Book Review: Alice in Zombieland

Title: Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Pages: 404 pages
Release Date: Sept. 25, 2012
Genre: Horror

Goodreads Summary: 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 haven’t read any of Gena Showalter’s adult books but since I read rave reviews about her writing, I was really looking forward to Alice in Zombieland. The idea behind the book is brilliant but the execution was just so so.

The easiest way for me to review Alice in Zombieland is to let you what I liked about the book and what I did not.

What I Liked
Spirituality: Alice In Zombieland is spiritually deeper that most YA novels out there. I would not go as far as calling it a Christian novel, but kudos to Gena Showalter for including some depth in this book.

Original and cool concept: The book is not a retelling of Alice in Wonderland but more about a girl who finds herself in strange version of reality where zombies are real and she was born to fight them. The concept is original and Showalter’s zombies are much different than the usual.

Characters: Ali’s pain over her loss is very well told and I liked her as a character. Cole has really mature moments and when he did, I liked him a lot. In those shining moments, he reads more like a guy in his 20’s than an 18 year old and I was OK with that.

What I Did Not Like
Cole: Yes, I loved how mature he was at times but hated how possessive he was of Ali at other times. Cole gets insanely jealous when other boys even look at Ali and would want to fight them. It did not make him sexy, just a bully. The only reason that I am not flaming Cole’s jealous behavior is because Ali’s character did not play into it and was independent regardless of how Cole was acting.

The big showdown at the end of the book: This is not a spoiler, there’s always a big showdown at the end. This one was rushed and I really feel like Showalter was tired and just wanted to hurry up and end the book. It was a let down.

Characters instantly and supernaturally drawn to each other: Immediate attraction is fine but the instant supernatural connection between two characters is getting old. Enough already.

Sex: There is no sex in the story but the characters talk about it quite a bit. Honestly, I was more interested in the supernatural aspects of the story than with the main characters making out and deciding if they would or would not have sex.

Overall, Alice in Zombieland isn’t bad, it’s just not as good as I think it should have been. I am, however, curious to see where Showalter takes the story and may just pick up the sequel to see what happens.

Content: Kissing, discussions about sex and some profanity.

My Rating: Just OK