Unhinged by A. G. Howard

Alyssa Gardner has defeated the Red Queen, saved her beloved Jeb, and is now the reigning queen of Wonderland.  All she has to do now is finish high school and convince her parents to let her move to London with Jeb.  Unfortunately for Alyssa, that is not going to be so simple.  Alyssa's art has changed.  She no longer creates mosaics with dead bugs, and instead colors her artwork with her own blood.  These mosaics show maniacal images from Wonderland that Alyssa would rather not try to decipher.  Too bad she has to use these mosaics, and rely on Morpheus (her childhood Wonderland friend who is amazingly unreliable and manipulative) to help protect her kingdom.  Alyssa is increasingly torn between the human world with Jeb and her parents, and her love for and commitment to Wonderland.

One of my favorite things about Splintered was all the descriptions of Wonderland.  The world sounded so beautifully hideous.  This book is set mostly in the human world, so there are not as many of these awesome Wonderlandeqsue images.  Also, the characters are a little less likable for me in this novel.  Jeb came across at times as wooden and kinda assy.  Morpheus is always assy, but he still manages to be decent enough to just keep my sympathy...most of the time.  Alyssa's conflicted desires to be in the human world and in Wonderland were understandable, but she did not handle the situation she was in very well at all and allowed some of her family and friends to suffer.

While Splintered is a book that could stand on it its own; Unhinged is obviously a book that needs a follow up.  The main action didn't start until rather late in the book, and there was resolution, only an obvious start to a next chapter.  I am glad I read this, and I am very much looking forward to reading the next book about Wonderland, but this one fell a little flat for me.