A Dream So Dark by L.L. McKinneyMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Well, of course this sequel's happening. Tell us something we don't know. *insert Sherlock Holmes responding how a pig's orgasm lasts up to thirty minutes*
But seriously. I'm super overjoyed that this book has finally graced our shelves.
And with a cover so bloody beautiful, seeing it in person was amazing! Though I didn't get it as an ARC like I did for ABSB, all good things come to those who wait, eh?
And yes, I couldn't help but notice the heart on this one. Just like the first book had a spade...does that mean McKinney's got plans for four books, one for each suit? Apparently so, given that she's already announced A Crown So Cursed, plus a prequel novel. So it looks like the four suits will happen, thank God!
As for this book, it takes a lot of leaps and bounds ahead of its predecessor. The first book, for all its action-packed fun, loaded the very vast majority of its big emotional moments towards its nasty cliffhanger ending, from which A Dream So Dark picks up pretty effectively. Chess is still some kind of creepy revenant, Alice's mom is grounding her till the end of time for worrying the hell out of her...but the Nightmares are still coming, and Alice is going to need to get back to Wonderland to take the fight to the Black Knight and all those threatening the delicate balance of things.
It's a quest in which many of her usual allies - Court, Hatta, the Tweedlanovs, Xelon, etc. - all wind up severely waylaid. But luckily, at the Eastern Gateway, Alice makes a few new friends - like Haruka and Romi (who is basically a Japanese woman version of the Caterpillar, updated to smoke a vape - wait, I think I remember once seeing McKinney herself say that she smokes a hookah the way the original Caterpillar does? But I digress.) All these fighters are going to inevitably wind up together as a new and improved squad to save Wonderland and the mundane world both, of that you can guarantee.
And one thing that I particularly enjoyed about this book was that McKinney really stepped up her game on LGBTQ+ rep, especially bi rep. Though I pegged Alice as bi from the moment the first book's cover was revealed (that dual-wielding symbolism, hello!), McKinney kept it suuuuuuuuper low key. This book, though? Alice finds herself getting butterflies in her stomach not only for Hatta, but for Haruka too. And Hatta is bi as well - though does that really surprise anyone?
Best of all, this book doesn't end on a diabolical cliffhanger the way its predecessor did - more of an "And the Adventure Continues" ending, which was a great idea in case this ended up being the end of the road. But luckily, no, it's not. As I mentioned before, McKinney's got at least two more Nightmare-Verse books lined up. I can't bloody wait to see how much she surprises us!
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