A Blade So Black by L.L. McKinney

Book Summary

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.

Book Details

A Blade So Black by L.L. McKinney
On Sale Date: September 25, 2018 by Macmillan Children's Publishing Group
Young Adult Fiction / Fantasy
Hardcover , 384 pages
Source: NetGalley
My Rating: 2 of 5 Stars

Book Review

McKinney's debut introduces readers to a Wonderland-like world filled with dark, nightmarish monsters and to 17-year-old Alice Kingston who finds herself battling these dreamscape creatures while trying to balance an overprotective mom, school, and a social life. 

The summary reads like an exciting cross between Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Alice and Wonderland, with a modern-day Alice whose mission is to seek out and destroy Nightmares.

Being a fan of anything related to "Alice" and the fierce kick-butt heroine Buffy, I immediately knew I had to try this book.

Unfortunately, despite wanting to love this story and my anticipation for reading it, overall it ended up being a disappointment for me.

The main reason why it ended up being a disappointment is that of the writing style. The dialogue between the protagonist Alice and the other characters reads choppy and uneven. I found myself re-reading sentences because there seemed to be missing words or incomplete thoughts.

It just may be that the copy of an ARC I received needed a serious final run through the editing process to clean up all the inconsistencies, rather than the author's way of writing. Normally, I prefer more lyrical writing and dynamic dialogue, and unfortunately, I just could not settle into the writing style.

Although I loved the idea of fierce, warrior-stylized Alice fighting monsters—the plot seemed like it was trying to balance two different stories. An Urban fantasy with an inspired retelling of Wonderland. Instead of something cohesive and unique, it just ended-up feeling all over the place with big time gaps between the prologue, the first chapter and fighting in Wonderland.

The book finally hit its stride for me once Wonderland became the focus of the story with Alice on a quest to find an antidote for the poison inflicting “the madness" on her mentor, Hatta.

There are riddles to be had and familiar characters from Alice in Wonderland finally make an appearance. Magic and dangerous battles are fought. I only wished that it all could have come sooner.

In the End

Overall, despite not loving the story, I did find enjoyment in Wonderland's descriptions and characters. I found myself connecting most to Alice's mom and really appreciated the positive relationship portrayed between the two. The cover is gorgeous and blurb definitely compelled me to pick this one up.