A Blade So Black by L.L. McKinney

Author: L.L McKinney

Published: September 25th 2018 by Imprint

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Retelling

Stars: 3 Content Rating: Clean

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.

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I need to thank @fiercereads for sending me a box full of upcoming Fall goodies! This ARC was included and I loved the idea of this story. A retelling of Alice in Wonderland, where shadows from Wonderland can sneak through the Gateway and into the human realm and feed off of fear to become nightmares made real.

Alice has spunk and I really like her character. Her mom has a no nonsense attitude and Alice has to balance this new warrior/dreamwalker secret life with the normal, day to day teen life. It’s rough leading a double life but worth knowing who she is protecting. This creative retelling brings back all the fun characters from Alice in Wonderland in delightful new ways. The plot was interesting and just to make things clear this will be a series. There was a cliffhanger and I’m itching to find out what happens next. I have a feeling there are even more secrets . Navigating between real life and Wonderland along with being a teen and finding yourself can be tricky but I feel like Alice will be able to figure it out and it will be interesting to see what she has to overcome to do so! That being said, it was an interesting read and I over all I liked it but something about it just wasn’t my favorite. I’m not a huge Alice in Wonderland fan. I guess I’m a little mixed on what I like and don’t like about this book. I don’t want to spoil anything so if you read it please come back and tell me what you think! Look for it September 25, 2018!

Thanks for reading friends!