Teen Tuesday on Thursday

Alice in Zombieland (White Rabbit Chronicles #1) by Gena Showalter (Harlequin Teen hardcover, 25 September 2012).

 

 Reviewed by Kathleen Beebe.

 

This was overall a good book. It had an interesting new take on the zombie, which is a nice reprieve. 

 

Zombies attack the spirit rather than the body, but what happens to the spirit manifests in the body as well, which is how zombies can kill and make more zombies. 

 

There were flaws of course. The main character, a girl named “Alice” that goes by Ali, just happens to manifest a lot more of the abilities a slayer can use in fighting the zombies. One of these abilities is to be a natural fighter, but only when she’s actually fighting the zombies. Yeah, I call shenanigans on that one. There is a something to be said about natural skills, and the whole “I want to survive” drive, but there is a limit. She can get pounded in practice, but when fighting zombies she’s unstoppable? Right. On the other hand there is also a point where you have to wonder just how many more things can go wrong for this girl. By the end of the book, she has almost no family and has had to personally destroy two of her family members that went zombie. Can this girl get a break? 

 

Other plot twists kept me from knowing exactly what was going to happen throughout the book, which was quite a change for me. Usually I can pick who the killer is or how it’s going to end as soon as I’ve met all the characters, but not this time. 

 

Ali’s best friend Kat is a character that is easy to fall in love with. Though I didn’t see the twists they did with her, I am glad that the author chose to go with the less clichéd route. A lot of the twists were not ones that surprised me, but they weren’t what I expected. The love story was a high school love story and I’m glad that it was as clichéd as it was. However, if some guy pulled the “I’m breaking up with you for your own good” line with me, I’d probably have to hurt him, a lot. 

 

Like I said at the beginning, it was over all a good read, not a classic in the making, but a good fun read. I will be looking forward to the next book, but I can wait. Besides, I survived the end of the Mayan calendar, so the zombie apocalypse has been postponed again and I will have time to wait for the next book to learn another way to fight off zombies. Well, unless I want to join them.

 

 

 

Kathleen Beebe is my stepdaughter, and a voracious reader, and has my gratitude for the thoughtful and well-written review.

 

 

FTC full disclosure:  Many thanks to the publisher for a review copy of the book.