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A review by tanya_tate
A Blade So Black by L.L. McKinney
2.0
Edit: July 22 2020 Surprise Surprise! I bet you didn't see this coming!
Book Stats
Stars: 2 Stars
Start Date : 6/26/20
Ending Date: 7/22/20
Genre: YA Fantasy ,Retellings
Form: Audiobook/ Ebook
Page Count: 384
Publishing Date: 2018
Point of View: 3rd Person
Setting: Atlanta, GA, Wonderland
You can read it on my blog!
Note: Due to the fact my real review of this book is kind of long, I ran out of character space. So I removed most of my two OG non reviews to the end of my blog review. I have to keep the legacy some kind of way lol.
I know this is very unexpected which is the reason why I never marked it as me reading because I wanted it to remain a surprise.
Since my non-review of her book which explains her past comments she made before this book come out has over 150 likes on GR. I have more likes on this than I do my actual reviews. lol
A lot of people maybe wondering why I decide to read this book now and the answer is simple .
I found out that L.L was a Sailor Moon fan. Plain and Simple.
I supported Marissa Meyer when I found out that she wrote SM fan fiction and I supposed SJM after I found out she was an moonie.
I will always make it my mission to support Moonies since SM was my very first fandom before I was even a HP fan. Especially black moonies like L.L and Roseanne Brown in which I stopped reading her book for a min so I can read L.L's
Also the fact L.L do be making some points on how the publishing industry needs to help black and poc authors with publishing their books but it just the way she goes about it can be seem harsh to say the least...
But enough of that I'll talk more about L.L towards the end of the review.
So I have made it known for a while that I don't like Alice in Wonderland which I think had something to do with the Disney animated version. I stayed away from retellings of it which the only one I have tried before to read Marissa Meyer's Heartless in which I gave it a 1 star. I guess I never liked the treatment Alice receive during her travels in Wonderland so that's why I never liked it.
So after consideration of the things I stated above ,I decide to give this one a try.
At first I really thought I was finally going to find a version of AoW that I really liked but after the first 25% of it..
Yeah Lets just say that Alice should have stayed in Atlanta away from Hatta.
So this was marketed as Alice of Wonderland Meets Buffy and for the most part is does have that feel which I'm going to talk about in min but let me talk about our characters.
Alice- A Black 17 years old Girl who lost her dad from an heart attack. Become a dream walker after meeting Addison Hatta the same night her dad died when she left the hospital and a nightmare attacked her.. Trained with Hatta for 3 months before entering Wonderland and had been a Dreamwalker for over a year. Was planning on retiring from being a dream walker since her mom becoming worried with her safe when a black girl got murdered. That plan went out the window when her last mission to purge ( aka cleansed with her Figment Blades aka special blades made from dust from Wonderland) a nightmare she killed a previous mission went wrong. When she met the black knight in which attacked her and told her to give a message to Hatta. Now going on a journey in order to find the heart in order to save Hatta. Loves to cosplay in which she had on a Sailor Fuku when her dad died. Dressed up as Princess Serenity for her best friends Birthday/Halloween party.
Wonderland- A magical place where dreams reside.
Dreamwalker - a human who can travel into wonderland to defeat the nightmares and because of this dream walkers can't dream.
Nightmares are born out of fear and anger from humans. They almost remain me of the Nobodies in Kingdom Hearts.
Addison Hatta- Alice Mentor. Trained her to be a Dreamwalker since he become exiled from Wonderland. He was exiled because he worked for the Black Queen which was the Queen of Wonderland before she become corrupted after the death of her daughter. He defecated from her in order help her two daughters( Red and White Queen) win the war against their mom and saved wonderland. Was the OG Black Knight. Was poisoned with a Madness by a person posting as Black Knight. Potential Love interest
Maddi- A potion maker who works with Hatta who owns the pub, Looking Glass Pub,that holds the gateway to Wonderland.
Dee and Dem AKA Dimitri and Demarcus Tweedlanov- Dreamwalkers from Russia who helps Alice with Nightmares from time to time. Has a mentor name Anastasia aka the Duchess which is almost like Hatta.
