Review: Ensnared by A.G. Howard

What: Ensnared (Splintered #3) by A.G. Howard

Who: Amulet Books

When: January 6th 2015

How: Borrowed from library

After surviving a disastrous battle at prom, Alyssa has embraced her madness and gained perspective. She’s determined to rescue her two worlds and the people and netherlings she loves. Even if it means challenging Queen Red to a final battle of wills and wiles . . . and even if the only way to Wonderland, now that the rabbit hole is closed, is through the looking-glass world–a parallel dimension filled with mutated and violent netherling outcasts. In the final installment of the wildly popular Splintered trilogy, Alyssa and her dad journey into the heart of magic and mayhem in search of her mom and to set right all that’s gone wrong. Together with Jeb and Morpheus, they must salvage Wonderland from the decay and destruction that has ensnared it. But if they succeed and come out alive, can everyone truly have their happily ever after?

Things got INTENSE in Ensnared, oh my. We dive back into Wonderland but not really because it’s AnyElsewhere and everything is even creepier, and also has a nice huge dash of evil to go with it.

Alyssa’s dad plays a HUGE role in Ensnared, and I was so happy for this. Like I said in my review of Unhinged, I love that Howard has introduced Alyssa’s parents as actual characters who have their own storylines. It’s such a change from the usual YA books – especially in the fantasy genre. So, again, I was really glad for this inclusion, and I appreciated the role that Alyssa’s dad had to play in the overall storyline in Ensnared. (I was a bit wary of how he suddenly became a badass swordsman, though, after like 30 years or whatever.)

I jumped ship again. I KNOW, I KNOW. I AM SO FICKLE. But this time, there’s no Alyssa in this ship. I totally, 100% shipped Jeb and Morpheus. I was definitely not imagining the sexual tension between these two, and there was touching and measuring and blushing and heated moments, and I just. I wanted it to happen so badly. I wanted Alyssa to disappear so that the relationship between Jeb and Morpheus could be explored some more. ACTUALLY I really want a story about what happened whilst these two boys were in AnyElsewhere without Alyssa. This story would make me VERY HAPPY INDEED.

But as for the Alyssa ship, I was still on board with Morpheus and I loved the fact that Alyssa FINALLY came to terms with her feelings for him (although I wasn’t 100% sure of the whole “it’s my netherling side in love with him” – GURL the whole you is in love with him, okay?). As for who she picks – there’s a pretty sweet outcome for whomever you shipped Alyssa with, and I suppose that’s all I’m going to say for fear of spoilers, which are heinous things. Although I felt like this decision/the ending of Ensnared was a bit rushed. I wanted more details about everything, and I felt that I didn’t really get that. So that was a bit disappointing. BUT there is the novella companion book coming out, so hopefully we get more story from that.

I really liked the new aspects of Wonderland that we got to see in Ensnared, from the creepy painting creatures to the wildness of AnyElsewhere to the back-story for Red that we were privy to. It was all very intriguing, and I was addicted the entire time.

All in all, Ensnared was a lovely ending to the Splintered trilogy, but I must say I am aching for that novella book!

© 2015, Chiara @ Books for a Delicate Eternity. All rights reserved.