The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor

Recommended for 13+ due to graphic violence
3/5 Stars
2/5 on the Happiness Meter
Genre: Fantasy/Retelling

This certainly isn't the worst book I've ever read, and it's compelling enough to continue reading it (I'm not yet finished with it), but it's nothing amazing. The ideas are clever: Alice in Wonderland is really Lewis Carroll's re-imagining of what really happened to Alice Liddell. Frank Beddor, supposedly, has tracked down the real story. Alice Liddell (aka Alyss Heart) is the heir to the throne of Wonderland. Forced from her home by her aunt Redd (think Queen of Hearts) she is forced to grow up on earth, not knowing if she will ever reach home. Even if she does return to Wonderland she fears what she will find: both her mother and best friend dead and her bodyguard missing. She soon learns to engage herself fully in her surroundings, trying her best to forget Wonderland, chalking it up to some imaginative fancy she had as a child. Of course, her childhood best friend comes after her and takes her back to Wonderland where the rebels (called Alyssians) expect her to overthrow her vicious and cruel aunt and declare herself queen of Wonderland.

Some of the ideas are quite clever, Frank Beddor even mentions real photographs taken of Alice Liddell as support for his version of the Alyss story. Carroll's characters are re-imagined in unusual ways. For example, the card soldiers are fleshed out to be more intimidating than Carroll's counterparts. The Mad Hatter is not a crazy man who loves throwing tea parties, he is the queen's bodyguard that spends 13 years on earth searching for Alyss. Tweedledee and Tweedledum are really General Doppelganger who can split himself into several people if the need arises (although it took another reader to point out this character reshaping; I didn't make the connection myself). The Cheshire Cat is Redd's right hand man, her nine-lived assassin sent after Alyss and the Mad Hatter. The white rabbit is Alyss' childhood tutor, Bibwit Harte, who loves Alyss (platonically)despite all the mean tricks she played on him when she was a child.

The problem comes with the characterization Frank Beddor employs. He has really cool concepts but doesn't carry out their full potential (true, this is only the first in a trilogy, but still). I couldn't help but think that, for a book as large as The Looking Glass Wars (358 pages), surprisingly little happens. So far, I've reached page 288 and Alyss is just as distant and lackluster as she has always been. Her best friend, Dodge, is more intriguing but he seems simply to live for revenge (we know little else about him). The Hatter has potential but, much like Dodge, he is characterized as the strong, silent type with deeply secret personal sorrows. This, of course, does not take away from the original and ingenious imaginings of Beddor but it does seem to be a story without a soul, even without that spark that makes a good book great.

EDIT: So...the above assessments still remain true after I finished the book. There was more action, more plot, and even some characterization. However, the characters still remained somewhat bland. Alyss matures into someone more likable but only two sequels will tell if that maturation was real.