Odabeth- The White Queen Daughter and Black Queen Granddaughter. Is the the presenting Queen of the white Castle since her mom was attacked by the Black Knight. Goes with Alice along with Xelon ( the white knight and potential lover of Odabeth) to the real world to recover the Eye in order for them to find the heart.
The heart is an artifact that supposed to be with the Red Queen that supposed to heal people from the madness sickness. Is currently lost since the Red Queen is lost.
The eye is an artifact that supposed to be with the White Queen that supposed to see all things. Is currently lost but it presume to be in the real world
Black Knight- The villain who is turning humans into nightmares called fiends. Who also poisoned Hatta and the Oathbeth mom, the white queen. He also wants the Eye.
Black Queen- Was the OG Queen of Wonderland, Mother of the Red and White Queen. Was corrupted with darkness once her daughter died.
Courtney- Alice best friend who got pissed off when Alice didn't show up at her birthday. Didn't realized the Alice was freaking knocked out for a whole damn day thanks to the Black Knight attacking her which supposed to have been her retirement mission.
Chess- Alice and Courtney classmate from school. Another Potential Love Interest.
Alice Mom- Someone who is worried about Alice after the death of a black girl. A No Nonsense Black Mom.
The first part of the book was probably the best part of the book for me. I kind of liked the fact it time jumped and we only seen Alice completing her training ,seeing her go into Wonderland for the first time then time skipped to when she's been a Dreamwalker for a whole year. I was thinking like 25% of the book would be gone by the time she meets Hatta and goes into Wonderland.
Honestly I liked the whole idea of Dreamwalkers and the fact Wonderland was the place where nightmares end up at. It almost felt like the Digital World in Digimon or one of the lands Sora travels to in Kingdom Hearts. L.L's Wonderland felt different and fresh compared to Lewis Wonderland which is good since it supposed to have been a re imagining of Wonderland.
But after that it started to go down hill and honestly in order for me to make this review I had to seriously look up a summary because I couldn't remember people names becuase they were so one dimensional/bland.
It's three things in this book that bothered me the most dealt wit Alice.
1.Alice disregard for her mom being worried for her- Yes I understand Alice is a 17 year old teenager but the fact instead of laying low for one day and not sneaking out the house after she didn't come home for a full day ( which wasn't her fault since she got attacked) she did it anyway to see Hatta. It was like " Girl! Really Lay low for just one day! Your mom already grounded you and she may kill you the next time. " Then another scene when she come back from Wonderland which it was just a day in the real world and her mom wanted her to come home at certain time but she disregarded that again to go hunt for the pieces of the eye. Its like " Girl! Go home for a second. Make sure your mom knows you are ok then go look for the eye. " You are dealing with a black mom who wouldn't mind say " I bought you into this world and I'll take you out!" You just do things in order to keep to peace which Alice didn't do at all. Since her mom is worried about her since that girl got killed who was around Alice age. So you would think she would have more consideration about what her mom is going through with her losing her husband only a year ago and then a girl who almost Alice age got killed which got her thinking that she could lose Alice. But no it's all about sneaking out to save Hatta..
Hatta! Hatta! Hatta! Hatta!Hatta! Hatta! Hatta! Hatta! Which goes to by next point.
2.Alice and Hatta- Omg I could have done without this so bad!! I could have done without her getting romantic feelings for someone who can be seen as her Teacher/Mentor at best. (It almost felt like Giles and Buffy which really become a Father/Daughter relationship when the series went on.) In which we don't know the age difference between the two at all. In which she kind went one track minded and was only thinking about him when trying to go after the heart to save him . Then her getting jealous at Duchess for her being concerned for Hatta's health. I understand she's 17 and this probably her first big crush but girl! Cool it! I'm side eyeing the fact that L.L is a SM fan which means she could have easy taken the dynamics of Usagi and Mamoru ( Manga not Anime) and incorporated into her dynamics with Alice and Hatta.
3.This weird makings of a love triangle between Alice, Hatta and Chess- Alice is pretty much all " Hatta! Hatta! Hatta! Hatta!Hatta! Hatta! Hatta! Hatta!" through the majority of the book but then she almost kissed Chess and almost went to the movies with him. So Alice What it going to be??
