Sunday, September 30, 2012

Alice In Zombieland by Gena Showalter

Alice In Zombieland by Gena Showalter ReviewHardcover: 416 pages
Release Date: September 25, 2012
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Genre: Fantasy/Zombies
 
White Rabbit Chronicles
 
Book One: Alice In Zombieland
Book Two: Through The Zombie Glass (2013)
 
Order On Amazon: Hardcover
                                Kindle
Order On Barnes and Noble:
 
Author's
 
Amazon Summary:
 
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.
 
My Review:
 
Ahhhh. The wonderful world of soul sucking zombies. Riveting.

When I first saw this book on some WoWs from fellow bloggers, I didn't even spare it a glance. I mean zombies? Really? NOT my thing. But after Alice In Zombieland was released, this book was EVERYWHERE! And I do mean literally everywhere. I saw it on blogs, posters, and recommendations from Amazon and Goodreads, so I finally relented and reluctantly opened my very first zombie book.

When I first started this novel, I enjoyed it thoroughly. I loved Gena's style of writing and how she incorporated humor into her characters, especially the protagonist, Alice. I found myself grinning at Alice's inner dialogue and eager to read more about Alice's life. I felt really bad for her, since in the beginning she thought her dad was a nut job for believing that monsters wanted to hurt them. Little did she know, that everything her father had told her, was true. She was denied the childhood that she should of gotten, the friends she should of made, and the activities like school dances that she could never attend because she was never allowed out after nightfall. Alice was a strong character at the start of the novel, she dealt with her father's madness (or so she thought) and was a great friend and sibling to Emma, her adorable eight year old sister.  Her reactions were realistic when her parents died in the car crash. She didn't want people to keep telling her "I'm sorry for your loss," when they really didn't care. She reacted just like any other teenage girl who just lost everything that they ever loved within the blink of an eye.

However, after she moves in with her grandparents in a nearby town.....things started to go downhill. There was a Insta-Love connection between Alice and her love interest Cole *Gags*. Cole was the very embodiment of the Alpha Male. He was demanding, aggressive, and super possessive of Alice even though they were complete freaking strangers. Cole pushed her around and she seemed to enjoy it. *Aggravated sigh* Even though I didn't really like Cole there were some times when I grudgingly admired him. He could be sweet and caring when he wanted to be, and you could see that he put Alice's safety above all else. But.......mostly just a broody testosterone filled boy who growls when he doesn't get his way.

I didn't really see much of a connection with Alice in Wonderland. The most I ever saw was the white rabbit which reminded me of it. Alice In Zombieland was mostly based on teen drama, relationships, rumors, lies, and secrets rather than on the amazing storyline that captured so many children's hearts. If you hoped that this novel was a retelling of the famous Alice In Wonderland just with the added bonus of zombie monsters, you are terribly mistaken.

The humor at most times was witty and amusing, but sometimes Gena took it a littleee bit to far, and it veered toward corniness.

Overall, not a great retelling. I will not be reading anymore Zombie related books in the nearby future. The protagonist, Alice was at times the strong heroine I hoped for her to be and at other times was a little pathetic and stalkerish. However, if your looking for a story with a mostly amusing comedy, high school drama, and have a fetish for soul eating zombies, then Alice In Zombieland might be worth checking out.

Heroine- 2.5/5
Romance- 2.5/5
Action- 3/5
Comedy- 4/5
Overall- 3/5


3 comments:

  1. I felt the exact same way! There was way to much drama for my tastes.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great review! I've been meaning to check this book out, but my TBR pile is, quite literary, two bookcases! I have a problem...
    But yeah--I hope to check this one out soon. :)

    New follower!

    -Angel
    http://angel909reviews.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lmao! Yeah TBR piles can get huge, fast. xD

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