Splintered Box Set

Splintered #1-3

by A.G. Howard

For fans of A.G. Howard’s Splintered series, a collectible box set featuring all three Alice in Wonderland inspired titles in paperback. Splintered captures the grotesque madness of a mystical under land, as well as Alyssa Gardner’s pangs of first love and independence. In Unhinged, Alyssa is tempted away from high school and back to Wonderland for another dangerous quest. And Ensnared introduces Alyssa’s ultimate challenge: to rescue her two worlds and the people and netherlings she loves...even if it means challenging the Red Queen to a battle of wills and wiles. This captivating series, perfect for fans of Marissa Meyer, begs the question: can anyone truly have their happily ever after?

Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Young Adult

1232 pages, Paperback

Published October 10, 2017

About the author

#1 New York Times and International bestselling Author of gothic / fantasy & paranormal tales, mystical & romantic with a side of horror. A.G.'s dark Alice in Wonderland inspired Splintered series has been published in over a dozen languages.

Young adult, Adult, and literary romance. Repped by Jenny Bent.

How A.G. Howard rates books on GoodReads:

"I only rate or review books I enjoyed reading, and won't give any rating below 4 stars. Please don't consider every high rating a personal endorsement / recommendation from me. My ratings here are subjective to me as an individual.

I don't rate books solely on style. Every writer's voice is individual and unique; I've come to respect this truth during my own personal journey. As long as a story takes me to another place and is well edited, I'm going to give it a good rating. And if, for some reason, a book doesn't entertain me or I don't finish it, I won't leave a rating or review at all.

If you're considering a book I've reviewed/rated, be sure to read other reviews/ratings alongside mine to help you decide if it's a read you might enjoy personally.

Happy book hunting!"

Reviews

[**Sognatrice di libri** · Rating 4 out of 5]

Opinione libro 1

Ho letteralmente divorato questo primo capitolo di questa serie davvero molto bella. All'inizio avevo un po' di riserve sul prenderlo ma ora che ho letto questo libro mi sono dovuta ricredere, la storia è avvincente e molto ben scritta; il rivisitare la storia di Alice nel paese delle meraviglie è stata un' idea fantastica. I personaggi sono ben descritti ed è facile immedesimarsi con loro soprattutto in Alyssa e in Jeb, sono come ognuno di noi semplici e reali con i classici problemi adolescenziali, una cosa che mi è piaciuta particolarmente. In conclusione un libro ben scritto sotto tanti punti di vista, una lettura molto piacevole e leggera che mi ha catturata sin dal primo rigo, ora non aspetto altro che leggere il seguito.

[Saga · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Wonderful retelling of Alice Adventures in Wonderland!

[Stephanie (Bookfever) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Splintered:
Once upon a time (which would be a few months ago in april or may 2012) I entered a giveaway to win an arc copy of Splintered. I never would've guessed that I would actually win this. To me winning Splintered was mind blowing.

Just one look at the cover and you get pretty much sucked in already, right? So it wasn't until august that I received my copy but it was so worth the wait. Not only that but the author was also really nice, always letting me now what was happening and when the arcs were being printed. A huuuuge thanks for that! :D

Splintered is the story of Alyssa Gardner, a descendant of Alice Liddell who was the inspiration for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. Yes, that Alice!

Ever since little Alice descended down the rabbit hole and came out bringing a terrible curse with her, every female in Alyssa's family has been affected by madness; hearing the voices of bugs and plants.
To save her mother and herself, Alyssa must go down the rabbit hole herself to try and break the curse.

I must admit I never really finished Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, I've read about half of it until other books got in the way. You know how it goes. But even so I love anything related to Alice in Wonderland. Splintered is no exception. Not by a long shot. It was so wonderful to read. Pretty much every character you know from Lewis Carroll's tale is there, only a bit different. More mad and wicked.

Alyssa was a good heroine. I'm not saying my favorite heroine ever but eventually I started to really like her. I wasn't a fan of her at the beginning because I wasn't sure if she would live up to my standards that I know I have for my book heroines. Especially once she and Jeb, her friend and secret crush, entered Wonderland.

I also wasn't an immediate fan of Jeb. I didn't love him or anything. But I didn't dislike the fact that he was there with Alyssa. He was just Jeb. *shrugs*

And then there was Morpheus *grins* Wicked and wild, as A.G. Howard calls him. He was one of the characters in Alice's Adventure in Wonderland, you'll sure have read/heard about. I could never quite figure out is he was a bad guy, even when most of the time he was, or he was a good guy deep inside. He was so enchanting, dark and just plain sexy with his half mask that it's no wonder Alyssa had a hard time concentrating around him. I loved their relationship a lot more than Alyssa's relationship with Jeb, that was a little boring. Morpheus was way more exciting.Yeah, I just love him.

