Alice in Zombieland

When I first start reading this I had began to think that it wouldn't be about zombies at all, but more about symbolism. But, I was wrong. This book was definitely about zombies. It was done in a different way than what I had ever read before.You see, in Gena Showalter's Zombieland, guns didn't help. Or, if they did, not for long. But the way they did fight the zombies and destroy them was interesting. I really enjoyed the book because of that. I also liked that there appeared to be two different factions fighting against one another in the way they dealt with the zombies. One group, Cole's group, wanted to destroy them. The other, Justin's group, wanted to experiment on them. The book also held a twist, which I never saw coming.Now, let's talk about the main characters.Alice thought her father was mad with the things he said and done, and I have to admit that when I first started reading the book, I kind of agreed. It wasn't until after the event with her family that she could see what her father was seeing.I really liked Alice. She was the type of person who loved and cared about others. She stood up for herself when she needed to and was willing to fight for her right to destroy what had virtually destroyed her life. She wasn't the type that everyone liked. She only had several friends throughout the whole book and even then some of them deserted her. And, even though, I thought there was a hint of a love triangle, she didn't have all the boys falling over her. In fact, they didn't like her at all.Cole didn't really stand out as a main male character to me. I think what put me off him was his first meeting with Alice. I'm sorry, but I've never seen a boy yet snap his teeth at a girl - especially one he's only just met - even if he didn't like her. Although, I guess the reason he wasn't completely hateful for me was because he did seem to care about Alice in the end, even if he screwed with her head throughout the book.And I have to mention Kat. Even though she came across as someone flighty, I liked her. She was funny and vivacious. She made Alice laugh and befriended her when she really didn't have to. She was a perfect complement to Alice's quieter ways. And, it almost broke my heart when I found out more about her towards the end of the book, It kind of made me understand why she was the way she was.I mentioned earlier about symbolism - well I have to mention the white rabbit cloud formation that you read about at the start of the book. It has definite meaning throughout the whole book and it's something to keep an eye on. There are also references to 'Alice in Wonderland' throughout the book, but it is not like that book at all. It just uses elements of it to represent certain things.Now for what I didn't like.That insta-love type stare when Alice meets Cole. No, just no. I am sick to death of scenes like that. It never happens in real life and I don't care if Alice and Cole shared their first vision because of it. It just put my back up and put me on edge for the rest of the book. Luckily, it was the only stare type thing, but it doesn't matter. It was annoying.The religious dialogue - now I understand that it was all part of Alice's mom's character, but taking into account that not all of us are Christians or have religious backgrounds, it can make for uncomfortable reading. Once again it only really happened once, but it was something that made me think about the others that may read this book.Other than that, I really enjoyed reading Alice in Zombieland and will continue to read the series. I would still recommend that any who like Zombie books to read it, but just don't expect an 'Alice in Wonderland' type of book, because it isn't.

Gena Showalter does it again. She has me reading late at night so I can finish reading a spectacular book that she's wrote and she makes me neglect my duties at home. She also has me falling in love with yet another male character. Gosh, darn you, Gena! Seriously, Gena can write an amazing adult paranormal romance book and paranormal young adult book. I've read almost everything written by Gena and she never fails at keeping me turning the pages and then leaving me hanging for more.She's one of my auto-buy Authors who I will drop what I'm reading currently to read her books or even squeeze in between reviews because I'm one of her diehard fans. I love her writing style and the amazing books she comes up with.When I found out Gena was writing another young adult series and combining zombies and Alice in Wonderland, I was ecstatic. I pre-ordered the book and waited anxiously at my door until my mail man delivered the book. =)Alice Bell has never gone out on a date, never did any sports that required her to stay out at night, or even gone to a slumber party due to her over-bearing, controlling father who makes her and her sister come in before it gets dark and stay indoors. See...her father has always believed in monsters and those monsters are out there to kill them. He has been trying to keep his family protected from them. Alice has never seen a single monster and does not believe what her father says. She thinks he is completely crazy.When her little sister begs her to ask their parents to let her go to her Ballet recital which is during dark hours, her parents agree, but with stipulations of course.Then the unthinkable happens and before you know it, Alice is being hunted by those monsters that her father warned her about. She's also without her family because of that one tragic night, she chose to ask her parents to let her little sister go to her recital.Now Alice is seeing monsters behind her grandparents house because she lives with them now and she also is forced to go to another school.She meets Cole and the first time she sees him, they end up having visions of the future. Cole is the bad boy that Alice should stay away from, but for some reason, she's fascinated by him and his friends that always look beat up and tired. She knows they are trouble, but she can't help, but fall in love with the bad crowd...especially when it comes to the leader, Cole.Cole has a secret though, that could probably put Alice in a lot danger...but she's willing to give up everything to find out the truth and what is really out there that her father feared.That's just my little take on the book above...no sorry, no spoilers from me.Gena definitely has a great start to the series. I love her take on zombies and throwing in Alice in Wonderland in the mix. I'm a HUGE fan of Alice in Wonderland and Gena definitely wrote a great zombie story. (this is actually my first book that involves zombies..and I definitely plan to read more now)If you're a fan of young adult books that are paranormal, have zombies in it, and would love a different version of Alice in Wonderland...then definitely check out this book.Gena Showalter fans who have read her Intertwined books will love this book as well.I'm looking forward to next year because I want to know what happens next to Alice and Cole and all their friends.Umm...especially, Cole...seriously, he is a HOTTIE. =)

