Audiobook Review: Unhinged (Splintered #2) by A. G Howard

Dark, mysterious and failed to hit the mark

Title: Unhinged
Series: Splintered
Author: A. G Howard
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
My ratings: 3 out of 5 stars
Released: 8th January, 2014
It felt like I had been waiting for Unhinged for a long time. When Splintered first came out, I gave into the impulse of reading it as the quirky cover and the positive reviews drew me in. The wild ride and the all round craziness was addictive and I enjoyed the adventure Splintered took me on. I'll admit, my favourite character of them all was Morpheus, the Mad Hatter. Dark, mysterious with an agenda of his own, he was difficult to predict and impossible to slot in a spot. His intention were never clear and he always had a sinister edge about him.

So when I finally got a chance to read Unhinged, I wanted to read it with an unhurried pace as I wanted to savour the experience and the crazy world building. I picked up the audio book, narrated by Rebecca Gibel.

Unfortunately, Unhinged failed to hit the mark with me. First of all, the whole book was set up in the real world not the Netherland, which usually added another layer or many layers to the story and the experience. Of course, we have the creatures of Netherland creeping into this world both old and new, leaving Alyssa to deal with the consequences. We have Jebb, whom I have never taken to and a variety of other characters. The best thing about Unhinged was that it had a lot more Morpheus than Splintered but my enjoyment of reading about a bewildering character was cut short. I hated the voice, the narrator did for him. It was meant to be a cockney accent but it simply did not feel right for him. Every time Morpheus spoke, I cringed. In fact, I didn't like any of the characters voices.

Alyssa especially seemed bratty and selfish in this book, and her desperate attempts to be 'normal' annoyed me. I am not saying this because she was harsh on Morpheus but she held everyone to different standards which I found hard to accept. It was ok, if she duped, cheated and lied but if somebody else did the same to her, she became holier than thou.

It all seems really mean but it all comes to the fact, that I did not like Alyssa or the way she treated people. I found her self cantered and selfish. The voices in this audio book didn't help either. I don't know is all my venom is coming because I didn't like the narration as I had read the first book and perhaps I had assigned 'voices' to these characters in my mind or perhaps Splintered had blind sided me with its crazy Wonderland hijinks and the lack of which made her flaws glaring obvious.

I'd recommended it to all fans of the first book but would advice to at least try it before completely disregarding it.