Splintered

Splintered

by A.G. Howard

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.

If you read my last stacking the shelves post, I only kind of wanted to read this until I read The Notebook Sisters's reviews of it and Cait's constant gushing about it, after hearing about it fro then I decided I had to read it ASAP! ;) (Read Mime's review here and Cait's here, because they are made of awesomesauce!) 

I severely underestimated this books folks. It pretty much swept me off my feet and left me incapable of thinking straight (sounds a bit like our dear Morpheus, eh?)! The plot was pretty slick. I really liked the plot. The entire book was incredibly original and creative. It is possibly one of the most fantastical, whimsical, and imaginative books I've read. It was stunningly vivid. The world building was brilliant! The writing was great and that's all I have to say about that. That statement just kind of summed it all up.

I loved the characters! Alyssa was spunky, and brave, she was real and had depth. Jeb, was yummy and totally sweet, when he wasn't being overly protective and a bit of a control freak, but mostly protective. A lot of readers complained endlessly about him being way too protective, and yeah he was for a while, but I think that that is part of human nature and instinctual, also he gets over it by the end, so I was ok with it. Last, but certainly not least I want to talk a little bit about Morpheus. Ok I'm just going to say it, Morpheus and Jeb are hotter than Hades and totally delicious, but seriously flawed, which made them realistic, so of course I ate it up. Honestly, I think that is part of why I loved all of the characters and the entire book, everything was so splendidly twisted, messed up, damaged and deranged!

 Anyways, back to Morpheus. He was seductive, dark, and had some seriously twisted morals, reasoning and decisions, but it was somehow ok. Maybe because you could tell from the start that he really loved Alyssa, but then again so did Jeb. There were so many times when I doubted if either one really loved Alyssa for real, but there were so many more events that spoke volumes about how much they both loved her. We are talking real love here. This love triangle was actually quite good! I agree with Cait in that you could really root for both of them, and for me I think this really made the whole triangle thing epic! The entire time I was torn because I wanted both of them to get the girl! (I still have yet to pick a side.) It was beautiful, the relationships were real and the love was real, (from the boys at least, I am not convinced that Alyssa feels love for Morpheus yet...more like loyalty, and friendship, with a heaping side of physical attraction and lust.). 

I simply loved this book. I didn't really have and issues with it! However, I can only give it four and a half stars though, I don't really know why, but I just can't find it in me to give it five full stars! I know that is ridiculous but my gut says 4 stars with my utmost recommendations and ultimate fangirl support and obsessive love. You need to go buy it and read it, like yesterday!

General Consensus: 

What Alice in Wonderland character would you want to be?
(I'd totally be the doormouse so I could be a part of the Hatter's tea party, or the Cheshire cat, or maybe Alice...I'm not good at making decisions.)