Review: The Looking Glass Wars - Frank Beddor
Title: The Looking Glass Wars
Author: Frank Beddor
Publisher: Egmont Books Ltd
RRP: £6.99
Genre: Fantasy Adventure
The back of the book reads as follows:-
You think you know the true story of Alice in Wonderland?
Well think again.
Alyss is destined to become
Queen of Wonderland...
Until her parents are murdered.
She flees to safety in our world. Years pass.
Now it is time to return
Step into a dazzling new world.
Dare to enter the Looking Glass Maze.
Because this is Wonderland as you have never seen it before...
This story is one of murder, fights and of slow love. Inspired by Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass it seems that the two books written by Lewis Carroll were, in the story, a lie of the 'true events' portrayed in these novels. It features twists on the original story, such as The White Rabbit actually being Alyss's (Alice's) tutor, Bibwit Harte, and that The Mad Hatter is actually a very agile, sombre bodyguard named Hatter Madigan.
The book stars off with a word of warning where the creator, Frank Beddor claims he wrote the book after seeing an incomplete deck of cards as part of a display of ancient playing cards at the British Museum. The images on these cards resembled Wonderland characters, while the cards themselves seemed to be illuminated by an unusual glow. He later went to a playing card collector who claimed to have the cards missing from the deck and told him the story of The Looking Glass Wars. The Looking Glass Wars is thus supposedly a true recording of this story. In this Wonderland there are some characters that are not in Through The Looking-Glass including the Dodo, the Duchess, the Dormouse, the Carpenter, the Mock Turtle, the Gryphon, and the Lion and the Unicorn.
The Looking Glass Wars is the first book in a trilogy by the same name. The second book is called Seeing Redd and the third is ArchEnemy.
My favourite part of the book (even though I can say there are many that would amaze you), is at the start: “Everyone thought she had made it up and she had tolerated more taunting and teasing from other children.”
A movie of this book is in development but the unrelated Tim Burton film, which starred the well-known actor Johnny Depp who played The Mad Hatter, has delayed proceedings. But I would say if you liked that film give this book a go, but bear in mind it’s not all nice and very different to many bedtime stories.
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- Infinite Days By Rebecca Maizel
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- The Replacement - Brenna Yovanoff
