Hi friends, happy Monday! I hope you’re all doing well. Today I’m posting my review of L.L. McKinney’s novel, A Dream So Dark.

You can read my review of book one: A Blade So Black

A Dream So Dark by: L.L. McKinney: Alice has gone to Wonderland and fought the battle, but when one battle ends, another one begins. Now, she must go back through the Veil and back to Wonderland in order to save her friends and stop the Black Night. But the deeper she weaves into the world, the more things become murkier. To add to that, there’s a new player at work, one who can use nightmares to impact the living and raise the dead. Alice must not only battle the demons that come her way, but the ones within herself as well. Jumping right back into where the first book left off, we’re thrown right back into the story, and boy did the reader go for a ride. This novel felt like it was constantly going; one thing after another kept happening that it had the reader furiously flipping the pages, wanting to know what was going to happen next. The pacing was well done because as much as things were going by quickly, we never lost the thread of the plot. Speaking of, the plot was also really good because we’re led to believe that our main characters are on the right path, doing what they need to, only to find out maybe they aren’t and the way McKinney laid it all out was cleverly done so it was more of a slow build up, rather than a rush and it worked very well. The world building in this was superb; we got to see so much more into Wonderland, it really opened up and the reader had a blast learning more and just exploring with our main character, Alice. The reader continued to love the way McKinney incorporated the original Alice in Wonderland story into this, yet made it her own; it was well done and never felt ripped off or cheap. The character development lacked a little in this. We did get to see big moments happen between a lot of our main characters, and we learned new things about some of them, but things progressed really slowly. That was okay because so much else was going on that it didn’t affect the enjoyment or the overall story arc. The reader enjoyed watching Alice and her mom get closer, that relationship is one that felt very relatable. In the end though, this novel didn’t fall victim to second book syndrome, but instead flourished on its own.