I found myself eye rolling so hard at Alice actions because she was acting like a 13-14 year old and not a 17 year old.
She was killing nightmares like Buffy killed Vampires so that's why it was getting compared to Buffy.
I thought all the Sailor Moon references would have saved it for me which it didn't at all.
Everyone else felt so one dimensional that it wasn't even funny which the only four characters who had potential to be interesting was the twins, Xelon and Odabeth.
I really didn't like Hatta that much since Alice through he was the best thing since slice bread.
Also it felt very convenient that they found all pieces of the eye in like 4-5 chapters..
Also the fact the book pretty much takes place in like 6 days real world time...
I would love to know more about her cosplaying with her dad but he was just a plot device to get us to know Hatta so she can be heart eyes about him for the majority of the book.
I know nothing about Alice expect the fact that she loves to cosplay.Even tho she supposed to have these light powers that supposed to be power but that's it. It's nothing else interesting about her if it's not involving around Hatta and Wonderland. Sure she got a best friend but that just it. Alice needs to be a more well round character who have more interest and dreams. She supposed to be a at least a junior or senior in high school and it was no mention of her going to college or anything.
I'm just going to say again what I said in my 157 liked non review..
" Yay Alice is black but what else? What else about her is going to make me interested in reading her story since I'm already not a big fan anyway? Oh she can kick ass! Yay! *"
Which I was right. It's nothing else to this story expect Alice being a black girl living in Atlanta who like to cosplay.
We need more black female fantasy characters out there but they need to be good. I stopped reading a potential really good one in Songs of Wraith and Ruin to read this.
I just really wanted BlackGirlMagic to the max since I already dnfed another one with main character was only thinking about her wannabe woke boyfriend. (Slay)
Before anyone say it,Yes I love romance in books (especially fantasy books) and yes I want my black main females to have love interest that got their backs but I want them to have others things to think about besides a boy that is one dimensional.
Now that I think about it, the fact they we did time jump a year between her first going into Wonderland to her about to retire from being a Dreamwalker probably hurted their development. Since we don't see the interactions they had during that year for her to develop romantic feelings for him. So that's why it felt like she's all about " " Hatta! Hatta! Hatta! Hatta!Hatta! Hatta! Hatta! Hatta!" in the majority of the book.
So really this book has the makings of being a really good book but it just mediocre at it's best. So I'm not going to read the next two at all.
Let me also post this gem from my non review
"I'm all for diversity but don't let diversity be your only selling point while your story and characters lacks.."
Which I was right again! I predicated the whole book without even reading it two years before I read it! lol
I leave with this nugget.
If you going to be one the main leaders/biggest voices on twitter trying to change the climate of the publishing world to get more publishing companies publish more Black and PoC authors and also almost getting other books not published from a PoC author because you claim that book is racist, make sure your work is not mediocre at is best.... You can't lead the charge when you are lacking the skills to lead and be an influence..
Make sure your bite matches your bark because if it doesn't people don't want to listen to you.
Edit: May 30 2019
Can yall please leave my post alone? Seriously. I'm getting more comments on this than on my actual book reviews.
Thank you The OG post will stay up here.
OG Post
A couple reasons why I'll probably not going to read this.
1. I'm not a big Alice in Wonderland fan so it's already doesn't interest me.
2. Alice is black in her retelling as the ONLY selling point of her story.....Yay Alice is black but what else? What else about her is going to make me interested in reading her story since I'm already not a big fan anyway? Oh she can kick ass! Yay! *eye roll*
So thanks but no thanks.
I'm all for diversity but don't let diversity be your only selling point while your story and characters lacks..
Edit:Two definitions people need to know
Racism: a system in which a dominant race benefits off the oppression of others.
Prejudice:an unfavorable opinion or feeling formed beforehand or without knowledge.
To all intended purposes, L.L Mckinney is prejudiced against whites but not racist due to the fact that she DO NOT have the power to oppress them aka keep opportunities away from them. Yes her comments are extremely unacceptable and should be called out like it but it's her being prejudiced against whites. She doesn't have the power to keep someone from having a job or in a bad economic situation.
