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A review by elle4352
The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
The Looking Glass Wars is a YA fantasy retelling of Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
Things You'll Find:
*Steampunk Alice in Wonderland*
*Tons of fight scenes*
*A bit of a strange timeline*
I'm always here for a retelling, and Alice in Wonderland has so many characters and such a vast world that every retelling is always like reading a brand new story. This book was no different, Beddor takes Wonderland and transforms it into a war torn world full of interesting machinery and complex aristocratic and royal families. I have to agree with other reviewers, the book is pretty fast paced, but that's something I enjoy especially when a book is nearly 400 pages. I think, overall, we get a great sense of the world and conflict in this book and though I haven't read the sequels, it seems Beddor has set up a strong storyline that'll carry well into the next two novels. I was genuinely interested in seeing where the plot was going and found I couldn't put it down. This book was written before flowery prose became really popular, so while you won't find pages and pages of describing a forlorn Wonderland, the description Beddor provided gave me just enough to envision my own idea of his Wonderland without bogging me down with too much.
My drawbacks are ultimately the characters. For strictly plot-people, I think this book is going to exactly what they want, but if you really need that connection with characters to fall in love with a story, that's where this books fall short. Outside of Alyss, I really couldn't distinguish a specific voice or personality for any of the other characters. They start to blend together anytime everyone has gathered on the same page and is trying to speak. As for Alyss, I thought she was rather docile, and while I get the circumstances are what they are, it just seemed like she was really easy to sway to either side so I had trouble clicking with her because she didn't exude a lot of individuality or personality. Dodge as a character is consumed by vengeance and it doesn't bode well to make the audience connect or like him. And the Mad Hatter is so stoic that I couldn't vibe with him either. The story is primarily told through the eyes of those three, so by the end of the book while I was eager to know what happened for story's sake, I really didn't care about what happened to any of them. And, side note, the Jack of Diamonds has a huge butt and it's mentioned all the time. It was...a choice?
I also didn't like the way the timeline unfolded in the first half of the book. We jump from preteen Alyss, to kid Alyss, to Hatter, back to kid Alyss, back to preteen Alyss, and then the timeline is linear from there. For me, I found I wasn't interested in kid Alice because I'd already been introduced to preteen Alice and I kept just waiting for the plot to catch up to where we began. I think a linear timeline from the beginning would've been a better choice in this case.
Overall, this book definitely has an audience and the Tim Burton Alice fans will probably eat it up. But, for me it was just okay and I won't be continuing the series because I'm not invested enough in the characters to want to find out what happens next.
Things You'll Find:
*Steampunk Alice in Wonderland*
*Tons of fight scenes*
*A bit of a strange timeline*
I'm always here for a retelling, and Alice in Wonderland has so many characters and such a vast world that every retelling is always like reading a brand new story. This book was no different, Beddor takes Wonderland and transforms it into a war torn world full of interesting machinery and complex aristocratic and royal families. I have to agree with other reviewers, the book is pretty fast paced, but that's something I enjoy especially when a book is nearly 400 pages. I think, overall, we get a great sense of the world and conflict in this book and though I haven't read the sequels, it seems Beddor has set up a strong storyline that'll carry well into the next two novels. I was genuinely interested in seeing where the plot was going and found I couldn't put it down. This book was written before flowery prose became really popular, so while you won't find pages and pages of describing a forlorn Wonderland, the description Beddor provided gave me just enough to envision my own idea of his Wonderland without bogging me down with too much.
My drawbacks are ultimately the characters. For strictly plot-people, I think this book is going to exactly what they want, but if you really need that connection with characters to fall in love with a story, that's where this books fall short. Outside of Alyss, I really couldn't distinguish a specific voice or personality for any of the other characters. They start to blend together anytime everyone has gathered on the same page and is trying to speak. As for Alyss, I thought she was rather docile, and while I get the circumstances are what they are, it just seemed like she was really easy to sway to either side so I had trouble clicking with her because she didn't exude a lot of individuality or personality. Dodge as a character is consumed by vengeance and it doesn't bode well to make the audience connect or like him. And the Mad Hatter is so stoic that I couldn't vibe with him either. The story is primarily told through the eyes of those three, so by the end of the book while I was eager to know what happened for story's sake, I really didn't care about what happened to any of them. And, side note, the Jack of Diamonds has a huge butt and it's mentioned all the time. It was...a choice?
I also didn't like the way the timeline unfolded in the first half of the book. We jump from preteen Alyss, to kid Alyss, to Hatter, back to kid Alyss, back to preteen Alyss, and then the timeline is linear from there. For me, I found I wasn't interested in kid Alice because I'd already been introduced to preteen Alice and I kept just waiting for the plot to catch up to where we began. I think a linear timeline from the beginning would've been a better choice in this case.
Overall, this book definitely has an audience and the Tim Burton Alice fans will probably eat it up. But, for me it was just okay and I won't be continuing the series because I'm not invested enough in the characters to want to find out what happens next.