I really wanted to write a review of this book. Mainly because I'm a huge Slayer fan (Angel before Buffy but that's neither here nor there) but a huge Alice in Wonderland fan.

This however is a brilliant novel. The combination of the two set in an urban setting with a teenage girl with teenage problems is definitely connected to Buffy with the best parts of Alice in Wonderland weaved most intricately into the story.

There was one part that sent me back to one of the best lines of the show Fraiser where he snaps at his brother Niles... Why not just set a place for the March Hare and the Mad Hatter?? However, that would be more Sunnydale than the setting of A Spade so Black, which ultimately gives it the flare needed to make it an #ownvoice #poc story.

This is most definitely not set in Sunnydale witch characters like Cordelia Chase. The problems faced are more realistic to the urban plight faced but with characters that aren't the typical two dimensional stereotype. Nope. They are empowered. They are deep and richly portrayed. Harking back to Wakanda and Black Panther they don't need anyone to come save them, they are the ones saving.

Alice is empowered. She is the protagonist that is strong from the start, ready to fight and unyielding in her ability to do so. She is not in need of rescuing but will rescue others in need. She will slay the evil, fight for the eradication of evil, rather than need others to do it for her. This is what the world needs and this is what L.L Mckiney gives them. Young Adult novels are known for their sequels and I, for one, am drooling for one to Blade so Black.

PS to whoever ruined the Six of Crows duology? I will hunt you down and slay you. Ask Tiffany Jackson. I'm not playing.

I love me some Alice in Wonderland retellings, especially when the Hatters (or in this case "Hatta") are skinny British dudes with guyliner. This book did not disappoint.
I so appreciated that Alice was black. That she kicked serious booty, but at the same time was not ashamed to admit she was scared, and though she was often scared, still carried on kicking butt anyways.
I enjoyed the duel settings of Wonderland and the normal world, and the mechanics that played between the two. Interesting side characters. I was a little iffy on the plot, but the sassy characters more than made up for it. All in all it was a quick, fun read. Not my favorite retelling of Alice, but worth the hours.

Would you believe me if I said I started this book and finished it today? I totally forgot to read this book, even though I kept reminding myself. I have been so tired these days, but I'm not one to disappoint anyone so, you're going to hear all my thoughts about this book.

I was a bit confused at the opening chapter, I guess it's the reason why it took me so long to pick up the book and finish it, it's quite easy to breeze through when you finally focus.

The story has a lot of potential because I could see the direction the author was taking with it, just that there wasn't really anything spectacular about the writing style or the way the story was being narrated to us. Plus the storyline is one that you've probably read before.

It's meant to be an Alice in Wonderland retelling, but there aren't that many similarities and I don't have a fault with that, because I love how the author tried to create her own world. It takes guts and talent to write a story where you build your own world, and get it picked up by a publishing firm.

There's an inclusion of police unjust killing of a black kid, it's own take on black lives matters, which was good, as its aim was clearly to shine the light on this particular issue, in the American society.

Alison, popularly known as Alice is our main character, she's a young black lady, who not long into the story meets mysterious Addison Hatta. Yes, Hatta—Mad Hatter. Who is the hot protagonist, mentor because Hatta teaches and mentors Alice in slaying monsters in Wonderland. So this is meant to be an action-packed retelling, but I really didn't read much action, it was more narrated than shown, and like every other quest book, I was a bit miffed that it didn't make my blood speed up, my feelings were perfectly neutral throughout the whole story.

I enjoyed this book to an extent, it's a book to pick up when you have absolutely nothing to do or any other book to read, it's a good way to pass time.

I was on the promotional blog tour! Sadly, I did DNF this book just before the halfway mark. The writing style didn't grip me and I struggled with character connection.

I love Alice in Wonderland. I love fairytale retellings. This book is a combination of my two favorite things.
I really liked this book.
Alice is smart, sassy, strong, and has a beautiful heart. I loved her.
Alice loses her dad and the same day she loses him she’s attacked by a Nightmare and saved by Addison Hatta. Hatta is from Wonderland and protects the human world as one of four protectors from the Nightmares that cross over, he chooses Alice to train up into becoming a Dreamwalker, a human trained in taking out Nightmares and protecting the rest of the world from them. Hatta is mysterious and secretive and everything you’d expect out of someone coming from the world of Wonderland.
The story is fairly fast paced and has quite a few different time jumps at the beginning before you get into the meat of the story which is when Hatta gets poisoned shortly after Alice gets attacked by a mysterious man calling himself the Black Knight. Alice must race through Wonderland to find a cure and learn more about the world she’s involved herself with as she goes and teams up with many names you’ll recognize but in different forms you will come to enjoy (I did at least, I loved the twins so much.)
Great story, looking forward to seeing where it’s going to go in the next book.

