jan 07, 2012
Steph Sinclair
rated it
liked it
Recommends it for:
Fans of retellings and Alice in Wonderland
Shelves:
fairy-tales,
young-adult,
ebook,
fantasy,
2013-release,
dat-cover-yo,
netgalley,
e-arc,
i-liked-it,
superb-world-building
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 th ...more

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, ...more
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, ...more

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.
...more


“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 ...more

Nov 05, 2016
Sana
rated it
liked it
Shelves:
young-adult,
literal-garbage,
boring-af,
i-dont-get-the-hype,
fantasy,
endless-pain,
romance,
bf
*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 t ...more
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 t ...more

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, mysel ...more
I will say, the novel is not a complete let-down, especially for Alice in Wonderland fans. I, mysel ...more

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 classi ...more
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 classi ...more

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 det
...more


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. ...more

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 gr ...more
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 gr ...more

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 lin ...more
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 lin ...more

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
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

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
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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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 t ...more
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 t ...more

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

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 min ...more

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 a ...more
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 a ...more

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 firs ...more
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 firs ...more

Jul 28, 2015
Colleen Houck
added it
Such a unique take on the Alice In Wonderland story! Each piece was reworked in a totally different way which made every scene surprising. Love the whole idea of bug art. So creepy and cool.

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 ...more

WANT THIS BOOK NOW! COME OUT ALREADY, YOU NEED TO BE READ BY ME! GIMME GIMME GIMME!

Haha, see what I did there? ;)


And isn't that cover just AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL!? ...more

Haha, see what I did there? ;)


And isn't that cover just AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL!? ...more

"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
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
topics | posts | views | last activity | |
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Jeb or Morpheus? | 74 | 581 | Dec 08, 2020 11:46PM | |
Goodreads Librari...: Inorrect page count - ISBN 1419704281 (ISBN13: 9781419704284) | 2 | 12 | Apr 13, 2019 04:48AM | |
Should I continue this book? | 6 | 41 | Jul 01, 2018 08:41AM | |
Pages and Panels:
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3 | 5 | Mar 08, 2018 07:10AM |
#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.
How A.G. Howard rates books on GoodReads:
"I only rate or review books I enjoyed reading, and w ...more
Young adult, Adult, and literary romance. Repped by Jenny Bent.
How A.G. Howard rates books on GoodReads:
"I only rate or review books I enjoyed reading, and w ...more
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Splintered
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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.”
—
364 likes
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.”
“No one knows what he or she is capable of until things are at their darkest.”
—
362 likes
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