“He's a contradiction: taut magic coiled to strike, gentleness at war with severity, a tongue as sharp as a whip's edge, yet skin so soft he could be swathed in clouds.”

Of course there were other very interesting characters. Sometimes very disturbing to read about like those killer flowers... *gulp* Anyway... all of them were amazing and so original in their own way, different, even though they are from Carroll's tale. This Wonderland world is nothing like the one in the original book, it way more dangerous and gruesome. Just delicious.

Splintered was one amazing retelling of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. A.G. Howard gave a very original spin to the story, making it a whole lot more creepy, frightening and just fantastical. With its omnious characters and beautiful writing it was breathtaking to read about the Wonderland that Alice left behind.


Unhinged:
Wow! Unhinged was so damn good! I'm really impressed by how much I ended up loving it. It's been so freaking long since I read Splintered. Almost one year and a half I think so it's been really nice to get back into this amazing world. I had to stop a few times, though, to read some books that were due for review but I finally finished it and let me just say that I can't wait until the third book is out. I need it now!

It's a little hard to form any coherent thoughts with the way Unhinged ended. Really, just everything that happened in this book was non-stop action, mystery and of course a bit of romance. Speaking of the romance. I am not a fan of love triangles but I can truly see Alyssa's hesitation between Jeb and Morpheus. Which is really weird because I'm a huge Morpheus fangirl. Moths FTW! And may I just say that in this book he was especially amazing. I mean wow. I love him. And I really want him to end up with Alyssa someday.
But throughout this book I've been growing a bit fonder of Jeb too. Imagine that.

Alyssa has definitely grown as a character in my eyes. At the start of the book she thought she was done with all things Wonderland and ready to move on with Jeb. But of course things didn't go as planned at all. And I'm glad that eventually Alyssa finally found out for herself who she is and really believed it. You go, girl!

And the story... it was brilliant. A.G. Howard is a fantastic writer. I love her writing style so much. It's beautiful, poetic and yet dark and creepy. Oh this book was so creepy. I loved it!
I also really liked the little twists involving Alyssa's mom and dad. Their past together and how it wasn't all how it seemed. It was a pretty unexpected turn of events and I loved every bit of that!

What else can I say than I loved this book? I can't wait for Ensared to come out and find out how the story will continue from here on because the ending? Oh my god! I can't believe all that happened and those are the best books out there, that leave you shocked and breathless and aching for the next book.

So five stars definitely earned for Unhinged by A.G. Howard!


Ensnared:
First of all, I can't believe this series is over. It's been one of my favorites right from the start and I absolutely loved all the books. Ensnared was also really good. And the ending was pretty perfect to me.

First I want to talk about Alyssa for a bit. I've loved her since the first book and you can clearly see how much she changed. I mean, everything is out in the open in this book... herself, her feelings for Jeb and Morpheus, her need for wanting to restore Wonderland and her love for her family. She's always been a fantastic character but I ended up liking her the most in Ensnared. She was just so fierce!

The big question of this book was of course, who is Alyssa going to end up in the end. No spoilers here but I had expected it to end the way it did and I am definitely not disappointed. I'm pretty sure whether you're a Morpheus or a Jeb fan, you'll be pleased either way.

Like I said, Ensnared was really good but I have to admit that I enjoyed it a little less than the other two books. I just thought it was a little slow but other than that it was awesome. This series is also and will always be my favorite retelling of Alice in Wonderland and pretty much everything. I loved how A.G. Howard created this Wonderland and how she executed it. Her writing style is probably one of my favorites, it's just so gorgeous and whimsical at time - much like Wonderland is.

I don't want to give too much away about Ensnared but there were times were I was practically dying with nerves because some unexpected things happened. Some were good some were bad and some were just making me want to throw this book away. But overall I really liked the way the story went, aside from at times it was a bit too slow.

I'm a big Morpheus fan. Everyone who knows me a little will probably know that. And he was bloody brilliant in this book. I've probably said that about the previous books also but it's so very true. And I also must say that I wasn't hating on Jeb as much as I did in the other books. All characters changed a lot from the first book.

Overall, Ensnared by A.G. Howard was a very good ending to one of my favorite series. I'll admit that I teared up when I was reading the epilogue. Epilogues always get to me. But this one was really beautiful. Anyway, if you haven't read this series, I would highly recommend that you go read the books right now. One of the best series ever and I'll miss these characters so much!

