Book Review: Splintered

TITLE: Splintered
Book 1 in the new Splintered series
AUTHOR: A. G. Howard
PUBLISHED: January 2013
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Retelling, Fantasy
PREMISE: Alyssa knows her family, descendants of Alice Liddell, are cursed. She goes to London to try an undo the curse and winds up in a Wonderland that is not quite the wonder the book made it out to be.
MY REVIEW: First off, cover artist? You rock. That is a freaking GORGEOUS cover ;pets it;. Second of all: I liked it. I was afraid this was going to be like Alice in Zombieland where it would be a girl named Alice and actually have nothing to do with Alice in Wonderland as promised. But this one did not do that. Actually, it reminded me strongly of The Looking Glass Wars Trilogy. Which is not bad because I have a big fondness for that series.
But this is Looking Glass Wars written by someone with much better prose (sorry Beddor, love your imagination, hate your writing style). I love the way Howard writes. Gorgeous. Can't give much points for originality because despite wonderfully crafted world, Alice in Wonderland retellings are a dime a dozen and there were a few tropes that are common in YA (such as the mean popular girl trope which we all know annoys me to death).
Still though, I read this because I wanted a creative Alice in Wonderland retelling and that is exactly what I got so I can't complain too loudly. This was a very decent debut, I can't wait for book 2.
WHO SHOULD READ: Alice in Wonderland fans, Looking Glass Wars fans
MY RATING: Four out of Five butterflies