29 January 2014

REVIEW: Alice in Zombieland (The White Rabbit Chronicles #1) by Gena Showalter

Title: Alice in Zombieland
Author: Gena Showalter
Series: The White Rabbit Chronicles #1
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Date of Release: September 25th 2012
Pages: 404

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.

Eight words. I. Cannot. Believe. I. Have. Not. Read. This! Every time she mentioned bridezilla in the garden and then she disappeared, I was just waiting for her to run after her and disappear into a hole in a tree. But oh no! The cover is beautifully stunning, you will definitly not be able to misinterpret the theme of this story having the title originate from 'Alice in Wonderland'.

When Ali's whole family is killed in a car accident outside the cemetery, she now believes in the dangers that lurk among us. Monsters. But when she meets the mysterious and stoic Cole, they share some unusual visions of which neither know why are occurring, she soon understands the unknown. With perseverance, Ali begins to uncover more than she should. Alongside her training, she has Cole Holland alongside her… but his secrets are ones to stay locked away.

Alice (Ali) was an great character, she was strong, determined and never backed down from a challenge. I additionally loved some of her comebacks and the way she dealt with situations when those in the group voiced their opinion concerning how she was not strong enough to be a Zombie Hunter.

"“You are such a chick."
I widened my eyes in mock surprise. "No way. Are you sure?"
Sighing again, he rubbed at the tattoos on his wrist. "Mackenzie was right. You aren't slayer material."
Before he had time to register my intentions, I threw a punch. My sore, swollen knuckles slammed into his cheekbone, thrusting his head to the side. Pain shot up my arm, but I bit my tongue to stop a moan.
"You were saying?"
He popped his jaw, rubbed at the reddening skin-and slowly grinned. "Okay, so now I understand why Cole likes you. You're worse than Kat.” "

Furthermore I loved her random thoughts and things that just popped out her mouth. She says the things we only briefly think about.

"Is it sad that my first thought happened to be: Thank God I'm off the treadmill."

During this story I did have to sit back and think about a few areas...
  1. I had to remind myself Cole is a sixteen year old boy, who can definitely act like one. And here he was being described as 'The Leader' of a group of essentially 'tough men', apparently they even scared full grown men... at sixteen? I can't image they looked that old! He may be hot, but I couldn't overlook that fact. Sorry Cole!
  2. I did not see the strong relation between this story and Alice in Wonderland. I got the fact that about the white bunny cloud, the forest behind her new home and then there was Bridezilla dressed in white, possessing the fact that she could be leading her to the tree when she disappeared... but that was it. I was fully anticipating her to follow Bridezilla and enter a new world where they fight the zombies and find a secret society defending their little secluded town. I did like the way Gena twisted the story, however I did not feel there was enough similarities between them to have their title linking to Alice in Wonderland. But it did grab and intrigue me.
One of the areas of this story I found unique was how not everything and everyone is perfect. The characters were not perfect, they didn't all have the perfect life which is generally what is common in many Young Adult fiction titles so I was pleased to have a new twist. This story is definitely one of a kind, it instantly drew me in, we had multiple events occurring meaning the story was continuous and their was always something happening.

The ending was perfect! It kept me interested without anything being given away, I definitely did not see it coming. This story is full of action (zombie-fight scenes) heartache and revenge but additionally love and some funny scenes! I thoroughly enjoyed this first instalment in the White Rabbit Chronicles and am thoroughly looking forward to reading: Through the Zombie Glass. I mean, how can I ignore this cover (on the right), it is stunning!

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