What Happened In: 'A Dream So Dark' by L L McKinney

OK, so this is a quick recap of what happens in L L McKinney's amazing sequel, A Dream So Dark.

So that you are prepared and up to date, to read the third and final book in the trilogy: A Crown So Cursed.

Quick Recap: What Happens in A Dream So Black

So it takes place from when Alice has returned home after recovering from the battle at the school football field.

Alice has been reprimanded by her mother for sneaking out late after being grounded and she gets a call from Courtney telling her that Hatta called and they need to go to the pub urgently.

So Alice tells her mom that Chester has been in a car accident and her mom lets her go.

She and Courtney arrived at the pub where they are told that Chester woke up and took Maddie.

She goes back to her mom's because she's grounded, and then her mom takes her to visit her grandmother's. On her way to get coffee for her grandmother and mum, she sees Chester who tells her to stay away from him and he kisses her.

After spending time and getting teased by her grandmother, she goes home...

To find the Black Knight in her bedroom (...again.)

The Black Knight fights her... in her mother's house and her mother finds out that her daughter is a nightmare slaying, dimension travelling, dreamwalker. - I think that she takes it surprisingly well and mature than I thought she would have. (I thought all hell would break loose)

So the next day at school Alice and Courtney plan to go to the pub but Alice sees Chester so she follows him and it is revealed that, that is not Chester, it's the Crimson Queens puppet / a thing that she made to look like Chester. It engulfs Alice takes her to the In-Between. (the World/Space between Wonderland and the Human World)

There she is captured by the Crimson queen and the black knight but escapes and lands (literally) into Wonderland where she meets Haruka the gatekeeper of the Eastern Gateway.

[After Alice escapes from the Crimson queen in the In-Between world, the queen commands Chester to go and retrieve the eye and for the black knight to kill someone that Alice loves so that they can see the full extent of her power]

Haruka takes her to meet Romi, her wonderlandian mentor, who tells Alice she doesn’t like Hatta. And that she was once the White Knight, and along with Hatta, The Duchess, and Humprey, were the Knights of the royal guard (for the High Queen of Wonderland.)

She also calls her mum to tell her that she's safe and she calls Hatta to let him know what happened but he's interrupted because he is attacked.

So Alice, Romi, and Haruka travel to Wonderland to retrieve a fury, also known as a dragon, but while there, the community is attacked by nightmares. Whilst they are trying to escape, a nightmare launches itself at Alice and the Black Knight defends Alice and kills the nightmare.

She then stabs him. Obviously, it's Alice. And takes his vorpal blade as they escape.

On their way to the Red Queen's Castle, they stop for camp and Alice is attacked by a rotting version of Reflection Alice. However Haruka and Romi tell Alice, they didn’t see anything but Alice screaming and jumping into the river.

The next day whilst flying Alice sees a vision of Wonderland in flames, and it causes her to fall out of the basket that Chou the Dragon was carrying them in. As she is falling, she manages to get the vorpal blade and her figment blade to create a protection bubble and manoeuvre her to the ground.

On the ground she meets Princess Odabeth and The Duchess who saw Alice in the Ball of Light.

Princess Odabeth and Anastasia tell them that they had to escape through the portal at the pub because Chester attacked them. And during the trip in the portal, they were separated in two, with the Duchess and Princess Odabeth landing somewhere together while Hatta, Courtney, and Xelon were transported somewhere else.

They all decide to camp together the last night before continuing their journey to the Red Queen's castle. During this time, Haruka tells Romi that she is going to stay and fight with Alice. Romi says that she is going to protect the eastern gateway so Anastasia asks Romi to send a message to Dee and Dom telling them 'ghost protocol'. Alice also reveals her new powers to the group, and the Duchess and Romi say that they haven't heard of any dreamwalkers being able to shoot lights from the sword.

The next day, Romi goes back to guard her gateway whilst Alice, Haruka, Anastascia and Princess Odabeth enter the Red Queen's castle and it's a trap.

They are ambushed by the Crimson Queen, who in the fight reveals that she has a piece of the heart that they're searching for, and she also steals the Eye from Princess Odabeth.

They are defeated and sent to the dungeon where they meet Madeleine the poet!

Who tells them that the queen is trying to raise an army of unpurgeable nightmares; that Chester was a test and although he is an anomaly; Chester is stable for the time being, (according to Maddi.)

Also Anastasia can completely understand Maddi's wonderlandian gibberish.

Then the Black Knights comes to take Alice.

Alice is greeted by Hatta, who has come to rescue them and reveals the Black Knight is Humphrey, the missing Red Knight.

Whilst they are devising a plan on what to do, they are captured by the evil queen who puts them into some sort of nightmare state.

Alice manages to overcome this through memories of her father and help from Reflection Alice who is actually her Muchness.

Alice stops the Crimson queen and removes the eye from her forehead.

The Crimson queen melts, taking the heart with her.

The same heart that they need to cure Hatta and the White Queen and also hopefully Chester.

And obviously if the queen dies then Odabeth becomes the white queen of Wonderland and the sole royal bloodline of Wonderland.

The black knight decides to go with the group and live with Hatta and Maddi. Alice is in the car with Courtney and Chester speaking in the group chat she made with the other dreamwalkers when she receives a text from Hatta telling her to stop by the pub.

The End

And that is the quick recap of what happened in A Dream So Dark.

Thank you so much for taking time to read this article. I hope some of the memories made you gasp as I did reliving them. So go and enjoy book 3: A Crown So Cursed.

Buy The Books:

Book 1: A Blade So Black

Book 2: A Dream So Dark

Book 3: A Crown So Cursed