Review Me Twice - The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor

This book was an impulse buy for me a few months back.  I saw it on the shelf and the shiny cover, fun pictures and potentially awesome story line caught my attention and BAM!  Bought the book, which I don't do often when they're full priced and new in the store.

I didn't dislike the book.  I thought that the characters were interesting and engaging (especially Hatter Madigan.)  I like that Alice kind of got broken before she got to be the hero, that she was a little at odds with herself.  And the world that Beddor created, and how it interacted with our own world, was actually really fascinating.

But, at the end of the day, it wasn't anything spectacular.  Alice, the character, didn't become different enough to make me think of her separately from Carroll's Alice.  The differences were interesting, engaging, but not enough to blow me out of the water.  And, to be honest, Beddor's writing is just ok.  It's not bad, but it's not something that particularly stands out in my mind.

Overall, and interesting book, but not exactly a page turner, and probably not something I'll pick the sequel up to.  I mean, I MIGHT, but it took me a year to pick up the sequel to Cinder and I thought Cinder was fabulous.

I usually don't care much for things like this. A few clever changes to a classic don't really grab me. A total rewrite isn't so bad, though, and this feels more like that. You don't have to be particularly familiar with the original, but it helps. It's like a gritty reboot, but more kid-friendly (I'm not touting that as a good thing, just commenting).

It was good... but it wasn't great. I went in thinking, "This looks like yet another remake of Alice, but with those things from Star Wars, based on the cover art." I came out thinking, "That was better than I expected. Now, what am I supposed to read next?" I didn't have the moment where I put down the book in my lap after the last page and think, "good book." I was just... done.