Review: Splintered

Splintered by A.G. Howard

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



This book was highly enjoyable. And I had no problem relating with Alyssa throughout her adventure. And I also liked Jeb... to an extent. and Morpheus..., well, with Morpheus I'm conflicted, because I had a problem with jumping back and forth: I liked him, but he was an arrogant ass-hat; then he was sweet and noble, but he was an arrogant ass-hat; then he seemed to be the ally you didn't want to lose because he was dependable, but he was an arrogant ass-hat... I also hated that he was mostly right about everything he told Alyssa.

For the past two days of reading this book, I had a very conflicting love-hate relationship with him. It was irritating, because I wanted to like him, but then again, I was also rooting for Jeb at moments -- other moments, I just wanted him to quit getting in the way because Alyssa had a mission to accomplish and he just didn't seem to get it. Between Jeb and Morpheus, I just didn't really have a preference for one guy or the other to win Alyssa's heart -- besides, it was a given at some point already who the OTP would be.

And so, not for the first time, this hopeless romantic actually didn't care if Alyssa ended up attached to someone in the end. I almost wanted the romance angle to get dashed. I mean, I really liked Alyssa -- she's spunky, she stubborn, she's resourceful, she strong, she determined... I like that she didn't just sit back and wait for people to come save her. This book was all around about how one girl could overcome anything thrown at her with enough will power and heart. I enjoyed the adventure she took on, and she proves more than anything that she is capable of taking on the world by herself. But for once while reading a young adult novel, I could have cared less about the romance angle. And I'm not quite sure why.

This book was written really well with a lot of great creations -- even for a story trying to re-hash all the crazy Alice in Wonderland elements that drove me up a wall just reading the original. I thoroughly enjoyed this one. However, I couldn't help but to feel a little disappointed that there was just something this story wasn't doing for me -- and I can't even quite put my finger on it. There were so many things that I really loved about this book... but something always seemed to fall short.

In a way, I kind of want to bump this rating up to a 4.5 rather than just a dinky little 4 by itself. Because at the very least, I was hooked and I'm looking forward to what the author could possibly come up with for the next book. I mean, as far as the story goes in Splintered, this book wrapped up rather conclusively that it could stand on it's own without any further additions to it.

This is a book I WOULD recommend though. It was definitely a great read.



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