Review: Alice in Zombieland

by Gena Showalter
publisher: Harlequin Teen
date of publication: September 25, 2012
format: ARC
pages: 404
source: Around the World ARC Tours
score: 4 out of 5

From Goodreads:

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 wish I could go back and do a thousand things differently.
I'd tell my sister no.
I'd never beg my mother to talk to my dad.
I'd zip my lips and swallow those hateful words.
Or, barring all of that, I'd hug my sister, my mom and my dad one last time.
I'd tell them I love them.
I wish... Yeah, I wish.

When I first heard about Alice in Zombieland, I was expecting a tale mixing the peculiarities of Alice in Wonderland with the dessicated or oozing horror that is the usual zombie.  What I found, however, was something a bit different.  Rather than the usual flesh-eating zombies, Gena Showalter has created an unseen world in which zombies take on a different form and role.  The result is a story filled with danger, tragedy, friendship, and romance.  The trip from start to finish is a wild one, so get ready for some action.

I am a bit conflicted about the characters found in Alice in Zombieland.  Alice, for example, has survived a horrible tragedy and sets out to make a difference so that it doesn't happen again.  However, her tendency to moon after Cole was a little too much for me at times, and his frequent attempts to push her away by being a grade A jerk got old really fast.  I really was not impressed with that aspect.  When she gets down to the business of zombie slaying, however, she begins to shine.  That and her interactions with her best friend, Kat, were my favorite aspects about her.  Cole, on the other hand, is your typical bad boy with a more intimidating effect upon the high school's students.  I wasn't entirely sold on him until he started to become a little bit less of a hard ass.  Even now, I'm feeling lukewarm about his character.  I do have to admit, though, that Alice and Cole have some interesting chemistry.  I'll just say that you can expect some steamy kissing scenes and leave it at that.

Some of the sites featured throughout the story have a definite feeling of foreboding.  They made for excellent backdrops for zombie attacks and creepy nocturnal jaunts.  The battles are fierce and the casualties gruesome.  That coupled with the warrior-like group dedicated to eradicating the zombies make for some really action-packed sequences that kept me riveted.  The writing was easy to keep up with, although I will say that the ARC had a slight issue with continuity.  To say exactly what might be a bit of a spoiler, but it was noticeable.  I don't know if it will remain in the finished copy or not, but it is something of note.  Otherwise, the pace of the story was great and it made for a pretty quick read.

Overall, I enjoyed Alice in Zombieland and would definitely like to keep up with the series.  Even though the zombies weren't what I expected, the novelty was enough to keep me interested.  It is my hope that a bit more about their origins and the founding of the slayers will be revealed as the series continues.  I would love to know more about the world Gena Showalter has created.  If you enjoy a little steam with your romance and zombie invasions, you should check out Alice in Zombieland.

Buy Alice in Zombieland at the Following Locations:

Amazon /  IndieBound  /  B&N  /  The Book Depository

Obligatory legal statement: This ARC was provided to me free of charge via Around the World ARC Tours. No monetary compensation was received in exchange for this fair and unbiased review.