Huge thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Alice is a Dreamwalker, a human trained by Addison Hatta to travel through the Portal and kill Nightmares. Nightmares are creatures who feed off all things evil and bad in the human world.

We open with a confusing scene of Alice being chased by a Nightmare and being rescued by Hatta. Then the first chapter takes us a month into Alice's future. The second chapter begins a full year later with Alice ready to retire from being a Dreamwalker. Alice soon gets sucked back into Wonderland because Hatta gets poisoned.

I just have to say that I was severely disappointed in this book. I ended up DNFing this at 60% because I could no longer handle anything that was happening. This was not an Alice in Wonderland retelling, as much as it wanted to be. Certain characters (such as Chess, the Tweedles and Hatta) were related to the original Wonderland characters in name alone. The pacing promised to be a quick-action story, but ending up being extremely slow and dull and all around boring.

Another problem I had was Alice's life in the real world. She has two best friends, Chess and Courtney. Courtney is the only other person who knows Alice travels to Wonderland, not that telling your mother that you slay Nightmares instead of going to the mall would be a good idea. But, because time works differently in Wonderland, Alice sometimes stays "days" and Courtney gets upset because she missed her birthday party.

The writing itself seemed a bit choppy, the language was, if you aren't caught up in the latest "meme' you wouldn't catch it (for example, while batting the Black Knight, Alice says "Sure, Jan", which, if you don't know, is a reference out of the Brady Bunch {that's as far as I can honestly tell you about it} but it was unnecessary and didn't help the fact that Alice was fighting, ultimately for her life, and she chooses that moment to express a "meme'.) There were several other pop culture references that I feel the author put in for brownie points (i.e. Alice cosplays as Sailor Moon, admitting that she had been out of practice since she started Dreamwalking. and when she makes it to Courtney's Halloween party, Courtney's sister is dressed in the green and silver of Slytherin House with a scar and glasses portraying "Harry Potter, if he chose right".)

One of the reasons I wanted to read this book was because I had read A. G. Howard's <i> Splintered </i> and wasn't a huge fan of it. I thought that maybe this would be better, but I'm sad to say I will not recommend this book to anyone.

The introduction was great for me; I love introductions that make you grip the book more for answers. And the vivid imagery of the action going on here got my attention at a 101%. I got my all-nighter face on. The constant need for a backstory is kind of my thing. That I got. A Blade So Black turned a different tone after three or so chapters. I tried really so hard to love it. It just wasn’t for me. The writing was choppy. Rather than feeling the story, it was something that felt something that was dumped on you. Does that make sense? Something felt off, certain scenes felt cringe-y to read on. Another thing I like the redemption kind of read. In other words, pushed to read on and finished it like the huge Curious Cat I am.

World Building. It was interesting. There are scenes that it painted the picture so great and vivid hence aforementioned introduction, there are times that it was as confusing as heck. Did I skip a chapter, a page? Or plainly uneven? And that where the haunt of a reader for that backstory goes.

Characters. The MC, Alice is an African American young adult girl who loves to kick monsters ass both in Wonderland and in the real world. She had struggles of her own in both realms. She is a great character to be represented by. But I love how that this book focuses more on the adventure side of a colored character rather than having to read struggles about race. I am not saying I am sick of it nor shouldn’t be addressed as a person of color I had my fair share of experience too. It was a fresh breath, going out protecting the human world from Wonderland no matter how suck-y we human can be. Addison Hatta, another character we have trains, Alice, to be a protector, her mentor, and friend. Courtney and Chess her friends outside Wonderland. The developments of the characters were not strongly overwhelming as I thought it’ll be.

The plot was okay, there were rich build up and action-packed outcomes but some were rather underwhelming. At some point, it was a bit monotonous. Not all the way, hence me finishing it.

Like I mentioned earlier what I liked most was the adventure reading those were scenes that excite me most. And the representation we are getting here, I love how the author has woven something this. Though the writing was not for my liking, maybe it is still subject to change until the book’s official release. I’d still be up to reread a finished copy of the book. And probably pick up the sequel.

