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Alice in Zombieland (White Rabbit Chronicles, #1)

Gena Showalter

Start date: October 22, 2012

Finish date: October 31, 2012

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What Members Thought

May 14, 2015 Yzabel Ginsberg rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, young-adult, paranormal-supernatural, romance, zombies, horror, tstl, annoying-characters, aint-telling-you-nothing, good-ideas-but

Not convinced. The title and cover were definitely misleading, and I didn't find here the "Wonderland retelling" it had led me to expect (it could've been a great retelling, I'm sure).

The particular take on the zombies here... Why not. The rest... didn't work for me, probably because it involved a lot of clichés I'm very peculiar about.
* Insta-love.
* Ain-t-telling-you-nothing-itis. There was a point where if Cole had once more told Alice "You tell me" as an answer to her questions, I'd probably ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Nov 16, 2012 Christina T rated it liked it

Shelves: zombies, ya

What started out as a really decent paranormal YA ended with a lot of unanswered questions and a lot of suppositions on my part.

What Worked: Gena Showalter's idea of 'Ghost' zombies is unusual and interesting. They are essentially soul eaters that infect the living. She wrote the idea very well and I never had any question as to their existence. It made sense and it was exciting but then it got muddled.

What Didn't Work: Although her zombie concept was great and well explained it appears that the What started out as a really decent paranormal YA ended with a lot of unanswered questions and a lot of suppositions on my part.

What Worked: Gena Showalter's idea of 'Ghost' zombies is unusual and interesting. They are essentially soul eaters that infect the living. She wrote the idea very well and I never had any question as to their existence. It made sense and it was exciting but then it got muddled.

What Didn't Work: Although her zombie concept was great and well explained it appears that the readers of the series have to wait to see every other question answered as Ali, herself, figures them out. We don't know why some people can see the ghost-zombies and some can't. We have no idea how they have special abilities to fight them either. Alice is often reading a journal but we have no idea where it came from or who wrote it. We find there are beings called Watchers but don't know exactly what they are or how they came to exist either. So a biiiiiiiig minus in the world building column.

Also, some of the characters come across extremely immature. Ali's new friend Kat has secrets that are just silly to keep. It's not like she secretly killed her algebra teacher or anything. She also is pretty obnoxious which Ali just loves about her but she actually comes across as annoying. The two of them have a couple of friends who bail at the first sign of trouble and apparently come back with open arms when the coast is clear and yet, they still are friends. It's weird.

The relationship between Ali and Cole is pretty explosive too. Their chemistry is pretty intense and reading about her wrapping her legs around his waist as they kissed made me a bit uncomfortable because they seem so young. I know teenagers do make out (and more) but I thought this aspect of the book seemed out of place and a little more advanced than the rest of the book portrayed the kids. They did talk about sex a few times which could be seen as mature but as I mentioned it just didn't fit. By the way, one discussion about sex between Kat and Ali was just weird and I'm not sure why it was included except to bring Kat's untruths to our notice.

What REALLY Didn't Work: The title is Alice in Zombieland which leads readers to believe this just might be an Alice in Wonderland retelling. Not so much. There are some basic things, like our heroine being very blond and named Alice and she keeps seeing a white rabbit (in the form of a big puffy cloud) but the idea of Alice in Wonderland is more figurative and not literal. This will be a big turn off for those who would love a retelling.

In a Nutshell: Not what I expected based on the title. Because of this and the lack of explanation of a whole lot of concepts this book was a disappointment and I'm not sure I'll even pick up the next book. ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Nov 19, 2014 Krissy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, audible-library, pgs-400-499, cover-color-black, zombies-zombies-everywhere

What a fun read! I wasn't sure if I would like it so I was pleasantly surprised when I actually did. I look forward to continuing the series :) ...more

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Oct 25, 2012 Haze rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2013-books-read, 2015-books-read, reread

First read: 16-17 April 2013

Last read: 18-20 February 2015

Rereading again because I'm reading the next books in the series for the first time, and I forgot most of the details since the last time I read it.

Thoughts: I like the concept; zombies in spirit form and all that. I thought it was something fresh and different in the zombie genre. I don't really see any Alice in Wonderland connection, except for the name Alice, but even that isn't relevant anymore because she stops using that name and u ...more

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