The Dark Side of Wonderland by Brenda Bautista

Hearing the voices of the plants and bugs everyday ever since she hit puberty, she had been able to stay sane. As times goes on, Alyssa begins to despise hearing the whispers, and to keep them quiet she uses the plants and bugs in her favorite type of art: collages. She has never told anyone that she is able to hear their voices because that can take her to the mental hospital. Alyssa learned that the hard way, since that was what her mother did, and because of those mistakes, she is now in a metal hospital for life taking antibiotics to keep sane. After hearing a blue moth’s voice to tear up their couch, she discovered that the voices may actually be a curse. The curse of the Liddell family, Alice Liddell, she was the one that brought this upon Alyssa and her mother hearing the plants’ and bugs’ whispers. To think that Wonderland may actually be true, she tries to finds ways to go to this world, and the blue moth, Morpheus, a Netherling that can shape into a human guide her through Wonderland while completing the test which is to break the curse while keeping herself alive from the Red Queen, Spider Twins, and the Bandersnatch

Written by A.G Howard, the novel Splintered was published in January 1, 2013. The novel resembles the concept of the book that Lewis Carroll wrote Alice in Wonderland. But unlike Lewis Carroll’s version, A.G Howard’s Wonderland is much darker and Alice Liddell brought upon all females in her line to have a curse, because of the mistakes she’s done in Wonderland. After learning what happened, and how she decides to go, because her mother’s mentality is beginning to worsen which is caused by the curse. With the help of Morpheus and Jebb, she goes to Wonderland and takes the test to fix her ancestor’s mistakes. While completing the test, she is also trying to keep herself alive from the ones that don’t want her to complete the test as well as the outcome that occurs if she does. Though in the end of the book, she does complete the test, and as a result she becomes the next Queen of Wonderland as well as removing Queen Red from the thrown. But Queen Red tried to murder Alyssa just so that she doesn’t become queen, but in the end Alyssa defeats her, taking away Queen Red’s human form.

To evaluate the novel, it will be based off of these, character, setting, style, plot, and theme. Character is for the character’s development, differences between other characters in the book and the connection between the readers. Setting is useful since shows how the author describes the place where the book is taking place, and how engaging it is since each reader has different opinions. Style, is another use that authors have because they are either similar or different styles among other authors and in A.G Howard’s books she uses diction and tone so that the readers would actually like it and to keep them reading her book. Plot, is used by many authors to keep the readers engaged, and as well as the type of plot they use for their books. Then, there is point of view, allows either the author or the characters’ to take perspective which can make a difference in how effective it is going to be. Lastly, is theme, which also impacts how effective about telling of the story and if there was a hidden message or trying to reflect some kind of idea for the readers.

After reading the novel, I really liked Splintered because it was one of the few books that I was able to understand, keep me wanting to read it no matter what and how she describes Wonderland. Like my type of style is the creepy, and fantasy like so this book got to my attention when I read what it was about. From the novel, the main character Alyssa had a very unique background and to have a connection with Alice Liddell was nice because almost every person has heard or read Alice in Wonderland. Then for Morpheus, he was Alyssa’s childhood friend and to actually get to see her face to face after being driven away when she was little, brought their connection again, and throughout Alyssa’s journey he was her guide as well as well having a personality of being manipulative and using his words very sneaky. Lastly, Jebb was more like an additional character but towards Alyssa he was like her protector and they both like each other.

In the setting, A.G Howard’s style is a creepy version of Wonderland, which also affect her characters by making them creepy as well. For example, Lewis Carroll’s version of Alice of Wonderland he has Twiddle Dee and Twiddle Dum. While A.G Howard has them as females and they are half human and half spider, as well they are the care takers of the souls of both humans and Netherlings. So as a result both versions from the authors have their similarities but the main difference in Howard’s Wonderland, was that her version was much darker and dangerous. Also, in her version it was like a mixture with Tim Burton’s style and her own style as well. So this gives her a different kind of book that I have read in the past. As for the plot, it has a good introduction, a clear development towards the climax and the end. Alyssa was fighting against herself, the craziness in Wonderland, the people she met and the test she needed to take to break the curse. From the beginning to the end the book was from Alyssa’s point of view, which was nice because it gave the audience a perspective as to what she was seeing, how she was taking the experience and how it was affecting her throughout the book. The best theme would probably be how to never give up on a person no matter how bad it may seem.