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Unhinged
464 pages
A dark, surreal collision of mundane teenage anxieties and twisted, seductive fairy-tale nightmares.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like watching a dark, surreal painting slowly bleed out of its frame and into the real world. The narrative moves at a brisk, anxious pace, perfectly capturing the tension of trying to maintain a normal teenage life while a seductive, disturbing fantasy realm threatens to consume everything. The mood is eerie and feverish, blending the mundane pressures of high school milestones with the creeping dread of a twisted fairy tale. It explores the friction of mother-daughter relationships and the haunting shadows of mental illness through a distinctly paranormal lens. This is a story for readers who love their coming-of-age journeys laced with gothic atmosphere, dangerous temptations, and a delightfully unsettling edge.
- Mood
- surreal
- eerie
- disturbing
- feverish
- Tone
- unsettling
- tense
- seductive
- dark
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- balancing dual identities · mother-daughter friction · mental illness · dangerous temptations · coming-of-age anxieties
- The writing
- Atmospheric and visually striking, contrasting the ordinary textures of high school life with the disturbing, surreal imagery of a twisted fairy tale.
- The arc
- The protagonist moves from a desperate clinging to mundane normalcy toward a tense, inevitable confrontation with her darker, magical heritage.
- Who it's for
- Fans of dark paranormal fiction who crave a blend of teenage romance, gothic atmosphere, and twisted, seductive fantasy worlds.
Content notes
- mental illness
- asylums/psychiatric hospitals
About the book
LAlyssa Gardner has been down the rabbit hole and faced the bandersnatch. She saved the life of Jeb, the guy she loves, and escaped the machinations of the disturbingly seductive Morpheus and the vindictive Queen Red. Now all she has to do is graduate high school and make it through prom so she can attend the prestigious art school in London she's always dreamed of.
That would be easier without her mother, freshly released from an asylum, acting overly protective and suspicious. And it would be much simpler if the mysterious Morpheus didn’t show up for school one day to tempt her with another dangerous quest in the dark, challenging Wonderland—where she (partly) belongs.
As prom and graduation creep closer, Alyssa juggles Morpheus’s unsettling presence in her real world with trying to tell Jeb the truth about a past he’s forgotten. Glimpses of Wonderland start to bleed through her art and into her world in very disturbing ways, and Morpheus warns that Queen Red won’t be far behind.
If Alyssa stays in the human realm, she could endanger Jeb, her parents, and everyone she loves. But if she steps through the rabbit hole again, she'll face a deadly battle that could cost more than just her head.
Description from Open Library.
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