*Review* The Looking Glass Wars - Frank Beddor

 The Looking Glass Wars

Frank Beddor

384 pages

ISBN: 9780803731530

Read 10-12-12

Format: Audiobook

Source: Library

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You know the myth… A little girl named Alice tumbled down a rabbit hole and proceeded to have a charming adventure in the delightful, made-up world of Wonderland…

Now discover the truth… Wonderland Exists!

Alyss Heart, heir to the Wonderland throne, was forced to flee through the Pool of Tears after a bloody palace coup staged by the murderous Redd. Lost and alone in Victorian London, Alyss is befriended by an aspiring author to whom she tells the violent, heartbreaking story of her young life only to see it published as the nonsensical Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Alyss had trusted Lewis Carroll to tell the truth so that someone, somewhere would find her and bring her home. But Carroll had gotten it all wrong. He even misspelled her name! If not for royal bodyguard Hatter Madigan’s nonstop search to locate the lost princess, Alyss may have become just another society woman sipping tea in a too-tight corset instead of returning to Wonderland to fight Redd for her rightful place as the Queen of Hearts.

Meet the heroic, passionate, monstrous, vengeful denizens of this parallel world as they battle each other with AD-52′s and orb generators, navigate the Crystal Continuum, bet on jabberwock fights and travel across the Chessboard Desert.

I really enjoyed this book and how it took the Alice that we know and changed it into something completely different and familiar at the same time.  It was a very fun book to listen to.  The narrator did a great job voicing the characters and they even had some special effects like echoing voices.

I liked Alyss and I liked who she became as she grew up.  Even though she has always come from privilege,  she still though of others and never acted like a spoiled princess.   There were points she got quite upset, but if people told you that you were a liar and the place you said you came  from wasn’t real, then I’d get mad, too.

I loved seeing this new portrayal of the Wonderland characters we all know, like the white rabbit, the Cheshire cat, and the caterpillar.  Everything had a new interesting spin on it.  I also liked how the author wrote the book because it sounds like classical writing.

The only real down point I have to say about the book was I didn’t have much of an emotional connection when certain things happened.  When she was reunited with some of her friends, I was hoping for a more excited reaction.  After the way this book ended, I look forward to the next book and to see how things will be affected.