Book Stats
Stars: 2 Stars
Start Date : 6/26/20
Ending Date: 7/22/20
Genre: YA Fantasy ,Retellings
Form: Audiobook/ Ebook
Page Count: 384
Publishing Date: 2018
Point of View: 3rd Person
Setting: Atlanta, GA, Wonderland
You can read it on my blog!
Note: Due to the fact my real review of this book is kind of long, I ran out of character space. So I removed most of my two OG non reviews to the end of my blog review. I have to keep the legacy some kind of way lol.
I know this is very unexpected which is the reason why I never marked it as me reading because I wanted it to remain a surprise.
Since my non-review of her book which explains her past comments she made before this book come out has over 150 likes on GR. I have more likes on this than I do my actual reviews. lol
A lot of people maybe wondering why I decide to read this book now and the answer is simple .
I found out that L.L was a Sailor Moon fan. Plain and Simple.
I supported Marissa Meyer when I found out that she wrote SM fan fiction and I supposed SJM after I found out she was an moonie.
I will always make it my mission to support Moonies since SM was my very first fandom before I was even a HP fan. Especially black moonies like L.L and Roseanne Brown in which I stopped reading her book for a min so I can read L.L's
Also the fact L.L do be making some points on how the publishing industry needs to help black and poc authors with publishing their books but it just the way she goes about it can be seem harsh to say the least...
But enough of that I'll talk more about L.L towards the end of the review.
So I have made it known for a while that I don't like Alice in Wonderland which I think had something to do with the Disney animated version. I stayed away from retellings of it which the only one I have tried before to read Marissa Meyer's Heartless in which I gave it a 1 star. I guess I never liked the treatment Alice receive during her travels in Wonderland so that's why I never liked it.
So after consideration of the things I stated above ,I decide to give this one a try.
At first I really thought I was finally going to find a version of AoW that I really liked but after the first 25% of it..
Yeah Lets just say that Alice should have stayed in Atlanta away from Hatta.
So this was marketed as Alice of Wonderland Meets Buffy and for the most part is does have that feel which I'm going to talk about in min but let me talk about our characters.
Alice- A Black 17 years old Girl who lost her dad from an heart attack. Become a dream walker after meeting Addison Hatta the same night her dad died when she left the hospital and a nightmare attacked her.. Trained with Hatta for 3 months before entering Wonderland and had been a Dreamwalker for over a year. Was planning on retiring from being a dream walker since her mom becoming worried with her safe when a black girl got murdered. That plan went out the window when her last mission to purge ( aka cleansed with her Figment Blades aka special blades made from dust from Wonderland) a nightmare she killed a previous mission went wrong. When she met the black knight in which attacked her and told her to give a message to Hatta. Now going on a journey in order to find the heart in order to save Hatta. Loves to cosplay in which she had on a Sailor Fuku when her dad died. Dressed up as Princess Serenity for her best friends Birthday/Halloween party.
Wonderland- A magical place where dreams reside.
Dreamwalker - a human who can travel into wonderland to defeat the nightmares and because of this dream walkers can't dream.
Nightmares are born out of fear and anger from humans. They almost remain me of the Nobodies in Kingdom Hearts.
Addison Hatta- Alice Mentor. Trained her to be a Dreamwalker since he become exiled from Wonderland. He was exiled because he worked for the Black Queen which was the Queen of Wonderland before she become corrupted after the death of her daughter. He defecated from her in order help her two daughters( Red and White Queen) win the war against their mom and saved wonderland. Was the OG Black Knight. Was poisoned with a Madness by a person posting as Black Knight. Potential Love interest
Maddi- A potion maker who works with Hatta who owns the pub, Looking Glass Pub,that holds the gateway to Wonderland.
Dee and Dem AKA Dimitri and Demarcus Tweedlanov- Dreamwalkers from Russia who helps Alice with Nightmares from time to time. Has a mentor name Anastasia aka the Duchess which is almost like Hatta.