I had seen a lot of talk about this one, but didn’t realize it was an Alice in Wonderland retelling until recently and I was so excited for it.

I liked Alice well enough. She’s loyal and she means well, but she came across as bratty and ungrateful. Yes, yes, classic teenager attitude, yet when you’re legit never home and your mom is extra worried due to a neighborhood girl had been recently killed, maybe don’t be a dick. There is a pretty large cast of characters here, but I wasn’t really drawn in by any of them.

Plot wise it was meh. The world building and aspect of Wonderland I was looking for were both non-existent. There were a lot of clunky sections of prose and I just couldn’t settle into Alice’s inner monologue. It seemed like a lot of telling, no showing.

Overall, it was an interesting idea with an ending that had me intrigued, but the execution didn’t work for me. If this turns into a series, I’m not sure I’ll be continuing.

**Huge thanks to Imprint for providing the arc free of charge**

McKinney's debut introduces readers to a Wonderland-like world filled with dark, nightmarish monsters and to 17-year-old Alice Kingston who finds herself battling these dreamscape creatures while trying to balance an overprotective mom, school, and a social life.

The summary reads like an exciting cross between Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Alice and Wonderland, with a modern-day Alice whose mission is to seek out and destroy Nightmares.

Being a fan of anything related to "Alice" and the fierce kick-butt heroine Buffy, I immediately knew I had to try this book.

Unfortunately, despite wanting to love this story and my anticipation for reading it, overall it ended up being a disappointment for me.

The main reason why it ended up being a disappointment is that of the writing style. The dialogue between the protagonist Alice and the other characters reads choppy and uneven. I found myself re-reading sentences because there seemed to be missing words or incomplete thoughts.

It just may be that the copy of an ARC I received needed a serious final run through the editing process to clean up all the inconsistencies, rather than the author's way of writing. Normally, I prefer more lyrical writing and dynamic dialogue, and unfortunately, I just could not settle into the writing style.

Although I loved the idea of fierce, warrior-stylized Alice fighting monsters—the plot seemed like it was trying to balance two different stories. An Urban fantasy with an inspired retelling of Wonderland. Instead of something cohesive and unique, it just ended-up feeling all over the place with big time gaps between the prologue, the first chapter and fighting in Wonderland.

The book finally hit its stride for me once Wonderland became the focus of the story with Alice on a quest to find an antidote for the poison inflicting “the madness" on her mentor, Hatta.

There are riddles to be had and familiar characters from Alice in Wonderland finally make an appearance. Magic and dangerous battles are fought. I only wished that it all could have come sooner.

In the End

Overall, despite not loving the story, I did find enjoyment in Wonderland's descriptions and characters. I found myself connecting most to Alice's mom and really appreciated the positive relationship portrayed between the two. The cover is gorgeous and blurb definitely compelled me to pick this one up

~ARC provided by NetGalley~

I liked and didn't like this book at the same time - lol. I definitely liked the whole modern day Alice in Wonderland spin, but for one thing it took a while for the story to reach it's climax. The beginning sort speeds you through Alice becoming a Dreamwalker and her relationship with Addison Hatta who is a gatekeeper from Wonderland. Then it sort of tumbles you in and out of Wonderland. It flowed a little chaotically at times. The interchanging of the Wonderland characters names in sentences or paragraphs tended to get a little annoying. I did get more interested as the story went on, i'll probably read the sequel - no rush though.

Alice is a Dreamwalker whose job is to prevent the Nightmares from getting to Earth from Wonderland. Soon her Dreamwalker duties start to interfere with her relationships on Earth. Think Alice in Wonderland meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer and you have A Blade So Black. You have a teenage girl fighting monsters while trying to balance her warrior activities with dealing with her friends and family, which sounds a lot like the earlier seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The earlier chapters focus on world building as readers get some background on Alice, (Mad) Hatta, and their mission of fighting Nightmares. Once that's established the story really begins and the stakes are high and its also personal as one Alice's missions hits close to home affecting her lives in both Wonderland and on Earth. Alice is a spirited hero who is strong and brave but she is not perfect, something which she confronts throughout the story. The supporting cast are lively and distinct, and multi-ethnic. Other characters include her fellow Dreamwalkers Dem and Dee, potion maker Maddie, and best friend Courtney. A Blade So Black is a fun story featuring an African American heroine whose is looking to save the day. McKinney sets up a few mysteries throughout the book, not all of them are resolved (of course) but this novel is compelling enough to look forward to the next book in the series. Personally, I'm looking forward to more YA fantasies with protagonists of color, written by authors of color.

