A Blade So Black is the first book in the young adult fantasy reimagining series called The Nightmare-Verse  by L.L. McKinney. A Blade so black is an urban fantasy reimagining of Alice in Wonderland, with some kick butt Buffy the Vampire Slayer vibes thrown in. This book was a lot of fun and was as equal parts paying homage to Alice as it was putting it's own spin on the tale. I loved the Urban fantasy setting versus the traditional wonderland setting. This book was really interesting and I am certainly interested in continuing the series.

In A Blade So Black we meet our Alice, who lives in Atlanta. I loved the Atlanta setting for this wonderland. I think an Urban twist on the story was brilliant, and really added to my opinion that there are major Buffy vibes in this story, which I totally dug. I love a kick butt Alice! Alice fights and banishes Nightmares, which come from the magical dream realm known as Wonderland. I thought the nightmare element was a really cool addition to the series. I will admit that at times I found Alice annoying, but I liked her enough that I am super interested to see what kind of character growth and progression she will have throughout the series. There is some romance as well as a love triangle, but all of that felt kind of secondary to the overall plot. I am not sure if it will become more of a main feature in the next books, but I am excited to see if it does. I kind of want it to, because I am not sure what I think about the romance as it stands right now. 

As for the plot- it was also pretty cool, though at times I was overloaded with details and information and I felt a bit overwhelmed and lost. As I kept reading, things became less confusing for me but I did find the writing style a bit jarring for me. I'm not sure if it was done on purpose because things are always a bit wonky in wonderland, but I didn't connect with the plot as much as I wanted to because of this. Overall, I enjoyed A Blade So Black. I loved this take on wonderland and Alice and I really enjoyed the fight element. I think this book will be perfect for fans of Buffy, fans of Alice retellings and fans of Urban Fantasy in general. This was a good start to an interesting series. And plus side- book two is also already out so you can continue on if you are fan of The Nightmare-Verse.