Odabeth- The White Queen Daughter and Black Queen Granddaughter. Is the the presenting Queen of the white Castle since her mom was attacked by the Black Knight. Goes with Alice along with Xelon ( the white knight and potential lover of Odabeth) to the real world to recover the Eye in order for them to find the heart.
The heart is an artifact that supposed to be with the Red Queen that supposed to heal people from the madness sickness. Is currently lost since the Red Queen is lost.
The eye is an artifact that supposed to be with the White Queen that supposed to see all things. Is currently lost but it presume to be in the real world
Black Knight- The villain who is turning humans into nightmares called fiends. Who also poisoned Hatta and the Oathbeth mom, the white queen. He also wants the Eye.
Black Queen- Was the OG Queen of Wonderland, Mother of the Red and White Queen. Was corrupted with darkness once her daughter died.
Courtney- Alice best friend who got pissed off when Alice didn't show up at her birthday. Didn't realized the Alice was freaking knocked out for a whole damn day thanks to the Black Knight attacking her which supposed to have been her retirement mission.
Chess- Alice and Courtney classmate from school. Another Potential Love Interest.
Alice Mom- Someone who is worried about Alice after the death of a black girl. A No Nonsense Black Mom.
The first part of the book was probably the best part of the book for me. I kind of liked the fact it time jumped and we only seen Alice completing her training ,seeing her go into Wonderland for the first time then time skipped to when she's been a Dreamwalker for a whole year. I was thinking like 25% of the book would be gone by the time she meets Hatta and goes into Wonderland.
Honestly I liked the whole idea of Dreamwalkers and the fact Wonderland was the place where nightmares end up at. It almost felt like the Digital World in Digimon or one of the lands Sora travels to in Kingdom Hearts. L.L's Wonderland felt different and fresh compared to Lewis Wonderland which is good since it supposed to have been a re imagining of Wonderland.
But after that it started to go down hill and honestly in order for me to make this review I had to seriously look up a summary because I couldn't remember people names becuase they were so one dimensional/bland.
It's three things in this book that bothered me the most dealt wit Alice.
1.Alice disregard for her mom being worried for her- Yes I understand Alice is a 17 year old teenager but the fact instead of laying low for one day and not sneaking out the house after she didn't come home for a full day ( which wasn't her fault since she got attacked) she did it anyway to see Hatta. It was like " Girl! Really Lay low for just one day! Your mom already grounded you and she may kill you the next time. " Then another scene when she come back from Wonderland which it was just a day in the real world and her mom wanted her to come home at certain time but she disregarded that again to go hunt for the pieces of the eye. Its like " Girl! Go home for a second. Make sure your mom knows you are ok then go look for the eye. " You are dealing with a black mom who wouldn't mind say " I bought you into this world and I'll take you out!" You just do things in order to keep to peace which Alice didn't do at all. Since her mom is worried about her since that girl got killed who was around Alice age. So you would think she would have more consideration about what her mom is going through with her losing her husband only a year ago and then a girl who almost Alice age got killed which got her thinking that she could lose Alice. But no it's all about sneaking out to save Hatta..
Hatta! Hatta! Hatta! Hatta!Hatta! Hatta! Hatta! Hatta! Which goes to by next point.
2.Alice and Hatta- Omg I could have done without this so bad!! I could have done without her getting romantic feelings for someone who can be seen as her Teacher/Mentor at best. (It almost felt like Giles and Buffy which really become a Father/Daughter relationship when the series went on.) In which we don't know the age difference between the two at all. In which she kind went one track minded and was only thinking about him when trying to go after the heart to save him . Then her getting jealous at Duchess for her being concerned for Hatta's health. I understand she's 17 and this probably her first big crush but girl! Cool it! I'm side eyeing the fact that L.L is a SM fan which means she could have easy taken the dynamics of Usagi and Mamoru ( Manga not Anime) and incorporated into her dynamics with Alice and Hatta.
3.This weird makings of a love triangle between Alice, Hatta and Chess- Alice is pretty much all " Hatta! Hatta! Hatta! Hatta!Hatta! Hatta! Hatta! Hatta!" through the majority of the book but then she almost kissed Chess and almost went to the movies with him. So Alice What it going to be??
