Alyssa Gardner has been down the rabbit hole. She was crowned Queen of the Red Court and faced the bandersnatch. She saved the life of Jeb, the boy she loves, and escaped the machinations of the disturbingly appealing Morpheus. Now all she has to do is graduate high school. That would be easier without her mother, freshly released from an asylum, acting overly protective and suspicious. And it … and suspicious. And it would be much simpler if the mysterious Morpheus didn’‘t show up for school one day to tempt her with another dangerous quest in the dark, challenging Wonderland–where she (partly) belongs.
Could she leave Jeb and her parents behind again, for the sake of a man she knows has manipulated her before? Will her mother and Jeb trust her to do what’’s right? Readers will swoon over the satisfying return to Howard’’s bold, sensual reimagining of Carroll’’s classic.
Read all the books in the New York Times bestselling Splintered series: Splintered (Book 1), Unhinged (Book 2), Ensnared (Book 3), and Untamed (The Companion Novel).
Get books 1 through 3 in the Splintered boxed set, available now!
Praise for Unhinged
“I really enjoyed the first book of this series, but Unhinged cranks the Wonderland experience up to 11. It’’s just … WOW! The last few scenes dangle Alyssa’’s next adventure with shockers enough that I found my jaw needing a bit of assistance in coming off the floor. Write quickly, A.G. Howard! I need that next book!”
—USA Today
“Howard excels in sensory and sensuous descriptions.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“As intense, dark, and weird as the first volume, this worthy sequel creates a parallel narrative that brings the action out of Wonderland and into Alyssa’’s hometown.”
—The Bulletin of The Center for Children’’s Books
“A dark beauty fills the novel’’s pages, which will mesmerize teens with a taste for magic, romance or suspense. Unhinged lays the groundwork for a third book where anything could happen–it is Wonderland, after all.”
—Shelf Awareness
Praise for Splintered:
STARRED REVIEW
“Fans of dark fantasy, as well as of Carroll’’s Alice in all her revisionings (especially Tim Burton’’s), will find a lot to love in this compelling and imaginative novel.”
—Bulletin of the Center for Children’’s Books
“Alyssa is one of the most unique protagonists I’‘ve come across in a while. Splintered is dark, twisted, entirely riveting, and a truly romantic tale.”
—USA Today
“Brilliant, because it is ambitious, inventive, and often surprising — a contemporary reworking of Lewis Carroll’’s “Alice’’s Adventures in Wonderland,’‘’’ with a deep bow toward Tim Burton’’s 2010 film version.”
—The Boston Globe
“It’’s a deft, complex metamorphosis of this children’’s fantasy made more enticing by competing romantic interests, a psychedelic setting, and more mad violence than its original.”
—Booklist
” Protagonist Alyssa…is an original. Howard’’s visual imagination is superior. The story’’s creepiness is intriguing as horror, and its hypnotic tone and setting, at the intersection of madness and creativity, should sweep readers down the rabbit hole.”
—Publishers Weekly
“While readers will delight in such recognizable scenes as Alyssa drinking from a bottle to shrink, the richly detailed scenes that stray from the original will entice the imagination. These adventures are indeed wonderful.”
—BookPage
“Attention to costume and setting render this a visually rich read…”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Wonderland is filled with much that is not as wonderful as might be expected, and yet, it is in Wonderland that Alyssa accepts her true nature. The cover with its swirling tendrils and insects surrounding Alyssa will surely attract teen readers who will not disappointed with this magical, edgy tale.”
—Reading Today Online
“Creepy, descriptive read with a generous dollop of romance.”
—School Library Journalmore
I loved this book so much and getting a chance to see more of Morpheus! Howard writes so beautifully!!
So many things I couldn’t keep up
‘Unhinged’ is the perfect sequel to ‘Splintered’ in every way. It draws on the previous book’s events to create a wonderfully mad situation in Alyssa’s life. Instead of focusing on being in Wonderland, this book focuses on Wonderland coming into our world. The madness that ensues perfectly encapsulates the crazy logic of Wonderland as it clashes with our own world’s logic.
This book also gives more insight into Alyssa’s mother, her father, and Jeb and Morpheus. Delving into the past of her parents, giving more context to their relationship and all that it entails, and of course, their love for each other. And of course, there’s Morpheus and Jeb and all that comes with the love triangle.
If you enjoyed ‘Splintered’ then this sequel is just what you need to get your Wonderland fix. And this book will propel you to pick up the third in the trilogy with a wonderful ending that will leave you wondering what happens next.
Alyssa has chosen the human realm over Wonderland. But there is a certain netherling that refuses to let her go. Morpheus invades her dreams every night, showing her glimpses of Wonderland and tempting her to return. Morpheus claims Wonderland is falling apart without Alyssa, but he is a devious trickster and she refuses to believe him. But when traces of Wonderland begin to appear in the human realm, it becomes harder to ignore the signs. Soon Alyssa will find herself fighting for not only Wonderland but the human realm as well.
After reading Splintered, I was ready for another dark and beautiful tale. But to my surprise, Unhinged was slower to progress than the first novel. Alyssa is filled with internal conflict and does not want to tap into her netherling side. She is determined to leave the magic and chaos behind. Due to Alyssa’s steadfast attempts to avoid Wonderland, much of Unhinged focuses on a more typical young adult story. Senior year uncertainties, finals, prom, peers gossiping, etc. Granted there is some chaos thrown into the mix of a magical sort, but nothing that I expected.
