Scan barcode
A review by briarsreviews
A Blade So Black by L.L. McKinney
adventurous
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Want me to be honest? I judged this book by it's cover. The cover and title got my attention and I was like... "Yep, I'm buying it!"
I do that sometimes, because why listen to that old trope of not judging a book by it's cover? I work in Marketing! The whole point of a cover is to grab attention! And this cover is just so beautiful....
And, to make things ever better, the story was great! I need the sequel now! Like, yesterday! I found a new author out of judging covers, so that's a win.
A Blade So Black by L.L. McKinney is a modern, urban fantasy intertext of Alice in Wonderland. Real life Alice tackles monsters with the help of the Mad Hatter, all while trying to maintain the reality of being a teenager in Atlanta. Definitely not easy! This debut book had me GLUED to it and I binged. I binged HARD. I really liked how easy this book was to read and how it wasn't a play by play of the typical Alice story. It changes a lot up, and I really liked it for this book. It works really well.
I highly recommend this Alice retelling as YA! It's also a BIPOC authored book, so representation!
Five out of five stars. Help me find this sequel!
I do that sometimes, because why listen to that old trope of not judging a book by it's cover? I work in Marketing! The whole point of a cover is to grab attention! And this cover is just so beautiful....
And, to make things ever better, the story was great! I need the sequel now! Like, yesterday! I found a new author out of judging covers, so that's a win.
A Blade So Black by L.L. McKinney is a modern, urban fantasy intertext of Alice in Wonderland. Real life Alice tackles monsters with the help of the Mad Hatter, all while trying to maintain the reality of being a teenager in Atlanta. Definitely not easy! This debut book had me GLUED to it and I binged. I binged HARD. I really liked how easy this book was to read and how it wasn't a play by play of the typical Alice story. It changes a lot up, and I really liked it for this book. It works really well.
I highly recommend this Alice retelling as YA! It's also a BIPOC authored book, so representation!
Five out of five stars. Help me find this sequel!