Review:

This is an engaging reimagining of the Alice story, chock-full of fun (and, yes, heartbreaking) elements. There are several wonderful characters to meet, and McKinney smartly introduces the greatly appealing Hatta right from the start, who pulls both Alice and the reader into the adventure of the book. I have soft spots for the book's version of the Doormouse and Alice's friend, whose costume choice for a birthday party, handled subtly by McKinney, KILLED ME. (I don't want to give anything more away, but THE SWEETNESS. IT BREAKS ME.) But in Wonderland, the fierce female characters we meet (and the love stories among them!!! Yes, f/f rep!) take this to the next level. Add in a strong, highly-relatable voice, the Buffy-style issues Alice deals with with her mom and friends, and the final twist, and this is an exciting debut lovers of all things Wonderland will enjoy. Moreover, the connections McKinney makes between the threats in Wonderland and very real threats in our world add a layer of meaning to this book that will make it all the more important to get into the hands of teen readers. And as someone who enjoyed Alice as a child and Buffy as a teen, I can only imagine what this story will mean to young Black readers today. It's an unbirthday present for everyone (unless your birthday is September 25th, then sorry!).

Alice, a young African American girl, is trying to balance her regular life with an overbearing mother and a needy best friend while also being trained to hunt and kill Nightmares in Wonderland by a warrior named Addison Hatta.

I was so excited when I originally heard of this book! An Alice in Wonderland retelling with monster hunting?! Sign me up! Unfortunately, it fell very short for me. I didn't like the writing style and felt that it was chunky and didn't flow well. I kept thinking that the plot would begin to make sense and become more interesting as the story went on... but as it progressed, nothing got better. I found the plot boring and I felt as though nothing actually happened. Half the time I honestly didn't even know what was going on in the story line. I liked the attempt at bringing in characters from the original story of Alice, but I didn't find any of the characters to be anything of interest and felt that they didn't develop in anyway. I didn't relate to any of them or care about what happened to them

I really enjoyed this Alice in Wonderland re telling. Not my typical read but I really enjoyed it. I’m for any book with a strong female lead and this book didn’t disappoint. Thank you to MacMillan for my advanced copy.

I received an advanced e-copy of this title and I can honestly say it surprised me. While I love the classic 'Alice in Wonderland' I am not usually a fan of revisitations or reincarnations; so when I read the synopsis I thought: "Oh well, let's get this over with..."

I was wrong! I actually read this title in a single day--in around 8 hours (and I am not a particularly fast reader)--but it was just that compelling. I truly enjoyed the dialogue and natural banter between characters; the diversity of the cast absolutely reflected our society today without feeling forced or for the sake of political correctness alone; plus the manner in which the author adapted the classic characters into modern and relatable individuals was unique, fun and quirky (absolutely in keeping with Carroll's original); and honestly, I just wanted to live in Wonderland, the descriptions and histories shared about this landscape made it almost a character in its own right.

That all said, it is still not perfect. Due to the size of the cast (I count 12 key characters), not all were fully developed and many remained somewhat one-dimensional. I am crossing my fingers this is, as stated above, due to the size of the cast and the fact that the author focused on balancing exposition with action to maintain the momentum of the story. Hopefully this is addressed further in the sequel (because this is definitely the beginning of a series and in no way complete unto itself).

SPOILER ALERT!!! Do not read past this point unless you are willing to face a potential spoiler:

What ultimately tainted this book for me--do not get me wrong, overall I still considered it a truly enjoyable read and will definitely pick up the sequel--was the Epilogue. The 'twist' introduced in this final portion was a play on a trope I am not overly fond of to begin with (resurrect the truly good character in love with the protagonist as a weapon of evil) and left one of my favourite characters in peril. At which point I responded with: "Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Arrrrghhhhhhhh." Why?!?!

And these are my thoughts! I am definitely excited to read other reviews and see what the community as a whole thinks--it has definitely prompted some interesting feedback on our Indigo Discussion Board already!

