great cover
broke the status quo with [Alice’s mom finding out. I enjoy when the parents find out about their kids’ secret identities]
Alice got to wield some cool blades!
Dragons!
spoiler: I enjoyed the moment of truth with her dad; discovering who Reflection-Alice really was.
- cringy dialogue at times (Nana K, Courtney, Alice at times)
- Alice gets nauseated way too many times. It could be a drinking game. You’d think there would be something for her Wondaland-motion sickness by now, but, nah, just get ready for Alice to throw up anything she eats on the next page.
~ the insta-love from book 1 is spread out a bit better. Just because Alice arguably has a harem (Hatta, Chess, Humphrey (?), Haruka) , I mean uh a kissing-buddy now doesn’t mean that’s her soulmate or anything. This sequel didn’t focus heavily on any romance, and, instead, concentrated on the action and the world-building. Still, no relationships have been really labeled yet. That kiss scene felt a bit random to be honest
~ the predicament with Chess was interesting.
~ the story was fast-paced but felt long at the same time ( )

Alice is back, and I liked her even more in A Dream So Dark.

Even faster paced than A Blade So Black. More fight scenes. More potential romantic partners. And I appreciated the inclusion of bisexual characters. But I will say the climax and who the "bad guy" was left me feeling slightly dissatisfied. There were so many pages devoted to the group, having been separated from each other, finding their way backs to each other, but the main battle was almost... anti-climatic.

I look forward to the next volume of McKinney's Nightmare-Verse, A Crown So Cursed in 2021. ( )