This book was just okay for me. It might be that it's the unedited galley, but it felt very disjointed. The writing seemed rushed and sloppy. I mean, the first chapter is only a couple pages long, and afterwards jumps immediately into her already being a nightmare slayer, with no build up or character exploration at all. The explanations of the world were given in short bursts, like the author was rushing to get the difficult part (world building) over with. It ended up being so confusing in the beginning, I feel it can be a major turn off for what should be an excellent book.

**Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of this title!**

Alice has been training to battle Nightmares - monstrous shadow-creatures that come from the dark depths of Wonderland - ever since she almost lost her life to one. Armed with deadly figment blades and a kickass attitude, she travels between worlds to slay the monsters, while trying to juggle friends, family, and high school at the same time.

Alice seems to be keeping up with everything fairly well, but when the handsome and mysterious Hatta gets poisoned, she has to find the antidote by venturing deeper into Wonderland than she’s ever gone before, teaming up with the hot Russian Tweedle brothers, and trying to keep her mom and friends both safe and not angry.

My notes: I love a good retelling, and I have always been a big fan of Alice in Wonderland, so I was super excited to read this one. Add in allusions to both Sailor Moon and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and I am totally sold.

Side note: It makes me positively bonkers that Alice's mom keeps going back and forth between calling her Alice, and Alison. They're two different names. Not taking off points for this, but still. Also, I must be super old, because I feel bad for the mother in this - who is described as "over-protective," but really is just wanting to make sure her daughter is safe in an unsafe culture, when she keeps sneaking out of the house and not responding to calls or texts for several days. For good reason and all, but still.

L.L. McKinney is an exciting author to watch. I'm very interested to see what they write next, after reading their debut.

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. - Goodreads

I am at the point in my life that I will read almost anything written by a Black (African American) author in the fantasy genre. I don't see enough of it, specifically YA, and so I jump at every chance to read it. I was excited for this book. Once I was approved for it, I started reading it instantly. I couldn't finish this book. It was just not for me and here is why:

The author tries way to hard to make Alice relevant to what is currently going on in the world. From the shootings, to White people and pumpkin spice, the author adds these things in the book and all I could think about was 



They didn't fit but I understand why the author did it. To me, she wanted to make the story realistic even though it is considered fantasy. She wanted Alice to be relate able to African American girls and I could get that. It just didn't work for me.

Another issue I had with this read was Alice herself. She was uninteresting. She didn't have any real spark or personality. She would have just been another around the way girl, if it wasn't for her connection to Wonderland. This is not to say that a plain girl can't do amazing and interesting things. It literally happens all the time in real life as well as fictional but as much as I feel for Alice about what happened to her in her personal life, I couldn't actually tell you who she is after that. 

Finally, Wonderland. The thing about authors, who do a retelling of Alice in Wonderland, is they try to lay on the crazy, the riddles as much as possible. Ms.McKinney is no different. I just feel like as I was reading the book. . . it wasn't captivating me. I wasn't interested and I kept trying since I was approved for the book.

I am not saying that others may not enjoy this book. This book has gotten rave reviews. Its just isn't for me. 

Overall, 

1 Pickle