Wednesday 28 January 2015

Book Review: Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter


Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter
Published by Harlequin Teen on September 25th 2012
416 Pages

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.
Don’t let the title fool you with book it is most certainly not an Alice in Wonderland retelling and generally falls more toward my guilty pleasure reading side but if like me you don’t mind a touch of cheese and some insta-love then you might enjoy this.



Following Alice Bell this book tells the story of her life after her family dies and she gains the ability to see zombies. That is basically the redeeming factor of this book that it has some pretty cool zombies that are a bit of a different take than I had read before. The zombie’s in this story are not corporal and only certain people can see them. To kick off the troupes of YA Alice is sent to a new school where there is a group of strange kids who are super tough and intimidating; they turn out to know all about the zombies. Big surprise there, really I was so shocked. Within in this group of delinquent like teens is Cole their leader and supreme bad boy, who would be much more impressive but he’s only 16 and has probably just gone through puberty. As normal he and Alice have a supreme connection and things go on from there.

This is the type of book that can’t be taken to seriously if you want to get any enjoyment out of it. If you can laugh of the insta-love then Cole and Alice’s devotion to each other is cute in a god this is so unreal kind of way. The insta-love between Cole and Alice has a strong focus all throughout the book sometimes even out weighing the zombies, which really only came into play strongly in the battles which also also left quiet a bit to be desired, they just don’t seem to have any real oomph or structure but they did interest me and I did enjoy reading each one.


All in all this is a hard book to review because it overall just left me with a “meh” feeling that was positive or negative. I am curious enough to want to continue on with this series just to see where things progress to.


16 comments:

  1. I have seen such conflicting reviews of this book, though I think the more negative ones are winning out at this point. Insta-love *shudders* whyyyy is this still a thing? D: Whenever I'm on the fence about a book and I find out it involves insta-love, it goes on the 'nope' list lol

    - Wattle @ Whimsical Nature.

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    1. I’m exactly the same! I just don’t understand why insta-love is even a thing no one likes it. It’s not like it added something to the book over a nice paced out romance. Thanks for commenting Wattle.

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  2. Sorry you didn't like it :( I actually pretty enjoy it! THe next books are better, you should consider continuing it! :)

    Ps. I have a blog as well, if you want to stop by I'd appreciate it so much! It's both in Italian and in English :3 -> http://frannieinthepages.blogspot.com/

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    1. I’m glad you enjoyed this book, it just wasn’t for me. I do have the rest of the books in the series so I might continue it one day if I have some free reading time.

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  3. Yeah, I think I've written off this series, the YA tropes and the insta-love romance and soppy heroine just don't cut it for me. Too bad because I do like zombies though. Great review Katie!

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    1. It really is to bad with this book Jeann the idea behind the Zombies is interesting but it just wasn’t as well planned as I would have liked and with all the things you said it just didn’t make the standard.

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  4. I'm not a huge fan of zombies, but I actually enjoyed this one from what I can remember - I read it a while ago. I have the second book sitting on my shelf that I need to get around to reading. Sorry to hear you didn't really enjoy this one. But great review.

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    1. I love a good zombie book, maybe thats why I didn’t like this one so much, not enough zombies for me. I’m going to pick up the second one at some point as well, I’ve heard that the series gets better as it goes.

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  5. Thank goodness, I'm not the only one who didn't like this book. I felt so let down. I thought it was going to be darker kind of like Alice in wonderland (i also thought it would have more zombies). Instead it read like every other dramatic novel about a girl instantly becoming obsessed with some douche of a guy. Great review, I couldn't have said it better (or shorter without ranting).

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    1. Hahaha, I love that feeling when you find other people who dislike the same book, its like you bond over your dislike. I was also expecting a creepy zombie Alice in Wonderland but sadly that wasn’t what we got. I’m totally a ranter but I try to hold myself back.

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  6. This was like one my proper paperbacks review copies and I had to look up what rating I gave it . I gave it. 4 stars but I never continued the series because there was so much else out there. If I read now I would probably be feeling meh too considering that I have read another Alice adaption which Ioved more.

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    1. I do think reading tastes change over time, Alice in Wonderland is one of my favourite books of all time so I guess that probably effected my reading quite a lot!

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  7. I read this book ages ago, and honestly can basically no longer remember anything about it lol. All I really remember is that the action scenes were good. I did give it 4 stars on GR though, so clearly I liked it somewhat. I do have a copy of it on my shelf, so maybe I'll reread it at some point to see if I still feel the same way. Definitely need to watch out for the instalove though..why must authors do this :/

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    1. Hahaha I do that all the time, I will have read something but not remember anything! I’m glad its not just me. I’d love to know what your opinions are now Nara maybe they have changed.

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  8. You need a certificate of participation for just getting through this one, I couldn't do it. The zombies were just really strange, and more like rabid ghosts weren't they. I'd actually expected a least some semblance towards Alice in Wonderland, but I think the title was more so just a play on words. This could have been epic, but it was just so teen drama. You really should be awarded for sticking with it. Awesome review Katie bear, I hope you have more luck when you move onto the next book <3

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    1. Yes! I finally achieved something! I liked the idea behind the zombies it was different and new but I definitely see the rabid ghost thing when I think about it. I’m still pretty bummed this book was more Alice in Wonderlandy that would have been awesome. I was picturing it to be something like Splintered which is amazing! I hope the next one get better too Kelly if it does maybe you will be able to push through this one to read it.

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