Unhinged: A Review

 

Description (Goodreads):

 Alyssa Gardner has been down the rabbit hole and faced the bandersnatch. She saved the life of Jeb, the guy she loves, and escaped the machinations of the disturbingly seductive Morpheus and the vindictive Queen Red. Now all she has to do is graduate high school and make it through prom so she can attend the prestigious art school in London she's always dreamed of.

That would be easier without her mother, freshly released from an asylum, acting overly protective and suspicious. And it would be much simpler if the mysterious Morpheus didn’t show up for school one day to tempt her with another dangerous quest in the dark, challenging Wonderland—where she (partly) belongs.

As prom and graduation creep closer, Alyssa juggles Morpheus’s unsettling presence in her real world with trying to tell Jeb the truth about a past he’s forgotten. Glimpses of Wonderland start to bleed through her art and into her world in very disturbing ways, and Morpheus warns that Queen Red won’t be far behind.

If Alyssa stays in the human realm, she could endanger Jeb, her parents, and everyone she loves. But if she steps through the rabbit hole again, she'll face a deadly battle that could cost more than just her head.


My Review:

Hmm... what to say about this book. (There are some spoilers...)

Well, if you have read my review on Splintered, you will know that I really didn't like the idea of Alyssa and Jeb being together. This book just enhanced that feeling.

Not that I didn't enjoy the book. I did, equally as much as the first. I just didn't like Alyssa with Jeb. It irked me.

This book takes place a year after the first, and all Alyssa has done was lie to Jeb. He no longer has his memories of his adventures through Wonderland, and Alyssa won't tell him. She has dated him for year now, and has lied about everything. Now that prom and graduation are coming up, she is only now beginning to feel guilty about keeping him in the dark...

Especially since the Wonderland she's ignored for a year begins to invade her real life.

In this installment, Alyssa doesn't go to Wonderland. Oh no, Wonderland comes to her. As the new red queen, she has ignored her people and her place, ignoring Morpheus's warnings about how the dead-but-not-so-dead-old-Red-Queen, is destroying Wonderland. Alyssa ignores him, of course, which causes much mayhem and the sort.

It's a good thing I like this story, because Alyssa really lost her head in this one and made a ton of dumb decisions. Since Wonderland began intruding on her "normal" life, she became more indecisive than ever, putting her loved ones in danger, and causing mass destruction at her high school. You would think that she would finally listen to Morpheus, but no. She doesn't trust him. And well, after the first book, I can understand why, but seriously. Morpheus may work in ways she's not used to, nor are particularly good, but he is fighting for what's right.

In fact, the only way he got Alyssa to listen, was by pretending to be a threat. Frankly, I am okay with what he did. He is trying to save the land he loves, his home. He is trying to get Alyssa, the queen, to do her part. So I am really glad that Morpheus finally got through her thick head, especially when that meant he had to help Jeb get his memories back, and therefore allowing Jeb and Alyssa to get back together.

Gah, freaking Alyssa.

Anyways, the adventure was fun in this book. Seeing Wonderland in the real world made me shiver. It is immensely creepy--think of all your childhood toys turning rabid and grotesque, and trying to kill you. Yeah, no thanks. I liked how Alyssa's mom was more in the picture. She was far more level headed than flipping Alyssa.

Morpheus was once again awesome. As you can probably tell, I like him a lot.

Jeb in this one was more of a victim than anything.

And you already know how I feel about Alyssa in this one.

Let's hope she's smarter in the third book.

I give this a 4 out of 5!