Review: Alice in Zombieland - Gena Showalter

Title: Alice in Zombieland
Author: Gena Showalter
Pub Date: September 25th, 2012
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Page Count: 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

I'm going to start this review by mentioning another book that isn't the one being reviewed. Awesome. If you've read Splintered by AG Howard, you know how it fits in the "Alice in Wonderland" idea.
 
This book was NOTHING I expected or wanted even!  Instead of getting a slayer like Buffy (except for zombies) that gets stuck in a land of zombies, trying to defend the ones she loves while stopping an evil zombie queen, I got this girl who loses a family to zombies (who are actually demented spirits) and meets a guy who'll train her to fight in "spirit form" (which means she's a ghost). 

Absolutely no relationship with "Alice In Wonderland."
 
If you  call a book "Alice in Zombieland" and if it's got no relation with Alice in Wonderland, one of two things will happen. Either readers will be happy (they don't LIKE Alice in Wonderland), or they'll be mad because of the mislead in the title. I personally think that a book title reflects on the book and if it's something misleading, I get mad, feelings aside.

  
Let's see, similarities between AiW and AiZ:
- Named Alice
- White Rabbit
 
... That's all I got and the "white rabbit" was a signal Alice's dead sister gave whenever there were zombies around. Yes, it was a cloud... A cloud. Sounds like Gena was thinking "I need an Alice in Wonderland connection so I'm going to throw in something random about a white rabbit" It just didn't fit. There also weren't any zombies. They were the "so-called" type because they were more technically spirits that have been turned evil. 

  
We get this character named Alice (surprise, surprise) who moves to a new school after her parents were "eaten" by "zombies. She goes to a new school and finds people who can see zombies too. Apparently it's like Zombies can only be seen by those with the "Sight." These people are known as (Zombie) Slayers and she makes the decision to join them in the fight to kill zombies.
 
I want to talk about Alice. I see this happening more and more in YA; when characters are funny or witty but don't have preferences to things. It's LACK OF PERSONALITY, people! I didn't know Alice at all. I knew how she acted but there was nothing to differentiate her from other YA heroines. I didn't even feel like she had a personality that stood out. And because of that, by the end of the novel, I was shocked to see how she matured a lot. Sure, she didn't make me mad. She didn't make me want to rip my hair out or anything, but I felt like I needed a way to connect with her. I just felt like she was very two dimensional and un-relatable for a main character.
 
And then there's Cole. My heart jumped at the mention of a "bad boy". My fascination with them is too much. This boy is totally swoon worthy, but again, I felt like there wasn't anything that made him standout differently from those other love interests. Sure, he had tattoos and his own values, but I need more. I need more insight on these characters and why I should love them. But Cole, he's getting there. I really do like him :)
 
What the characters lacked in personality was made up in originality of the story. I know I have it "3.5 stars", but this story is actually quite good and interesting. It's different from most books because it isn't what you expect and again, that can go both ways. I just didn't react to it TOO badly.
 
Yes, they're zombie slayers, but at the same time the story is so different and twisted that it makes people go "huh, this is new and I like it." (Or, "I just got swindled")
 
Something else I actually liked were the relationships between characters. Everyone was so together and acted like a team. It was really emphasized and also very fitting for the story type. I could really feel the bonds between characters in ways I couldn't feel personality. I can only hope that all these bonds and personalities will get stronger in the second book because I am willing to give it a try! The second book looks amazing and seems to have a more "together" storyline which is why I'm definitely excited!

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Gena Showalter is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of over thirty books in paranormal and contemporary romances, as well as young adult novels. Her series include White Rabbit Chronicles, Angels of the Dark, Otherworld Assassins, Lords of the Underworld, Alien Huntress and Intertwined.

Her novels have appeared in Cosmopolitan Magazine, and Seventeen Magazine, and have been translated all over the world. The critics have called her books "sizzling page-turners" and "utterly spellbinding stories", while Showalter herself has been called “a star on the rise”.