Okay, here's my brief synopsis of Splintered: Our main character is Alyssa, who is a distant relative of THE Alice that the story was based on. Her mother is in an asylum, as she seems to believe that she has been to Wonderland, and even hurt her daughter one time because of what she heard the insects saying. And actually, Alyssa has been hearing the insects and plants talk to her for awhile. But she's tried really hard not to let anyone know, and to ignore it. In fact, to help deal with it, she took up collecting insects, and using them in art. Which of course required them to be killed, which meant silence for Alyssa. She does decide to admit something to her mother about it, when the things going on with the insects begin to grow strangely predictive. But telling her mother about it leads to her mother having a bit of a breakdown. To the point where her father decides that electric shock therapy may be the only choice left. But Alyssa has learned of the curse on her family, and now wants nothing more to get to London, and in turn into Wonderland, to fix the original Alice's mistakes and save her family. She figures out how to get there from clues both off the internet as well as from her mother. Unfortunately when she gets the "looking glass" to work for her with the keys her mother left hidden for her, Jeb, her next door neighbor, best-friend, and secret crush, gets sucked in after her when he tries to save her. But of course, once they get to Wonderland, they have to deal with all the familiar things in the story, the shrinking with drinking the "drink me" and then growing back with the "eat me" cake. And, as with any good story, what Alyssa believes she is there to do, is not actually what she's going to be doing, or why she'll do it. Not to mention the fact that Alyssa herself isn't who or what she's always believed she was. Such a good story, with twists and turns to keep you on your feet and making it hard to put the book down, even if you have to work!!
Okay, now, things I loved, that all the women in the line of the family were named a version of the name Alice. Any story that makes me want to research into a true story is a great story in my opinion. While there is a bit of a love triangle, and I do get tired of those, the way it works, well, it just works, and isn't as much of a triangle as could be. And, I am not a fan of comic books really, or graphic novels, but I must admit how much I wanted to see each of the outfits that Alyssa wore in the book. The author described them so colorfully I could almost see them in my head. But I'd love to see a graphic novel, or illustrations within just a regular novel of them. And I want her to look just like the cover, no cartoony-ness or manga-ish, anime-ish, etc. And this would be a colorful, wonderful movie, one I'd be there at midnight to see, even though I've said no more midnight premieres unless they are in the summer, because I'm too old for that during the school year when I have to teach all day. I love, love, love this book! If you like fairy tale retellings, or other story retellings, then you have to read this. What are you waiting for? Oh yeah, it won't be published till January. But put it on your TBR list, you'll want to read it!
