Alice in Zombieland (The White Rabbit Chronicles, #1)

by Gena Showalter

Originally posted at Miss Book Reviews

Alice in Zombieland is not a retelling of Alice in Wonderland.

Thought I would let you know that now. So if you want to read this book then go into it expecting a typical YA paranormal romance, and you will love it.

There are elements of Alice in Wonderland in this book. Like the white rabbit appears and the main characters share the same name. And maybe the fact that the zombies are on a different plane yet are on the same earth. Something like that anyway. Yet as a whole this is a very different story.

I went into this book expecting an epic zombie killing adventure with bad-ass characters. What I got was a high school situated, invisible hunting zombies, predictable young adult paranormal romance book.

You can see why I was disappointed.

Therefore the first half of this book screamed cliché, predictable and was very slow paced. This is why I have only rated this book three clubs.

However, the second half of this book is what really grabbed my attention. Once I had gotten over my disappointment and accepted the fact that this was a normal paranormal romance that was probably going to end predictably; I ended up really getting into the story and highly enjoyed the last half for what it was. Even though I saw what was coming.

Alice lost her entire family on her birthday, on the one night that she was able to convince her mother and father to take her and her younger sister Emma to Emma’s ballet recital. Her father never let them leave the house after dark. Alice thought he was crazy, always muttering about monsters that rise at night yet no one ever saw those monsters.

That night on the way home she convinced her mother to drive the way that passed the cemetery as it was at least twenty minutes quicker than the alternate route. But as they got there her father freaked out shouting that the monsters were there. He yanked the wheel from Alice’s mother trying to make her turn around but instead caused the car to flip. Killing everyone but Alice. Alice thinks she see’s weird humans eating her mother and father when she slips in and out of consciousness but when she wakes up in hospital she’s convinced she imagined it.

She moves into her grandparents house after that, moves high schools and her life changes. She’s never lived a normal life. Never gone to a party, never slept over at a friends house because her father was paranoid about the monsters, she’s never had a boyfriend or even gone out on a date. So everything is new and scary. Also with the fact that she’s lost her family and she can’t get over what she thought she saw, especially since she keeps getting sightings of a weird lady hanging just beyond her grandparents’ backyard fence, wearing a wedding dress and something just seems off about her.

In this book the zombies are spirits, they are not physical and this is not about a zombie apocalypse.

At first I didn’t like that the zombies were invisible to people that did not have the sight to see them and the people that had the sight could only attack them if they were in their ‘spirit form’, which meant their literal bodies would be empty and still as they fought. I didn’t like that they weren’t zombies that literally rose from the ground and began tearing and eating human flesh. Instead they were spirits that had the hunger for the human soul and when they ate a human they disappeared into the body and ate their soul causing the bodies blood to bubble to the top of their skin. Killing them in the physical world.

That right there is one cool idea.

So once I wrapped my head around it, I realised just how cool that was. The only thing is I only realised this after I had finished reading the book. Not while I was in the middle of reading it. I believe this is because I was too distracted trying to figure out how I had completely misjudged the premise of this book. The cover and the synopsis threw me off. That being said, I love this cover, it’s just gorgeous! It just feels misleading. But so does the summary. The summary barely reveals anything about the contents of this book. Yet it is very intriguing.

I felt like the first half of this book was so slow because it set up the world and the premise, and I had been expecting zombie-butt-kicking but the zombies didn’t really turn up until half way through the book. Once it got to the point where there was zombie-butt-kicking this book got exciting.

My favourite character in this book was Alice’s best friend Kat. She was bubbly, exciting and completely honest as well as brash. Yet she was also realistic, down to earth and had a vulnerable side to her that just made me want to give her a hug. Kat is a very strong and feisty character yet at the same time caring and an absolute delight. I usually cringe when there are characters that are meant to have a bubbly and over excited personality because most of the time they are written very flat with no dimension. Kat however has a lot of sides to her, she is definitely not one dimensional.

I’m sad to say that the romance in this book is very predictable and bordered on insta-love. The direction of the story is also predictable. Multiple times through the book the word ‘cliché’ popped into my head.

So if you’re going to read this book expect a predictable storyline and cliché romance but fun and exciting butt-kicking action that happens non-stop from halfway through onwards.

I liked the end half of this book so much that I’m excited for book number two. I want to know why the zombies are so interested in Alice, and why she has abilities none of the others have.

I am intrigued.

Give Alice in Zombieland a go if you’re up for a paranormal romance with a bit of scary butt-kicking. Just don’t get hyped over it or expect it to be a retelling (It is most definitely not a retelling).

Miss J
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