Kagama -The Literaturevixen

This stunning debut captures the grotesque madness of a mystical under-land, as well as a girl’s pangs of first love and independence. Alyssa Gardner hears the whispers of bugs and flowers—precisely the affliction that landed her mother in a mental hospital years before. This family curse stretches back to her ancestor Alice Liddell, the real-life inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Alyssa might be crazy, but she manages to keep it together. For now.
When her mother’s mental health takes a turn for the worse, Alyssa learns that what she thought was fiction is based in terrifying reality. The real Wonderland is a place far darker and more twisted than Lewis Carroll ever let on. There, Alyssa must pass a series of tests, including draining an ocean of Alice’s tears, waking the slumbering tea party, and subduing a vicious bandersnatch, to fix Alice’s mistakes and save her family. She must also decide whom to trust: Jeb, her gorgeous best friend and secret crush, or the sexy but suspicious Morpheus, her guide through Wonderland, who may have dark motives of his own.

 First of all I have to say thats an amazing cover. I built up my expectations. I wanted this book to be magnificent but it went down the drain.

First we have our main character Alyssa.The women in Alyssas family have a tendency to go mad and her own mother is no exception as she has been locked up in a mental hospital ever since an unfortunate incident when Alyssa was a child.

Her father is very overprotective of her because of this and constantly checks her to see if she shows signs of insanity.

 Alyssa is a girl of many contradictions on one hand she is afraid to end up crazy as her mother and very selfconcious about being percieved as such. But then on the other hand her hobby is making art with dead insects and displaying said arts.to the public 

Maybe its just me but I think a girl who has a family history of mental illness and wants to  be "normal" in the eyes of others would take the low-key approach.

Oh and some kids found out she was related to Alice Lidell the original Alice from the books. Wich you would think would be something to be proud of but no she gets bullied because of it people asks her about rabbits and  even calls her "the mad hatters love slave"... Ummm that seems oddly specific.

This book just tries so hard to force the concept of Alice in Wonderland on the reader.

But hold on you say this is a book based on Alice in Wonderland arent you being a bit silly now?

I just think it takes it a bit too far. It desperately wants to be edgy and stylish instead of whimsical like the original. Its all surface.

And then there is the  love triangle. I am not a fan of the love triangles usually but the "nice" guy she has a crush on is a total idiot.

I hated Jeb with the intensity of 1000 suns. Douchy Jeb has such a symbiotic relationship with Alyssas father that he can say moronic things  like "well me and your father decided it was a bad idea for you to study abroad" also he has a girlfriend the one-dimensional Taelor  but he still finds time to lead Alyssa on. He even draws a gazillion pictures of her.

No wonder Taelor hates her. Though I also wonder why those two are an item as he even refers to her as a "bitch" when talking to Alyssa.

Frankly I have no idea what Alyssa saw in him.

Then we have Morpheus who is actually the most interesting thing about the book. After hating Jeb so much I would have been happy to have Alyssay throw herself into Morpheus arms. So what if he is supposed to be the antagonist in all of this.

He wears cool hats and has a wicked sense of humor.He doesnt treat her like an idiot either and furthermore He can also do MAGIC.Whats not to love?

I have to admit to dnf-ing this. Maybe I will go back so I can read more about Morpheus but that means I will have to suffer Jebs presence and Alyssas "oh I am so special and weird" tune.