A Blade So Black (A Blade So Black #1)- L.L. McKinney
Book Synopsis: The first time the Nightmares came, it nearly cost Alice her life. Now she's trained to battle monstrous creatures in the dark dream realm known as Wonderland with magic weapons and hardcore fighting skills. Yet even warriors have a curfew.
Life in real-world Atlanta isn't always so simple, as Alice juggles an overprotective mom, a high-maintenance best friend, and a slipping GPA. Keeping the Nightmares at bay is turning into a full-time job. But when Alice's handsome and mysterious mentor is poisoned, she has to find the antidote by venturing deeper into Wonderland than she’s ever gone before. And she'll need to use everything she's learned in both worlds to keep from losing her head . . . literally.
After the longest time, I finally decided to pick this book up. Taking into consideration that the copy I did end up borrowing was brand spanking new. Obviously, I immediately got it and then proceeded to find a comfy spot and read it. Of course, I did pause to get a snack or watch a show, but for the most part, I was as vigilant as a hawk. This is a spoiler free review and I intend to keep my whole blog that way.
Alice is different from her friends, she has special powers as a warrior of sorts and her duty is to protect the real world from Nightmares. That didn't give too much away, basically you get the gist. Honestly, I was expecting to HATE the book, and I surprised myself by actually liking it a whole lot. Sure the novel was a bit disjointed with all of the jumping around from weeks to months to years, but the continuity didn't really bug me.
Although this book has a mixed bag of positive and negative reviews, mine does edge towards the more upbeat side. I've always admired Alice In Wonderland, yes, I did not see the animated Disney classic movie, but I did watch the newer live action version with Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter and Anne Hathaway, etcetera. Quickly, my totally unbiased opinion is that the movie was great and I even was highly entertained by the sequel.
L.L. McKinney puts her own spin on the classic Alice In Wonderland story by creating a dark and edgy world with a twist of humor and modern influences (since the book does take place in the present day). My favorite characters were Maddie and Addison. Yes, I guess Alice was a close tie for third, but I personally did not find her character to be all too interesting. What I liked is that this book really takes the experience of the readers into account.
By the end of the book, when you reach the epilogue, you are most likely looking like this:
If you are immune then you are obviously a Nightmare, just kidding. Jokes aside though, can we all just agree to disagree. Overall, I gave this book a pretty fair rating.
Definitely, I will be checking out the next books in this series and will be sharing my thoughts on them here with everyone. Here's to hoping that the next books are even better than this one.
Rating: ★★★☆☆ 3/5 Stars