Book Review: Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter

Alice in Zombieland (The White Rabbit Chronicles #1)
Author:  Gena Showalter
Publisher:  Harlequin Teen, 404 pages
Publication Date:  September 25, 2012

From Goodreads:

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….

I wish I could go back and do a thousand things differently.
I'd tell my sister no.
I'd never beg my mother to talk to my dad.
I'd zip my lips and swallow those hateful words.
Or, barring all of that, I'd hug my sister, my mom and my dad one last time.
I'd tell them I love them.
I wish... Yeah, I wish.

Review:
I loved this book, it was a fun, fast-paced read with an engaging plot, and interesting, likable characters.  The MC, Alice (Ali), was strong and feisty yet also vulnerable, and I loved that she didn't take any crap from Cole, the love interest (even if she was melting and gooey when she was thinking about him, she didn't let him see that). She's actually quite snarky. And Cole reminded me of Daemon from the Lux series.  He's gorgeous, cocky, and a bit dangerous, but you can tell that he's really a good guy at heart.  There's great tension and banter between them.

The gang of slayers was interesting, and I also liked Kat, Ali's best friend.  She's funny and loyal, and shows over and over again what a good friend she is.

This book has a different, unique take on zombies that I enjoyed.  They're not flesh and blood, they're spirits, which means not everyone can see them, yet they can hurt people because when they feast on their spirit it ends up manifesting in their physical bodies.  In order to fight them, you have to be able to leave your body and fight them as a spirit.  So they train and they fight and there's also another group (other than this gang of slayers) that I won't say any more about because I don't want to spoil anything.

This book really doesn't have anything to do with Alice in Wonderland, by the way (other than the MC is named Alice and there is something about a white rabbit, but not what you think).  Even though there's death and drama, it's a fun, highly entertaining read (sort of like Buffy the Vampire Slayer).  It doesn't end in a cliffhanger, but there are definitely more adventures to come.  Awesome book!

Posted by:  Pam