***WARNING- This post will have a lot of spoilers, so if you don't want a lot of the book revealed, don't read.***
I know it's been quite a while since my last review; it's been a while since I've had the time to read or review a book. But in the past few days, I've read two books, ones of which had a typical fairytale ending (hardly worth mentioning). But the second... I daresay it's one of the best books I've read in a while.Imaginative and intriguing, The Looking Glass Wars is based on Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, though it uses Carroll's story in a way that I found very interesting. But enough of that; I'll get on with the review.
Princess Alyss Heart is the heir to the queendom of Wonderland. In Wonderland, White Imagination fuels most everything, and Alyss shows signs of an impressive imagination. On the day of her seventh birthday celebration -after which she can start her "queen training"- Alyss' aunt, Redd, stages an attack on Wondertropolis and the royal family.
Her family dead, Alyss' protector, Hatter Madigan, escapes with her through the Crystal Continuum (a form of looking glass transportation), and out of Wonderland through the Pool of Tears. But Alyss and Hatter lose each other, and are transported to two different places on Earth.
As Alyss struggles to survive in an imagination-choked world, she befriends a ragtag group of orphans and runaways. But over time in the real world, Alyss begins to lose her imagination. Nobody believes her stories of Wonderland, and her imaginative powers are just a "trick". When she loses them completely, things take a turn for the worse.
Caught in the act of stealing, the princess is taken to Charing Cross, a place where children without families are dumped and left with the off chance that somebody will adopt them. When Alyss is adopted by the Liddels, instead of getting better, things look even worse than before. The Liddels don't believe Alyss' stories of Wonderland, try to make her believe that it's all in her head, and even claim that her name isn't spelled right. But then she makes a friend.
Charles Dodgson, a mathematics lecturer at Christ Church, listens to Alyss' stories with eager eyes. He makes note of them, and tells Alyss that he'll write a book about her life. Alyss, invigorated with one last ray of hope, gladly shares her entire life story. And finally, the man finishes the book. But, to Alyss' dismay, the man has turned the story around so much that it seems like a happy children's book.
Enraged, Alyss declares Dodgson the "cruelest man" she's ever met, and claims she never wants to see him again.
The next morning, Alyss greets the Liddels in the morning a changed girl. No longer does she speak of a place called Wonderland, and tell stories about Gwynooks or Jabberwocks or a strange boy named Dodge. She has stored that part of her in the back of her mind, where she hopes it will stay.
Meanwhile, Hatter Madigan searches earnestly for the princess, traveling all over the world in search of the only hope of Wonderland's survival. And finally, thirteen years after the princess was torn from him, he comes across a strange book that talks of a girl who can only be Alyss.
Tracking the book back to Dodgson, Hatter is shocked to find a newspaper clipping on the engagement of one 'Alice Liddel' to none other than Prince Leopold, youngest of Queen Victoria.
When at last Hatter finds a portal back to Wonderland (after being shot in the shoulder), he tells Alyss' childhood friend, Dodge of his discovery. Because Hatter is too weak, Dodge volunteers to go back in after Alyss.
While at a masquerade held by Alyss and the Prince, a strange man dances with Alyss. When he takes off his mask to reveal some very familiar scars, she cannot contain her surprise. It couldn't be. That was all a dream. He never existed, and therefore it couldn't have been him.... could it?
At the wedding of Alyss and Leopold, creatures from Wonderland, including The Cat (Redd's top assassin) and card soldiers burst through the window and attempt to kill Alyss. But Dodge intervenes and rushes her back to Wonderland.
And now the time has come to prepare the still-dazed Alyss to fight her Aunt Redd for the throne, and for the freedom of the Wonderlanders. Will her imagination be enough? Will her friends, protector, and tutor be able to bring back to her what was once lost? Is Alyss strong enough to become Queen of Wonderland?
Okay. Wow. That took a while. Sorry it was so long and that it gave away so much about the book. It just isn't the same if you skimp on the details. But anyway...
This book was one of those can't-put-it-down-and-wouldn't-even-if-there-was-a-tsunami/alien invasion/apocalypse kinds. Yeah. Now, depending on your tastes, you might not find this book interesting at all. But I've always been a fan of any take on Alice in Wonderland, and I LOVED how Beddor remade all of the characters and gave them such LIFE, that you couldn't doubt their existence for a minute. None of the characters are perfect, which is awesome. They all have their flaws and bad points. But they have good points, too. And they (especially Alyss) transform throughout the book into either something very good for Wonderland, or very bad.
Every character that we know and love in the original story is back, but hyped up so much that it blows your mind. While reading this book, I laughed, cried, got angry at characters, was so proud of some of them that I was grinning like an idiot, etc. Now maybe my mind was just on book withdrawal because of my lack of reading lately. Or maybe this book was just awesome. But either way, I give The Looking Glass Wars the awesome-sauce stamp of approval ten-fold.
Awesome book, amazing writing; check it out. I look forward to reading the rest of the series.
As always, thanks for reading~
~Shay~
