Alice in Zombieland
(White Rabbit Chronicles, #1)
By: Gena Showalter
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Published: Sept. 25, 2012
Genre: Paranormal YA
Rating:
She won’t rest until she’s sent every walking corpse back to its grave. Forever.
Had anyone told Alice Bell that her entire life would change course between one heartbeat and the next, she would have laughed. From blissful to tragic, innocent to ruined? Please. But that’s all it took. One heartbeat. A blink, a breath, a second, and everything she knew and loved was gone.
Her father was right. The monsters are real….
To avenge her family, Ali must learn to fight the undead. To survive, she must learn to trust the baddest of the bad boys, Cole Holland. But Cole has secrets of his own, and if Ali isn’t careful, those secrets might just prove to be more dangerous than the zombies….
This is not a retelling of Alice in Wonderland. The only thing that is the same is that the main character’s name is Alice, there is a rabbit shaped cloud that appears when there’s trouble and her best friend’s name is Kat. Other than that, I saw no other similarities.
Alice’s father used to be a paranoid drunk. He was always going off about these monsters who kill people. He wouldn’t allow anyone to go out after dark and would keep watch over the house while everyone was asleep. Alice used to think he was just nuts, until the night she talked her father into going out at night so that the family could watch her younger sister’s recital. And that was the night when she saw the monsters eating her father. That was the night she lost her family.
The characters in this story weren’t shallow like a lot of young adult books. Instead, they all show strength in the face of danger. Alice decides to hunt the zombies that are terrorizing her. She has to learn to not only fight but to fight in the spirit realm. You see, these zombies are not the reanimated flesh and bones that we’ve come to know. These zombies are spirits that feed on the spirits of the living. So the general public have no idea that they are out there.
I liked that the drama that takes place in this book wasn’t over exaggerated. You had the typical issues between cliques but that was about it. There also aren’t any love triangles taking place. So instead you get a paranormal packed adventure from start to finish. And Gena knows how to write a story. She kept the storyline going at a steady pace with spikes up suspense throughout.
Considering that this book’s cover and title make you think that this is a retelling of Alice in Wonderland with flesh eating zombies, it was a bit of a let down. However, for being a paranormal young adult novel, it was pretty good. So don’t go into this book (like I did) expecting zombies or AiW because you won’t get it. Go into this expecting a young adult paranormal story and you shouldn’t have any problems.
“Truly living required risk.”
Wow well this book would have been one hell of a shocker for me – I bookmarked it because I thought it was AiW! And what a different twist on zombies, if you can really call them that. I think I’ll still check it out, but with really different expectations. Great review!