Ooooooh this was a good book! I was totally just expecting the usual `zombie apocalypse' story but its completely different to that. The zombies in this book can't be seen by everyone. They can't actually bite just anyone and there is an underground secret group of slayers who have the ability to destroy them - but this also means they can be bitten and turned themselves.Alice (Ali), the main character spends all her life thinking that her dad is crazy because he can see monsters; but then on the day he dies - she sees them too! It's hereditary! I really enjoyed this twist on the traditional zombie story. It made it more interesting and meant that I really didn't know what the heck was going on with these zombies until Alice found out more and more as the book went on. They didn't follow any of the `normal zombie rules' - refreshing!There are so many great characters too. Ali was such a cool protagonist. She wasn't the usual type of `girl who finds out there and supernatural beings' kind of person. She didn't just accept it straight away. She thought herself crazy. And then she freaked out a lot. She didn't just say `oh ok'. And then once she knew what she could do, she didn't shy away from it. She wanted the chance to avenge what happened to her family and she threw herself into it, including her relationship with Cole. Of course he's the typical tough guy with the ex from hell but even that didn't faze Ali. She gave as good as she got where the ex was concerned and I just loved her so much.Ali's best friend Kat was HILLARIOUS. I literally laughed out loud - in public - a LOT, whilst reading her bits. She welcomes Ali into her group of friends when Ali starts at their school and helps her with her ongoing battle with Cole's ex and just generally becomes an amazing friend who I want to see MUCH more of in the next book.There are many more characters I could ramble on about but I don't want to give away too much of the awesomeness of this book. That should really be discovered by the reader!I am giving Alice in Zombieland 4.5 stars. Its original, fast paced, exciting, un-put-down-able and just generally awesome. I knocked off a teeny tiny half star because there was a couple of aspects that I felt weren't explained fully enough for my liking. But it by no means diminished my enjoyment of this book and I'm sure that my questions will be fully answered in book two.