Received as an ARC from Netgalley. *

Ok first things first, I loved this. I wasn't into it from the very beginning, but by the end I was reading nonstop. It's being marketed as an Alice retelling but honestly is more like a completely different story that happens to be partly set in Wonderland. If you go into it expecting the same storyline as Alice in Wonderland, you'll be disappointed. If you don't, you'll enjoy this!
Alice is a BADASS and I love it. She's always kicking ass and taking names, but that's not the only side to her. She's a complex main character and she goes through a lot. This book has a lot of nods to the original story, and I really enjoyed the changes the author made. Disappointed that it's a series, but only bc I wanna know what happens next!!!

4 stars bc I wasn't hooked at the beginning.

After being attack by a Nightmare on the night of her father’s death, Alice is recruited to become a Dreamwalker, a person who fights off these monsters trying to enter the real word from Wonderland. With it’s roots in Alice in Wonderland, A Blade so Black is the story of a young African-American woman’s fight to help stop the evil of the other world from spilling over the Veil into ours.

Alice fights to balance her obligations with her high school friends and her grieving family with her allies in Wonderland. She’s been trained to fight and when her apprentice is mortality injured she needs to enter the fantasy realm to battle the monsters and some especially caustic royal politics.

L.L. McKinney’s work is a solid addition to the YA fantasy genre. The teenage friendships are realistic and up-to-date, and the magical fight scenes are dynamic and fast-paced. There are some issues with jumbled worldbuilding in the second setting, but overall, this is a good read.

Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillan Children's Publishing Group, and L.L. McKinney for an advanced copy for review.

From Atlanta rather than England, this Alice volunteers to bounce back and forth between Wonderland, protecting both from "Nightmares" born from human consciousness. By making this Alice an African-American teen girl living in the South, it gives the story an opportunity to touch on racial tensions that bring about some of the biggest evils Wonderland has ever seen. Unfortunately, the main plot takes precedence and this isn't explored as fully as I would have liked. And the main plot was slightly predictable and ended on a cliffhanger, which isn't really my favorite. Still, the characters are fun and remind this old-timer of Buffy -- between slaying monsters, a hot British mentor, snarky co-fighters, risking life, limb, and grounding to keep a worried mother in the dark, it's a nice romp through familiar worlds that I thoroughly enjoyed. Bonus points for diverse cast -- both racial and sexual orientation.

How do you rate a book that is only good by the halfway point? This is my dilemma for writing this review.

The beginning is atrocious. There are two weird time jumps. Conflicts seem to come from the parts that happen during these jumps. She decides she wants to quit because it's been hard on her mother during the year she's been fighting. Her civilian life is extremely boring and something I've already seen and grown tired of in other media. The romance is built during these jumps so what I've read doesn't add to the passion that happens are the end. When Alice thinks of Hatta's good traits I wonder when was I shown any of them and then remember the missing year. This is a major problem. The book does get very interesting with Wonderland but how many readers will still be reading by then? The sloppiness of the beginning upsets me so much because there is so much potential for the series as a whole and the parts that deal with Wonderland does show that the author is talented.

Let it be known that if you write a re-imagining or re-interpretation of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, I will read it.

BUT. It either has to be completely original (like Christina Henry's Alice--a shocking, violent romp that leaves a lasting impression) or REALLY good (like Marissa Meyer's Heartless--a prequel story about the Red Queen that is PERFECTION).

Which is why this one was so disappointing. It has original going for it, for sure: Alice is trained by Addison Hatta to hunt and kill Nightmares in Wonderland. She's African American.

Unfortunately the original wasn't enough to overcome the boring, convoluted plot.

There are lots of inconsistencies...and while I suspect some of them might be fixed in the final editing process, there are some things I just did not enjoy. Like...what, exactly, is the point of having the first chapter take place several months after the prologue and then EVERYTHING else happens a year later? At first you think it's going to be about Alice's training but...nope. We get to see NONE of it. Then there's the weird "Alice tries to balance real life and Wonderland" story line that is just so boring--every time Court and Chess were on the page I just wanted them to go away so we could get back to the magical stuff. And the end "battle" was so anticlimactic...even with the twist thrown in in the epilogue. I mean...I literally didn't care.

Finally, one of my favorites things about reading New Alice stories is finding familiar characters who maybe show up in different ways/forms. But other than Alice and the Tweedle twins (who here are a pair of handsome Russian Nightmare slayers like Alice), I didn't particularly like how any of the characters were handled. Some of them (like Chess) seem to share a name and nothing else...which is fine, if they're interesting. But they aren't.

Honestly, the only reason this wasn't a DNF for me was because of my love of the original. I kept waiting for a character or scene I would love, but it just didn't come.