However, A.G. Howard did a wonderful job keeping the emotional intensity between Jeb and Alyssa alive. I loved their scenes together and the energy they brought to the pages. And while they do have mundane obstacles to overcome with their relationship, adding Morpheus into the mix ramped up the tension. And he is not afraid to stir up trouble. He will pull out all his tricks and riddles in an attempt to lead Alyssa down darker roads.
And despite the slower pace, some landslide twists came about from Unhinged. While I could guess a few, others caught me completely by surprise. I do wish there had been more of the dark chaos which initially drew me into this series, but I recognize Unhinged for what it is, a setup book. I know how intoxicatingly dark this series can be, so I am willing to give it another try and read book three.
Splintered, the first book in the series, didn’t impress me. The basic idea of the world of Wonderland was pretty much its only redeeming quality, as the character development, plot, and romance were all grossly lacking and the book itself leant a bit too much into the absurd and nonsensical. Unhinged works a little better, thankfully, but for some reasons that might not bode well for the final book in the series. It makes much more sense and has far less worldbuilding thrown at us, focusing on a smaller group of characters and their relationships than its predecessor. That doesn’t mean it pulls all these things off entirely successfully, as I would still put it at three stars, my It Was Fine rating.
Splintered leaves us with Alyssa returned home after varying misadventures in Wonderland, back with her boyfriend who cannot remember any of the events of the first book, and with an ominous warning from her other sort-of boyfriend that the main villain, Red, is still out there. Unhinged removes us almost entirely from Wonderland and Wonderland activities, setting us in the real world for basically the whole novel as Alyssa is pursued by Red and various Wonderland creatures in her real life. There’s no shortage of magic or magical creatures here, but the world functions the way its supposed to. The removal of Wonderland from the narrative, where we spent most of Splintered, does wonders for making the plot easier to follow. I’m not sure how much this bodes well for the author’s writing skills; I’ve read a lot of retellings where Wonderland is absurd and frightening that still manage to keep the plot in line. The fact that the author can’t seem to create a nonsensical world while keeping her plot understandable is a little worrisome. I liked the idea of Wonderland last time, and the fact that she had to sacrifice creativity for legibility is disappointing. But regardless, it made the writing clearer. The steadfast rules of the real world kept the narrative more grounded.
We also see an improvement in the relationships between Alyssa and her two love interests. The last book everything was a little too perfect between her and Jeb, the “good” one who’s been friends with her for ages, who represents her human life and everything that comes with it. They sacrificed themselves for each other constantly, culminating in Jeb’s memories being erased, which doesn’t matter as he still loves her anyway. This novel saw things shook up a bit: Jeb is a bit older than her and is interested in moving for his career, making business decisions like meeting with female clients, and trying to move forward with his life. Alyssa is still in high school and entrapped in her family troubles and Wonderland troubles, so their differing lifestyles lead to plenty of conflict. Jeb isn’t actually in this novel as much as he was the last one, and I found that I liked him more when he wasn’t around (oops). Again, like how removing Wonderland from the narrative made the novel work better, removing Jeb from the equation allowed the relationship to develop without them being lovey-dovey all over each other all the time and allowed for conflicts to breathe between them. As the next book seems to have a lot of Jeb in it from the way this book ends, I’m again waffling on whether or not the author is just removing elements from the book that make it harder to write and that’s what’s making it a better book, not actually improving on the writing or substance of the novel.
The one thing that definitely did improve was Alyssa’s other, unofficial boyfriend Morpheus, this Wonderland’s version of the Caterpillar, except he’s a moth. Literally. There were actually quite a few fun moments in this novel where Morpheus’s moth form works a lot better than it did in the last book; being able to stuff your boyfriend in a jar when you’re tired of him annoying you is great. And if that sounds a bit harsh, Morpheus can be manipulative at times, and while it really does all work out for Alyssa’s benefit you still can’t really forgive him for being so terrible all the time. Alyssa gives as good as she gets in Unhinged, no longer being led around on a leash by Morpheus’s every whim. I’m glad that she gets to use her wits in this one, both against the villains of the novel and against him. Their relationship was definitely improved, and while I’m not usually up for horrible and manipulative boyfriends, the fact that their relationship has seemed to evolve into more equal footing, both of them playing each other, is something I can be into.
Aside from my misgivings about Howard pulling the complicated things out of the narrative, there is one thing she keeps complicated and annoying: the villains and their motives. We actually have two villains in this novel, Red, from Splintered, and another minor character from Splintered who is suddenly deciding to take revenge on another minor character. Did we really need both of these? Does it make a lot of sense to introduce this second villain? They’re not working together, also, they’re two separate entities and plots. Not only does this make for an unnecessarily confusing plot, but it also feels rushed. When you have to split the book between two different villains, you can only spend about half the book on talking about each one of them. Red’s motives, I can understand. They haven’t changed since the last book and they’re still just as one-dimensional: power & greed. The other villain… I couldn’t figure out why she was suddenly involved. Why she didn’t take action last book or why Howard chose one of the most unnecessary characters and made them a villain. Again, it seems like the second the author tries to involve complex plots things fall apart. There’s nothing wrong with keeping things simple! The book would’ve worked much better with just one villain, giving Red time to develop as a character and into a real threat.
Unhinged didn’t really do a lot to improve my opinion on the series as a whole, even if the individual book worked a bit better than its predecessor. It’s obvious to me that trying to keep complicated worldbuilding rules and relationships is not the author’s forte, but the books are obviously fine enough that I’m not put off by reading the last one. I’m even looking forward to seeing more of Alyssa and Morpheus, even though it looks like she’ll be with Jeb in the end. A series is only worth as much as its ending, and its possible Howard might pull off a great stunt for the perfect finale.
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