Kimberly Reflects on the Looking Glass Wars
Book/Author: The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor
Publisher and Year: Penguin Group 2006
How I got it: I bought it
Why I read it: It came highly recommended by one of my friends, plus I love alternate tellings of famous stories.
We all know Lewis Carroll’s famous story. Alice Liddel stepped through the looking glass into Wonderland and had many adventures.
Only… it’s all a lie. Wonderland is real. Alyss Heart is the heir to the throne, until her murderous aunt Redd steals the crown and kills Alyss’s parent’s. To escape Alyss and her bodyguard, Hatter Madigan must flee to our world through the Pool of Tears. Unfortunately in the pool Alyss and her bodyguard 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 that she may battle red for her rightful place as the Queen of Hearts.
This book was so enjoyable! There was just something that kept drawing me back into the story. The world that the author has created is so full of magic and wonderful things. I love the way that the author took things from Lewis Carroll’s famous story and just tweaked it a bit. The Mad Hatter is Hatter Madigan, the brave and mysterious bodyguard. The Cat is an assassin with nine lives. The Cards are the soldiers . I was on a cruise with my family when I read this for the first time, I spent many a happy hour out on the balcony of our room with this book in hand. When I finished it I felt almost depressed. Happy because I had just finished a really good book, but so sad that it was over. I had enjoyed it that much. Of course I was overjoyed to realized that it was the first in a trilogy.
I give it 5 Stars. It was imaginative, well thought out, the characters were real and endearing, with humor, action, magic and a touch of romance. Overall, a great read.
I saw this at a book sale and almost got it! I wish I would have!!
ReplyDeleteI need to reread it. I didn't like it the first time, but that was a while ago so I don't remember why!
ReplyDeleteI really liked this one and the sequel Seeing Redd is also really good. I haven't read the third one yet, but I love the version of Wonderland that Beddor created!
ReplyDeleteSo great to see this featured - I bought this when it first came out and adored it! I'm not usually a fantasy fan but this kept me captivated. I've read the second which is almost as good but haven't got around to the last in the trilogy yet.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Amy -- I couldn't get through this book -- that was over a year ago. Maybe it was the "mood" (sometimes I think that has a lot to do with how I feel about a book.) All these reviews and comments make me think I should give it another chance. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteI read and reviewed the first two in this series last fall and can I tell you how massively in love I still am with Frank Beddor for creating this world.
ReplyDeleteI LOVED it. read the second one, then the third. AMAZING!!!
And THEN watch the SyFy miniseries called ALYCE. amazing!
Re-tellings have become rather popular lately (the Jane Austen vampire/seamonster books, The Child Thief, etc.) and some of them I hate and some of them I love.
ReplyDeleteI guess it depends on how they treat their source material. It sounds like The Looking Glass Wars treats the original with care.
I'm adding it to my TBR list! Thanks.
I loved this too :D I read it so long ago. I've read the second too but not the third one ... I still need to do that.
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