Wow let me first say that I feel absolutely awful giving Gena 3 stars on this book and a whole lot of guilty too as she is one of my favourite authors but I have to be honest and I just thought the book was okay and not her normal brilliance. I'm a long time fan of Gena but in particular her adult books, including the series' Lords of the Underworld, Alien Huntress, Atlantis and her new series Angels of the Dark (just in the process of reading Wicked Nights and absolutely hooked!) to name just a few. So I am sort of disappointed in this book but can't quite put my finger on the reason why as I did think the book was okay, just not fantastic. That being said as a long time fan I will be ordering the second in the series in the hopes that the series will pick up for me and I'll enjoy it more. One thing I can possibly think of is that I read this after Kresley's first YA book, Poison Princess which absolutely blew me away and maybe I am subconsciously comparing them, who knows?Anyway the book is as the name suggests about Zombies and the main character Alice or Ali as she prefers to be known. Alice is turning sixteen and it's her birthday. Her little sister Emma is desperate for her family to be able to go and watch her very first ballet performance but there is one problem with this and that is that their father will not allow the family out at night - in case the Zombies get them. Their father roams the house of a night checking the windows and doors armed with his gun in case the Zombies manage to get in and kill/eat them all. The girls both think their dad is crackers and is imagining it all (it probably doesn't help their dad's cause that he drinks a lot too) but as this is all they have ever known and their mum refuses to let them 'correct' him then this is how it is. Emma being the cute lovable little sister (I know how it goes as I have one albeit she's an adult now!) manages to convince Alice to try and talk to their mum to get them to be able to go to the performance even though it's Alice's birthday and really they should be doing something for her (again know that feeling and situation!). Alice manages to convince her mum to talk to her dad by pulling the whole "you forgot about my birthday card" and the whole family goes to the ballet recital. No sooner has the performance ended than their dad is rushing them all to the car to get home as quickly as possible and to get home faster they go the way home that goes past the cemetery (which their dad will not ever normally do because basic math suggests dead people equals zombies), their dad freaks out and the car starts to flip over. They have a massive car crash and Alice wakes up to find her whole family dead and her dad missing from the car. A closer look out the front windshield reveals that her dad is in the middle of the road with men around him....eating him. So it turns out that her dad was right and there are really zombies but not in the normal film/horror book sense of the word these zombies are in spirit form only i.e. they do not have corporeal bodies and feed on the good in people, infecting them with their evil.Alice goes to live with her grandparents (mums parents) and starts a new school as she is in a different catchment area to her old one. Before starting school she meets her new best friend Kat (whose character I did actually love even if she could be a bit annoying to me occasionally) and Kat's group of friends who she ends up hanging out with. She can't help but notice the bad boy of the school Cole (think he was probably named after Kresley Cole, Gena's author best friend and whose book I referred to above) and his bad boy/girl group as every time she see's Cole she has visions of them together also he is always battered and bruised along with his friends and it turns out that they know about the Zombies and actually fight them of an evening. It isn't long before Alice becomes part of their group and it's from there that we learn more about the Zombie concept that Gena has come up with and from there that the story starts to get going and become more interesting. One problem Alice has is that the Zombies for some reason seem drawn to her almost like they are hunting her......As I said at the beginning this isn't my favourite Gena book but it's okay and maybe I have been a bit unfair giving this three stars but I will hold further judgement until the next in the series which I will be pre-ordering when it becomes available. One other thing I would like to mention and hopefully I don't get shot for saying this by the reviewers concerned but I don't think the author meant in any way for this book to be thought of in the same way as Alice in Wonderland I think the title is a play on words with the main character being called Alice and there being zombies involved. I think the rabbit cloud is also being used as bit of a play on the title and the famous book along with Alice's circumstances i.e. her life spiraling into a different direction and feeling like she is lost down the rabbit hole. Anyway if you are a Gena fan then I'll let you make your own mind up about the book and if not then it's still worth a read and everyone's opinion is different you may actually love the book so I hope my marking doesn't put anyone off.

I originally purchased this as I thought it was a Zombie-Twist version of the original "Wonderland" story. But it's not.There is a girl called Alice, and a "white rabbit with a pocket watch" cloud mentioned several times but that's where the similarities end.Even though this book wasn't what I expected, I did really enjoy it (so much so that I've ordered the 2 books that follow on in this series).Sure, there are parts that could've been left out or written slightly differently to stop the story seeming slow, but there are a lot of chapter-cliffhangers which gets you to carry on reading.Alice DOES go down the rabbit hole and emerges into a completely different world, but not literally like in the original.Her world changes from one second the next and she's thrown into a whole new world. A world with zombies and zombie hunters.Overall, I'd give this 4 stars and I would recommend it. It's just not what you'd expect from the title.

Read this book in one day in-between doing my motherly duties and other adulting stuff. I couldn't put it down unless absolutely necessary! I can't praise this book enough. I loved everything about it, from the way Ali and Cole meet to the very last pages and everything in between. It was original, unique and unlike anything I've read before. I'll definitely need to read more in the White Rabbit Chronicles! Easy 5 stars and would highly recommend.

I was aware up front that the link to 'Alice in Wonderland' was slight but decided to give it a go, first borrowing from the local library and then getting my own copy once I realised that even sans Wonderland this was great fun and a new angle on the zombie sub genre.It also has all the usual hallmarks of the teen horror/romance in that our narrator Alice faces personal tragedy and has to overcome the horrors of USA High School. Gena Showalter does well with this blending a degree of teen angst with a wry sense of humour. The action sequences are well done too.So yes I'll be pre-ordering Book 2 and certainly recommending it to friends who are into zombies.