Unhinged by A. G. Howard (review)

Alyssa Gardner’s life changed forever after she visited Wonderland, cleaned up Alice’s messes, and was crowned queen of the netherlings (in Splintered, BCCB 3/13). While she’s since tried to turn her back on her fantastic past, the chaos of Wonderland refuses to be ignored, especially now that deposed Queen Red has emerged from hiding and the looming war threatens to spill over into Alyssa’s fragile normal life. Now Alyssa’s childhood playmate and determined netherling suitor Morpheus has returned as well, filling Alyssa’s dreams with violent images of a Wonderland in danger and demanding that she return to take up her throne and destroy Red forever. When she tries to refuse, Morpheus takes up residence in the real world, bringing assorted characters such as Chessie the cat with him and sending out a ripple effect that could have disastrous consequences for the people Alyssa loves. As intense, dark, and weird as the first volume, this worthy sequel creates a parallel narrative that brings the action out of Wonderland and into Alyssa’s hometown. Many of the story’s initial strengths carry over, including the fantastical creatures, the exciting adventure, and Alyssa’s struggle to understand and accept her dual nature as human and netherling. The narrative is slightly more effortful in its refashioning of Carroll’s story, but fans of Splintered will happily throw themselves back down the rabbit hole for this new exploit, and a final showdown that ends with three central characters in peril will have readers lining up for more.