Thursday, October 24, 2013

Halloween Reads Week: Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter

Alice in Zombieland
(White Rabbit Chronicles #1)
by Gena Showalter
Author Website | Twitter | Facebook

Publication Date: September 25th 2012
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Pages: 404
ISBN: 9780373210589
Genre: Young Adult
Source: Own

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | 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.
(Goodreads)
Alice in Zombieland is book #4 in my Halloween Reads Week! I’ve been simply dying to start this book because it sounds pretty amazing, and has gotten really great reviews. Plus, it’s a Harlequin Teen novel, and I never regret reading one of their books.

The main character in the story is Alice Bell.  I didn’t really know what to expect from Alice going into the story. I worried that with everything that she had been through, that she was going to be a weak character. I’m super glad to say, Ali totally proved me wrong. Instead she stayed strong and held her ground against the people who wanted to bring her down. I loved her snarky attitude. Ali’s love interest in the story is bad boy Cole Holland. Cole is the tattooed, smexy hot guy that I have come to love in my books. The relationship between these two characters was trying at times, but once they finally give into each other, they are absolutely perfect together.

I have to say that I really love the secondary characters in this book as well. Ali’s best friend, Kat, was a hoot. She definitely made the book more enjoyable for me, even though she was slightly mysterious. I also really love Ali’s grandparents; they were so cute and tried so hard to be ‘in the know’ about their granddaughter. Their use of ‘teen slang’ was pretty comical. I found all of the kids in Cole’s little group to be pretty interesting as well, each for their very own reasons.

I’ve read the Alice in Wonderland books by C.S. Lewis.  However, I started Alice in Zombieland not even thinking about this book as an actual retelling.  Yes, there were a few references to Alice in Wonderland, but only a small few, and the story was enjoyable just the way it was written. 

I also liked that while this was a zombie book, the way the zombies were seen and dealt with were completely different than the other zombie books that I’ve read recently. I found that to be extremely refreshing. I started reading this book really late one night, and I kept telling myself that I would go to bed when I finished the chapter that I was reading. But the story was so addictive that I kept reading and reading well into the night. (Of course, I paid for this the next morning. Yawn.)

Overall; this book was SO good! I enjoyed it so much more than I ever expected to, and now I’m dying to get my hands on the next book. I am going to try to get to it as soon as possible, because I need more Cole! Er, I mean… Alice, Cole and crew. Wink.

Happy Reading!


3 comments:

  1. I enjoyed this one so much more than I expected (loved the cover -- that's what drew me in). It was also different than what I thought it would be, which turned out to be a good thing.

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  2. This book has such a great cover, I've been on the fence about reading it for a while; I think I'll have to take the plunge :)

    - Wattle @ Whimsical Nature

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  3. I've been looking for a good halloween to purchase for this month. Seems like I've found it. Great review! Can't wait for this.

    Holly @ Absorbing the Content

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