PUG REVIEW: ALICE IN ZOMBIELAND BY GENA SHOWALTER

ALICE IN ZOMBIELAND- WHITE RABBIT CHRONICLES- GENA SHOWALTER
                                                       BLURB:
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….

• GENRE: FANTASY, SCI-FI, ROMANCE

• PAGES: 404

• CHAPTERS: 18

Published September 25th 2012 by Harlequin Teen

PAW RATING:

KEYWORDS: Zombies, Undead, Slayer theme, Romance, Teen life, Family tragedy, Grief

IN-SHORT: Not quite what i imagined but a good, quick read.

Ginny's (the pug) Review:

This is the first time I have read anything by Gena Showalter and although she didn't amaze me, she did grab my attention and for the most of it I did enjoy her book. 

Alice in Zombieland had me thinking of the main character fallen down the rabbit hole into a version of wonderland but the references to the  classic was more subtle than that and in hindsight made the writing and plot more clever and enjoyable. 

Alice in Zombieland follows a young teen named Alice Bell (Bell was the nickname of Alice in the classic) as one fateful night her paranoid father, mother and younger sister are killed in a car crash and suddenly she begins to see the monsters her father claimed he saw.  Is this a symptom of grief or are the sightings more dangerous then she first thought? and what does the mysterious bad boy at school know about it?

This story take us on a whirlwind journey of school life as Alice adapts to a new life living with her grandparents, starting a new school and falling in love for the first time.
The writting is clever with the hints of the classic with a new fresh look and a modern setting, the characters are slowly formed from 2D outlines to 3D humans, although for me even though they show great development I still felt the characters were a little hollow for my liking. This could be due to the slight unrealistic romance between the two main charterers which i felt was a little two fast and all consuming to be realistic to human nature.

Overall this book is a good weekend read with a few clever clues that lead to a bigger plot than first thought with enjoyable characters. In my opinion Alice in Zombieland is fun, fast with a couple of shocking twist but a little forgettable, perhaps the second book with be a bit more meaty and leave the audience wanting to hold on longer rather than having it disappear through the rabbit hole. 
Despite the negatives I will get my paws on book two: Alice through the Zombie Glass. I just wont be in a rush to get it. 

OTHER BOOKS IN THE SERIES:


Thank you for reading my latest review; All comment welcome.
Come back soon
Ginny