Juvenile Fiction
Dial Books for Young Readers
2006
358
When Alyss Heart, newly orphaned heir to the Wonderland throne, flees through the Pool of Tears to escape her murderous Aunt Redd, she finds herself lost and alone in Victorian London. Befriended by an aspiring author named Lewis Carrol, Alyss tells the violent, heartbreaking story of her young life. Alyss trusts this author to tell the truth so that someone, somewhere will find her and bring her home. But he gets the story all wrong. He even spells her name incorrectly!
Fortunately, Royal Bodyguard Hatter Madigan knows all too well the awful truth of Alyss' story - and he's searching every corner of our world to find the lost princess and return her to Wonderland, to battle Redd for her rightful place as the Queen of Hearts.
The Looking Glass Wars unabashedly challenges our Wonderland assumptions of mad tea parties, grinning Cheshire cats, and a curious little blond girl to reveal an epic battle in the endless war for Imagination.
My Review:
This book was designed to do one thing. To grab everyone off the seat of their pants and keep them excitedly turning the pages. It accomplishes this with imagination and vigor.
If you are someone who loves the original story of Alice and Wonderland, this isn’t the book for you. This Wonderland is more horrific and more exciting than the surreal place that Carroll depicted. This Wonderland is filled with magic, monsters, and a mixture of different technologies. It’s fantastic and grounded in the realities of war.
This book is filled with topics on politics, history, and biography, and it included many parallels to events that are happening in our world today. This story is fun, well written, and well thought out.
Alyss Heart was a an extraordinary character. She isn’t interested in being Queen, but looking for a way to escape the palace and getting into trouble. Hatter Madigan really made this book for me. He was incredible. He is quiet, quick, and wields the throwing knives from his hat with chilling accuracy.
I honestly could not put this book down! I am very excited to read the rest of the series. If you like fantasy and action, then this is a book for you!
Watch Out For: Drinking, smoking, drugs, battles, deaths, and a beheading.
