Book Review: A Blade So Black by L.L. McKinney

Goodreads 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.

Goodreads Rating: 3.67 stars with over 4,600 ratings

Genre listing: Fantasy, Fiction, Fairy Tale Retelling, Young Adult, Magic, Romance, Urban Fantasy

Goodreads challenge: 33/60

2020 Reading Challenge: 16. Read a retelling of the classic fairy tale (pairs with 15) (find the full challenge here)

Book Review:

*Edit: Apparently, my Grammarly updates aren't taking effect when I make them. Please excuse my dust while I go through and edit hundreds of posts in between work and classes.*

 

Hello, readers! I hope everyone is staying safe, sane, and healthy. This book got recommended to me from Challenge co-conspirator.. er I mean co-creator... Tress. She knew I needed a pairing for #15 and #16 and saw this on sale. I'm so glad she did because I love a good Alice in Wonderland retelling.

For those of you who don't know, I'm a little obsessed with Alice in Wonderland things. The original is about the only classic I enjoy enough to read multiple times, and I've read a bunch of retellings of it. When I was a kid (long before Tim Burton did his versions), there were a couple TV series based on the book, which I adored. To this day, the Disney animated version is one of my favorites. Went out for Halloween as the Madhatter once upon a time. Have an Alice in Wonderland tote. Just got a new shirt. Listen. I'm obsessed.

Here's my cute new Alice in Wonderland shirt though:

So, back to the book, A Blade So Black by L.L. McKinney. It's a fun read, and I liked it a lot. I thought that Alice was super relatable. I got the sense that because of her dad's passing, she had to grow up kind of quickly, which I understand entirely. Alice was also a lot of fun and felt like someone I'd want to be friends with when I was her age. 

I did feel like some things left me with questions at the beginning. I don't know if I just skipped over where it was explained, but the beginning timeline felt a little rushed. I got the impression that Hatta was surprised Alice could see him when they first met, which is fine, but then when Maddi and the bar get introduced, it seems like customers can see them. I didn't really understand what triggered the change. Also, the timeline gets a little hard to figure out. The initial incident happens in the prologue, and then it's 3 months later and then randomly a year later. Truthfully, this all ended up being pretty minor details anyways. Once I got to the year point of the story, it was so action-packed that I kind of forgot about it. The only reason I really remembered is that a lot of times, I take quick notes on my phone to remind me of stuff I want to talk about during my posts.

I probably should have reread Alice in Wonderland before reading this one so I could have a better idea of the original to compare this to. In a Blade so Black, there's a concept of "Muchness" that's present in the book. It's this whole concept of believing in yourself, and I loved it. I can't remember for the life of me if that was in the original, any of the movies, or if it's unique to the story. There are also a ton of nods to the original in the story. It is a retelling; however, it has its own unique plotline and very much takes place after the original story. I had an absolute blast finding all of the Alice in Wonderland easter eggs, and I'm sure I missed a ton of them. This alone makes me kind of want to reread it to see if I can pick up on more. 

Within the story of a Blade so Black is another story that is closely related to what is going on in the US right now, and I think it'd be incredibly insensitive of me to not call attention to it. In the story, a seventeen-year-old girl named Brionne is shot by police during a football game because of alleged gang violence. Both Brionne, Alice, and her family are black. This shooting, combined with Alice's father dying, prompts her mother to really kind of hover over Alice's every move out of fear that her baby could be next. I'm not bringing this up to get on some soapbox about what's right or what's not right. I acknowledge that I'm pretty privileged and sheltered in my life, and I don't know what the correct answers are or what the solution is. I do know that my heart hurts, especially for my parent-friends who like Alice's mom are wondering if their baby is next. I know that we can do a hell of a lot better than what we're doing and that it's long overdue. 

Overall, I really enjoyed a Blade so Black. It was a lot of fun and a fresh take on a classic. I'm going to try and get through more of the 2020 challenge before I continue on with the series. I've got it on my wish list to remind me to grab the 2nd book at some point. I've currently been stalking L.L. McKinney on Goodreads, as I typically do once I finish a book, and I'm excited to see what other adventures she's created.