Book Review: The Looking Glass Wars

Book: The Looking Glass Wars (The Looking Glass Wards #1)
Author: Frank Beddor
Genre: Fantasy, Adventure, Steampunk (YA)
Rating: 4/5
Page Count: 358 (Paperback)
Favorite Character: At the very beginning it was Dodge, but I think at the end it was Alyss. Or Hatter, who is kind of in the background a bit, but he was awesome. I mean, I obviously still really like Dodge's character but just, sometimes... Well, you'll see.

Plot: (From Goodreads)

The Myth: Alice was an ordinary girl who stepped through the looking glass and entered a fairy-tale world invented by Lewis Carroll in his famous storybook.

The Truth: Wonderland is real. Alyss Heart is the heir to the throne, until her murderous aunt Redd steals the crown and kills Alyss? parents. To escape Redd, Alyss and her bodyguard, Hatter Madigan, must flee to our world through the Pool of Tears. But in the pool Alyss and Hatter are separated. 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. Yet he gets the story all wrong. Hatter Madigan knows the truth only too well, and he is searching every corner of our world to find the lost princess and return her to Wonderland so she may battle Redd for her rightful place as the Queen of Hearts.


Review:
Let me start this review off with saying that if you're a diehard Lewis Caroll fan and don't like when people take his world and turn it upside and inside out, then this just isn't for you. Beddor takes such an interesting take on Alice's Adventure's in Wonderland and I loved it. I enjoy retellings and one of my favorites is one that took the story and changed it, remaking it as that person's one Wonderland. (It's the TV miniseries Alice from 2009. I've watched it so many times, it's ridiculous. But I love it).

Anyway, this is a retelling in which Alyss Heart is the daughter of the Queen of Hearts and is trapped in London for many years after her aunt tries to kill her. It sounds interesting, doesn't it? It was so very well done. I love the way that the world is built and how this were explained and how 'Imagination' was explained. I'm not going to say anything about it, but I truly just loved that.

The only read that it's not 5/5 stars (or looking glasses) is because I just, well, I struggled through the middle part in London. I mean, I know it had to be there, but I still struggled through it, a lot. Especially when she's just gotten there. However, the world building, as I said, was good and interesting. The characters were also interesting and it's interesting to see what they'll decide on. The description in this book was very good, it felt like I was walking the streets with them, so to speak. Also, there are illustrations in here, only at one part in the middle, a bunch of color ones. And those just added something extra to the story that I really enjoyed, (I secretly - not so secretly now - wish that more novels had illustrations. For example, the Leviathan series by Scott Westerfeld, those were awesome!)