Alice in Zombieland | Gena Showalter

Book 1 of The White Rabbit Chronicles
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. 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.Don't miss FIRSTLIFE, book 1 of Gena Showalter's action-packed, romantic and exhilarating new series, the Everlife novels!

Not at all like Alice in Wonderland, for which this book was named, this exciting book tracks a young girl named Alice from her normal family life to something far more sinister. But what is normal for her, is not normal for most people, for her father has always believed that he was seeing zombies. Of course, no one actually believed him, and everyone thinks that he’s crazy. Because of this, Alice and her sister have a strained relationship with their father who refuses to leave the house after dark because that, he believes, is when the zombies are strongest. Despite his paranoia about being eaten alive, Alice finally convinces him to leave the house to watch Alice’s little sister perform. And so tragedy descends and little Alice becomes a believer.

After she moved in with her grandparents, she starts her new life at a new school where she makes a strange set of friends whose after school activities happen to include zombie slaying. Unable to help herself, she falls for one of the most popular boys in school, who despite his rugged image is actually a nice person. Surprise surprise. Anyway, this guy and his friends with their bad boy images and better-than-you mean girls, take Alice in and train her to fight zombies. Then there is the little hitch of Alice coming home bruised and after curfew, so, as any good parent or grandparent should ask, she is questioned about whether her new love interest is abusive. Not believing her, her grandparents ban Alice from seeing him, which she, with great regrets, has to ignore because besides being with him, killing zombies is the only thing that has made her feel alive since she lost her family.

This book is definitely a teen novel that I found very enjoyable. Though after a while, there’s a bit of lag in the story due to Showalter’s determination to combine a teen romance with an action-packed science fiction. It is also has the themes of friendship, loss, and betrayal which are well-portrayed by characters you feel like could’ve attended your own high school.

Despite our main character’s name being Alice and the white rabbit cloud that appears in the sky to forewarn her of danger, there is not really any commonality with Alice in Wonderland. For anyone expecting a modern-day tale of Alice in Wonderland with a splash of flesh-eating,  you will be disappointed by what you find in this book. But if you keep an open mind, the author’s theory about how the zombies came to be, how you must destroy them, and their effect on the world makes for an intriguing read.

On top of all of that, it’s an easy read and it’s exciting enough to kind of pull you through it so have no fear, there is little danger of starting this book only to bang your head against your Kindle in frustration for getting involved in a story that makes you regret pressing the “buy now” button

I’ve already added the sequel to my reading list and look forward to sharing my opinion with you about it when I finish it. 🙂