The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor Review

Rating: 4/4
Genre: Fairytale, Young Adult Fiction

Summary:
This is a tale of a battle of imaginations.
Alyss Heart is the princess of Wonderland. When her evil aunt, Redd, comes to take over Wonderland, she must flee through a portal and ends up on Earth. Alyss tries to tell the people that she's a princess of Wonderland, but nobody believes her and pushes her to give up her imagination. Its up to her guard, Hatter Madigan to save her. He has to travel through the portals to try and find Alyss and bring her back to defeat Redd and become the Queen of Wonderland. Will Alyss still be her people's warrior queen after living in the real world has forced her imagination away?

My Thoughts:

I am not one for retellings, but this is by far my absolute favorite retelling I've ever read. This trilogy is such a creative take on the already creative Alice in Wonderland. Frank Beddor has a very refreshing and unique take on the characters from Alice in Wonderland. Such as Hatter Madigan, being a very skilled guard of the queen, or Bibwit Hare, a knowledgeable tutor to the Queens of Wonderland. The world of Wonderland is shown through beautiful depictions of this fantasy world and through innovative and beautiful examples of imagination. The Looking Glass Wars is a very quick paced read, but I feel that some of the later plot points may have happened a bit too quickly. I do believe that the imagination of this story needs some rules. It is unclear and inconsistent with what can and cannot be done through imagination in the world. The protagonist also seemed to mature way too quickly at the end. We go through most of this story with Alyss as a young girl going towards adult hood with the same kiddish thoughts. Then all of the sudden it is as if a switch has flipped and she's suddenly a mature and capable queen. I would have liked to see a bit more development into this.

Overall I absolutely loved this dark revolt take on the story of Alice in Wonderland. It is absolutely unique and extremely creative. This is a great read for any age.