Alyssa Gardner has spent her whole life managing the whispers, the voices of bugs and flowers that mark her as heir to a family curse stretching back to Alice Liddell herself. Splintered, A. G. Howard's debut YA novel narrated by Rebecca Gibel and running twelve hours and forty-one minutes, is one of the more successful Alice's Adventures in Wonderland retellings in the contemporary YA landscape precisely because it refuses to treat Carroll's original as a whimsical source. The Underland that Howard has built is genuinely grotesque, and this audiobook commits to that darkness without softening it for younger sensibilities.
The Verdict, Briefly
What Howard does that most Wonderland retellings avoid is take seriously the horror implicit in Carroll's original. The real Wonderland of this series is a place where Alice's decisions left unpaid debts and unresolved curses, and Alyssa is the one who has inherited the cost of them. Her family curse, which has driven her mother to a mental institution and threatens to pull Alyssa along the same path, is not metaphorical here. It is structural. The whispers she hears are real, and the world she must enter to resolve them is genuinely dangerous rather than merely strange. The tests she must pass, draining an ocean of Alice's tears, waking a slumbering tea party, subduing a bandersnatch, are drawn from Carroll's source material but rendered with new menace. Howard is also careful with the emotional architecture. The tension between Jeb, Alyssa's best friend and secret crush, and Morpheus, her enigmatic guide through Underland whose motives remain opaque for most of the runtime, is not decorative. Both relationships represent different orientations toward Alyssa's identity, and the choice between them is a choice about who she wants to become. Morpheus is the more complex figure, his deep familiarity with Underland and Alyssa's heritage make him far more interesting than a standard romantic rival, and Howard does not resolve his ambiguity cheaply. One reviewer described the completed series as leaving them at a loss for words, finding themselves repeating just two words to themselves after finishing Splintered. That kind of response signals an emotional architecture that audio performance has to support, and Gibel's work does.
Rebecca Gibel's narration is a strong match for this material. The audiobook format is particularly well-suited to Splintered because so much of the novel's effect depends on atmosphere: the texture of Underland, the quality of the whispers Alyssa hears, the disorienting shift between the real world and a place that operates by different rules. Gibel's voice captures Alyssa's practical intelligence and her underlying fear simultaneously, which is what the character requires. She is not a passive protagonist being dragged through an adventure, but someone actively trying to manage an overwhelming situation with whatever competence she can bring to it. The differentiation between Jeb and Morpheus is clear enough to track throughout the twelve-hour runtime, and the grotesque set pieces of Underland, the bandersnatch, the deformed creatures, the slumbering tea party, arrive with the texture they need to land properly in audio. One reviewer noted that the series changed their relationship to the Wonderland source material entirely, describing an immediate attraction to the story months before even starting it and then being thoroughly rewarded on completion. That sense of earned reward for a specific set of expectations is something Gibel's narration supports consistently.
Weak Spots in Splintered
This is the first book in a series, and while it resolves the central quest of this volume, Alyssa must complete Alice's unfinished business in Underland to free her family, it leaves significant threads open, particularly around Morpheus and his relationship to Alyssa's history, and around the love triangle's resolution. The ending is not a cliffhanger in the strict sense, but it will leave most readers wanting the second book. Listeners who prefer standalone YA fantasy should note the series structure before committing. The book also sits at the darker end of the YA spectrum, not in terms of explicit content, but in terms of imagery and atmosphere. The Underland that Howard builds is full of grotesque creatures, body-horror-adjacent imagery, and morally ambiguous figures whose motivations remain opaque for much of the runtime. Readers who prefer their YA fantasy to remain on the brighter side of the genre will find this audiobook more demanding than they are looking for. Listeners who came to Splintered through the print edition will find Gibel's narration a worthy audio companion to Howard's visual imagination, her voice adds a sensory layer that the prose invites but cannot itself provide.
Who Will Get the Most From It
Readers who want a Wonderland retelling that takes the darkness of the source material seriously and builds on it rather than simply repainting it will find Splintered a satisfying choice. This audiobook is strong for older teens and adults who enjoy dark YA fantasy, Alice-in-Wonderland adjacent fiction, and romantic tension with genuine moral complexity rather than straightforward love triangle dynamics. Readers who prefer their Alice retellings to lean whimsical rather than grotesque should look elsewhere. Listeners should plan to continue with the series rather than expecting full resolution in this first volume. A reviewer whose daughter loved the full series and recommended it to others captures the series' appeal accurately: it has the kind of consistent quality and emotional engagement across its arc that sustains rereads and recommendations, rather than burning bright in the first book and fading. Gibel's narration makes this a strong audiobook choice for readers who already know and love the series in print, and an equally strong entry point for listeners who are coming to it fresh through the audio format rather than the page. The twelve-hour runtime is well-paced, and Howard's prose style, which is dense with sensory detail and atmosphere, benefits from a narrator who takes the time to let each image land.
A Few Questions About Splintered
How dark is this audiobook compared to other Alice in Wonderland retellings?
Significantly darker than most. A. G. Howard commits to the grotesque potential of Carroll's source material and builds an Underland that is genuinely threatening rather than merely strange. The imagery and atmosphere are intense for YA, though the content stops short of graphic violence or explicit material.
Does Splintered work as a standalone audiobook, or do I need to continue the series?
The central quest of this volume does reach a conclusion, but the love triangle and Morpheus's backstory and motivations are explicitly left open. Most readers will want to continue with the series. Plan for three books rather than one if you start here.
