First Section

Book Review

By: Brandon Nguyen

          The Looking Glass Wars is a dystopian novel written by Frank Beddor, based on Lewis Carroll's fictional children's book, Alice in Wonderland, and its sequel, Through the Looking Glass.  The majority of the book takes place in both the Queendom of Wonderland, and London, England and focuses on the darker and twisted side of Wonderland that was never revealed in Lewis' novel.  The main character, Alyss, was born shortly after Wonderland's civil war, and was raised under her mother’s supervision, Queen Genevieve.  Alyss experiences a series of traumatizing events on her seventh birthday involving her parent’s death that forces her to flee Wonderland, and into Earth.  After spending the rest of her childhood on Earth, she is sent back to Wonderland to fight back her rightful throne.

The Looking Glass Wars is the perfect dystopian book for teens.  When reading this book, you are transported to a magical and whimsical land.  This is due to the way the book portrays Wonderland in such an unnatural and mysterious way.  The author achieves this affect by using unrealistic characters, events, and objects that replace people, objects, and events in reality.  This way, the reader can often relate to these fictional objects with reality.  Frank manages to keep the book suspenseful and captivating at all times, assuring that the reader is always on the edge of their seat.

          Speaking of action, Frank Beddor is renowned for his intense and extreme writing.  Perhaps this is due to his history as a stuntman, or maybe due to his experiences freestyle skiing on competitive teams in Europe.  Aside from this, Frank Beddor is also a very talented movie producer.

The characters were excellently developed throughout the novel, in particular, the main character Alyss.  Throughout the story, Alyss matures from a young and playful girl, into women capable of leading her Queendom.  Similarly, Dodge Anders, one of the main characters, develops from a young and immature boy, into a brave and risky man.  Examples of this are evident when Dodge plays with Alice in the Palace, at the beginning of the book.  Towards the end of the book, Dodge is found risking his life to protect the Alyssians, a rebellion group based on protecting Alyss.

          This dystopian novel stood out to me because it took such a well know story, Alice in Wonderland, and turned it upside down.  It added suspense, action, mystery, and even a little of bit or romance to such a familiar story.  Frank Beddor also managed to change the stories happy and playful mood into something so dark and mysterious, even creepy.


          Overall, I''m going to rate this book 4/5.  My reason for this is because I found the book slightly difficult to follow.  Also, for reader's that haven't read Lewis' Alice in Wonderland, this book may appear slightly obscure, and difficult to understand.  However, I enjoyed the character development throughout the novel.  I would recommend this book any day, and highly recommend you to read it.

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New Cover Design

          To celebrate the completion of the trilogy, Egmont Publishing Company has decided to create a limited edition remodelled version of the novels. The exclusive package will come with necessities for all fans, including a new cover design, a character handbook, and a large poster map of Wonderland. Throughout the next few months, we will be revealing snippets of exclusive footage and photos. For now, a rough copy has been created for the first book and is displayed below. Stay tuned readers for more information! 

          This new and special edition anniversary book cover was designed by Brandon Nguyen, and will be officially released during the spring of 2013.  This new book cover has lot's of depth and meaning.  An example, are the four sparks in the corners representing the different types of imagination.  The white imagination is dominant, although small traces of black imagination still thrive.  Alice being inside of the hourglass not only represents a looking glass, a teleportation device in the novel, but it also symbolizes that Alice doesn't have much time left to reclaim her throne.  The skull at the bottom of the hourglass represents her potential fate if she doesn't succeed in taking her throne back. The background was made to appear mystical, and magical, similar to Wonderland.