I found myself eye rolling so hard at Alice actions because she was acting like a 13-14 year old and not a 17 year old.
She was killing nightmares like Buffy killed Vampires so that's why it was getting compared to Buffy.
I thought all the Sailor Moon references would have saved it for me which it didn't at all.
Everyone else felt so one dimensional that it wasn't even funny which the only four characters who had potential to be interesting was the twins, Xelon and Odabeth.
I really didn't like Hatta that much since Alice through he was the best thing since slice bread.
Also it felt very convenient that they found all pieces of the eye in like 4-5 chapters..
Also the fact the book pretty much takes place in like 6 days real world time...
I would love to know more about her cosplaying with her dad but he was just a plot device to get us to know Hatta so she can be heart eyes about him for the majority of the book.
I know nothing about Alice expect the fact that she loves to cosplay.Even tho she supposed to have these light powers that supposed to be power but that's it. It's nothing else interesting about her if it's not involving around Hatta and Wonderland. Sure she got a best friend but that just it. Alice needs to be a more well round character who have more interest and dreams. She supposed to be a at least a junior or senior in high school and it was no mention of her going to college or anything.
I'm just going to say again what I said in my 157 liked non review..
" Yay Alice is black but what else? What else about her is going to make me interested in reading her story since I'm already not a big fan anyway? Oh she can kick ass! Yay! *"
Which I was right. It's nothing else to this story expect Alice being a black girl living in Atlanta who like to cosplay.
We need more black female fantasy characters out there but they need to be good. I stopped reading a potential really good one in Songs of Wraith and Ruin to read this.
I just really wanted BlackGirlMagic to the max since I already dnfed another one with main character was only thinking about her wannabe woke boyfriend. (Slay)
Before anyone say it,Yes I love romance in books (especially fantasy books) and yes I want my black main females to have love interest that got their backs but I want them to have others things to think about besides a boy that is one dimensional.
Now that I think about it, the fact they we did time jump a year between her first going into Wonderland to her about to retire from being a Dreamwalker probably hurted their development. Since we don't see the interactions they had during that year for her to develop romantic feelings for him. So that's why it felt like she's all about " " Hatta! Hatta! Hatta! Hatta!Hatta! Hatta! Hatta! Hatta!" in the majority of the book.
So really this book has the makings of being a really good book but it just mediocre at it's best. So I'm not going to read the next two at all.
Let me also post this gem from my non review
"I'm all for diversity but don't let diversity be your only selling point while your story and characters lacks.."
Which I was right again! I predicated the whole book without even reading it two years before I read it! lol
I leave with this nugget.
If you going to be one the main leaders/biggest voices on twitter trying to change the climate of the publishing world to get more publishing companies publish more Black and PoC authors and also almost getting other books not published from a PoC author because you claim that book is racist, make sure your work is not mediocre at is best.... You can't lead the charge when you are lacking the skills to lead and be an influence..
Make sure your bite matches your bark because if it doesn't people don't want to listen to you.
Edit: May 30 2019
Can yall please leave my post alone? Seriously. I'm getting more comments on this than on my actual book reviews.
Thank you The OG post will stay up here.
OG Post
A couple reasons why I'll probably not going to read this.
1. I'm not a big Alice in Wonderland fan so it's already doesn't interest me.
2. Alice is black in her retelling as the ONLY selling point of her story.....Yay Alice is black but what else? What else about her is going to make me interested in reading her story since I'm already not a big fan anyway? Oh she can kick ass! Yay! *eye roll*
So thanks but no thanks.
I'm all for diversity but don't let diversity be your only selling point while your story and characters lacks..
Edit:Two definitions people need to know
Racism: a system in which a dominant race benefits off the oppression of others.
Prejudice:an unfavorable opinion or feeling formed beforehand or without knowledge.
To all intended purposes, L.L Mckinney is prejudiced against whites but not racist due to the fact that she DO NOT have the power to oppress them aka keep opportunities away from them. Yes her comments are extremely unacceptable and should be called out like it but it's her being prejudiced against whites. She doesn't have the power to keep someone from having a job or in a bad economic situation.