ZERO STARS = regret wsting my time on it What a torture... the descriptions of the oh-so-fancy gothic wardrobe is the only thing in this story the author put some thoughts and effort into. It's the first time I strongly advise NOT to read a book. Just watch Tim Burtons masterpieces or read the original story!

Ich habe dieses Buch als Hörbuch gehört. Die Sprecherin ist sehr gut, aber für die Story bin ich wohl die falsche Zielgruppe. Typische Teenagergeschichte: 2 Jungs, ein Mädel, Abenteuer, die mal den einen, mal den anderen gut dastehen lassen. Dass es im Wunderland spielt, macht es zwar ein wenig interessanter, aber es gibt bessere Neuinterpretationen des Klassikers...

And another disappointing book my Facebook group raved about. What did I like? The premise was interesting and Howard gave Lewis’s tale about Wonderland a nice and dark twist. I didn’t see this one big reveal coming, that was a nice one. Morpheus was, at least till the end, an interesting character whose intentions you always had to doubt. What did I not like? The way the asylum was portrayed infuriated me. Nurses running around with already full syringes? Yeah, sure, maybe visit a psychiatry for real one day and write about it then. The pace was kinda off. The first few chapters things happened pretty slow, just to have one event after the other slapped into your face in the following chapters. I wasn’t particularly fond of Alyssa and Jeb. Alyssa was “not your typical kind of girl” (god, how I hate that trope) and Jeb was bland, overprotective (some find this endearing, I find it highly annoying) and manhandled her more times than I could count. Between the action, I missed meaningful moments between the characters. Not the “oh my god he’s so hot I want to kiss him will he finally kiss me” kind of moments (of those there were enough) but moments that added depth to the characters and their relationships. There wasn’t much depth to the characters anyways. When will authors learn that a troubled past doesn’t suffice to make a character well developed? The similes Howard used were sometimes downright ridiculous. ”Like food coloring dropped into water.”, really? Many scenes were just sooo cheesy and don’t even get me started on the ending of this dreadful book. What I want to say is: If you want to read a dark take on Alice in Wonderland, try [b:Heartless|18584855|Heartless|Marissa Meyer|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1477740245l/18584855._SY75_.jpg|26322524] by Marissa Meyer. That’s the good stuff.