[Laurie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm relistening to the audiobooks - It's like re-reading the whole series! It's amazing - entertaining, good voices, like reliving the world I loved so much the first time. And I'm lots of things I either missed or forgot!

[Ibtesam Rahman · Rating 5 out of 5]

SPLINTERED SERIES BY A G HOWARD
The trilogy is a retelling of Alice in Wonderland, and maybe it's a crime to say that I loved this more than the OG book but I did. This had much better plot and characters. In Alice in Wonderland, things happened at random. These books weaved those random events into a story.
There's a love triangle, and a happy ending to the story. And this is not a spoiler just a safety net.
Normally I hate love triangles because I hate being conflicted but this series solved the problem the best they could.
The books are also dark, think Wonderland, but darker and crazier and more daring.
The characters- Alyssa is okay I guess. For a heroine, she is very reluctant. If I were crowned queen of anywhere I'd accept that whole heartedly.
Morpheus is the best character of the whole series. He is dark, mysterious, and the only one who is acting his age.

SPLINTERED- The first book introduces us to Alyssa, Jeb and Morpheus. Jeb and Alyssa are childhood best friends. Alyssa's life is crazy as her mother is in a psychiatric hospital and she started having these crazy dreams. Jeb is an asshole in the first story. Morpheus is a freaking dream. Alyssa goes into Wonderland and realises her ancestry.

ENSNARED- The second book of the series. Well, the twists never stopped. No surprise was predictable. Alyssa returns from Wonderland and is focussed on passing high school and this would be easier if her newly home mother didn't act all protective. And if Morpheus didn't come to her high school disguised as a foreign ex student. Meanwhile she also starts having these visions which predict a future which she found out too late. Or maybe just in time.

UNHINGED-
Honestly, my favourite book of all the three. Everything fir perfectly. Certain twists were revealed. All the three books have mind bending twists, all over. I was also very excited to see how the story ended. Most of the book takes place in Anyelsewhere. Yes that's a place! Wonderland is decaying and it's upon our Alyssa to save it by claiming the crown by herself. I know these sound very cliched but the story is worth it.
Overall, read the damn series. I haven't been this invested in a series in a long time.

[Ash Reads to Escape · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a tough one... 2⭐'s is pretty low for me, I usually only give that to books just above a DNF. After a few days of thinking about it though, I just can't give it a 3⭐.

Overall, this story has such potential, I liked the concept and there were parts that were done really well for the Wonderland world building.
But the negatives, unfortunately, outweigh the positives.
There is way too much emphasis on the emo-punk characteristics- so much that it takes away from the story. This book is like a 90's tween love story, but when it gets to the "romantic" bits (nothing graphic for young readers), it doesnt give you an "awwww" feeling, it just makes you feel icky and creepy. One of the male main characters has a lip ring that is referred to over and over and over again, just to make sure you don't forget about it. Shaggy hair, tank tops, cargo shorts, paints dark fairy art. Female main character is no better- clip in yarn "dreadlocks", netted stockings, gothic/emo outfits. Too much cheesy skater language. And the writing- it's just not good.

Some people in their reviews were really offended over the mental illness aspect of the book and how it was described with injections and straight jackets- I think they are overreacting, but things don't generally offend me very easily.
It's a main theme of the book, because it has to be, Alyssa's (main character) only reason for going to Wonderland is because her mom's mental illness, which is a family curse because of the original "Alice". If you are very sensitive about mental illness, you might be offended, but just remember, IT'S FICTION so it is over dramatized.

I have books 1-3, but I am not going to waste time reading books 2-3. Book 1 ended in a pretty final way that I don't feel like I have to keep reading. Going to be gifting these away!

[_the_escaper_ · Rating 3 out of 5]

📚Questi libri sono un retelling di "Alice nel Paese delle Meraviglie" di Lewis Carroll.
Li ho trovati per caso e quando ho letto la trama mi sono incuriosita tantissimo e li ho presi - nonostante il titolo obbrobrioso.
Ma non è tutt'oro quello che luccica.

🐇Partiamo dalle cose che non mi sono piaciute.
Se mi conoscete un po' sapete che io e i libri scritti in prima persona non andiamo molto d'accordo, e indovinate questo come è scritto? In prima persona. Ma l'ho letto lo stesso perché mai fare di tutta l'erba un fascio.
La protagonista, Alyssa, è una ragazza che rimugina tanto, molto, moltissimo, infatti ho spesso alzato gli occhi al cielo quando dovevo leggere pagine e pagine dei suoi pensieri, ma saltando qualche pezzo, sono giunta alla fine.
Un'altra cosa che non mi è andata giù è stato il trash del primo libro, causato da alcune scene che nemmeno a 13 anni con la prima crush. Ah, il triangolo amoroso l'avrei evitato.

🎩Detto ciò, passiamo alle cose belle.
La trama è davvero originale e la fantasia dell'autrice non ha limiti e crea un mondo fantastico diverso e più oscuro da quello descritto da Carroll. Le descrizioni di ogni luogo e creatura sono minuziose e permettono al lettore di immergersi completamente nel libro e nelle avventure dei protagonisti. I colpi di scena sono molto e niente è come appare e il Coniglio Bianco e il Cappellaio Matto non sono affatto come ce li ha descritti Alice.

🐛Non ho letto il quarto capitolo della saga - "6 cose impossibili" - che contiene tre racconti ambientati prima, durante e dopo questa trilogia. Ho deciso di non leggerlo perché, anche se mi ha lasciato un po' l'amaro in bocca, i libri hanno un finale.

📔Vi consiglio questa saga perché quello che non mi è piaciute è soggettivo e voi potreste amarlo, in più andrete avanti spinti dalla curiosità e dallo stile della Howard.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall: 3 Stars

Splintered (Splintered #1) - 3 Stars
Alyssa Gardner’s family is cursed. Her great grandmother was the original Alice that went down into Wonderland and ever since then all of the women in the family have been cursed with madness. As her mother’s mental stability worsens and more extreme measures are on the horizon to control her affliction, Alyssa takes matters into her own hands and heads back to Wonderland to try and undo her family’s past mistakes.

This is a wonderfully scary retelling/new perspective on the Alice in Wonderland Adventures by Lewis Carroll. I love how the author is able to incorporate all of the curse elements and how they ties in so well with the past story. I did find myself skimming through some of the parts but overall greatly enjoyed the book as a whole.

I would recommend this to people that love Alice in Wonderland and wanted a darker side to the story.

Unhinged (Splintered #2) - 3 Stars
Alyssa Gardner doesn't want to be tempted by Morpheus again, she just wants to make it through high school. With the release of her mother from the asylum, things get more complicated.

I liked the progression of this story, the pacing kept me entertained. Morpheus is a hard character to resist, I can see why he is so tempting to Alyssa. I liked how insane and crazy the world-building is, it fits right in the with Wonderland perspective.

Ensnared (Splintered #3) - 3 Stars
As Alyssa embraces her madness she realizes that she has not one but two worlds to save.

I ended up really liking how the story turned out. Even with this being such a weird series (you can't expect anything less from wonderland) I thought all of the characters had their finales.

[River · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review of the first book:

When I first started reading this book, I was a little unsure of the characters. They were so very different from anything I had imagined, which grew on me throughout the book. I always love reading something that is different and unique. I was also a little disappointed that my favorite character, The Mad Hatter, wasn’t very involved in the story, though we did meet him. In turn, I was surprised that the main Wonderland character we did get to know was Morpheus (The Blue Caterpillar). By the end of the book, I understood the author’s choices and Morpheus was my favorite character. He is a multi-layered character and I look forward to learning more about his story. The plot of the book was what really amazed me. The author has one of the most amazing imaginations. She fit so many small adventures into this book that I can barely remember them all. I can’t begin to imagine what the next book will be like. If you are looking for a wonderfully written, fast-paced new read, then this is it!

To read my thoughts on the rest of the series, go here: https://libraryinmymind.com/2017/08/1...

[Rebecca Oldani · Rating 3 out of 5]

World building pazzesco così come i personaggi devo ammettere che avrei dato 2 stelle a questa trilogia per la storia specialmente per il secondo volume che non mi è piaciuto proprio. L'ho rivalutato molto arrivata al 3 volume specialmente alla fine di quest'ultimo. Consiglio specialmente per immergersi in un paese delle meraviglie degno di Tim Burton

[Lidia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ho amato questa saga dal primo libro, entusiasmante, ricca di colpi di scena personaggi coinvolgenti e molto umani in cui ci si può ritrovare perfettamente. Ho adorato tutto di questa saga dai luoghi fantastici ai protagonisti agli avvenimenti. Consigliatissimo

[Mel Kib · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was so great! I loved every minute of it.

[Brieanna (brie_reads_) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series was so good!!! I loved how it gave me the Alice in Wonderland story but with a good twist.

[Mycal Stewart · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series is officially one of my favorites. Anyone who loves fantasy and fairy-tale retelling should read this. One of, in my opinion, the best love triangles. This book never has a dull moment. Keeps you hooked until the end. This series has earned 5 stars.