Review: Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter

Title: Alice in Zombieland (White Rabbit Chronicles #1)
Author: Gena Showalter
Pages: 404 pages
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Published on: September 25th 2012
Source: Bought from Fully Booked
Buy the book: Amazon / Barnes and Noble

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.

(Summary from Goodreads)

Review:

Alice in Zombieland was my first-ever Gena Showalter book, and trust me when I say that I was not disappointed. Alice in Zombieland is pretty much the perfect blend of insanely badass and scorching hot. It's the type of read that's perfect for not only Halloween but every season of the year (preferably winter since a lot of the scenes in the book can get hot.)

I really enjoyed Gena Showalter's version of the zombie mythology, the freshness and gruesomeness of the zombies really did add to the "holy-crap-I'm-being-chased-by-flesh-eating-monsters-help-me!" factor. There were literally times where I just wanted to cover my eyes and hide under my blankets chanting "lalalalala" and then I would remember that I was reading a book and not watching a movie. No matter how freaked out (and grossed out) I was at some parts, I just couldn't bring myself to stop reading the book. My mind was telling me to be sensible and keep my lunch in, but my heart was telling me to not listen to my brain and reeeeeeeeeeead! I guess the heart wants what the heart wants.

But honestly? It wasn't even the complete grossness and goryness of this book that sold me. No, siree. It was the characters themselves that made me fall so in love with this book. Alice exuded not only a kickass aura but also a vulnerability, and that's something I love in a heroine. I mean seriously, being in a tragic car accident that killed your parents and then, watched them get eaten by zombie is sure to mess anyone up, but the thing with Alice is that even in the face of these tragic events and obstacles, she did show weakness yet she still managed to tell everyone else to go screw themselves and kicked zombie (and human) ass while doing it! Whoot!

If it was the characters and their personalities that made me love the book to bits, it was the blush-worthy scenes that made me worship it. Who wouldn't love an extremely hot bad boy with piercing eyes and helluva lot of sexy tats? Sad people, that's who. Cole Holland managed to not only make my retinas burn but also induced a lot of incoherent proclamations of love. Yes, Cole Holland and his extreme sexiness made me want to cry out in happiness because I was so thankful that authors are creative enough to this of the perfect guy. (And um, hellooooo there nipple ring. *wink*) And while I was insanely affected by this character, what I was feeling wasn't even half of what Alice was feeling and going through. Imagine having visions of making out with possibly the hottest man alive. Yes. That did happen. Is it getting hot in here or what? Because trust me, you'll be needing a fan, some ice cream and a whole looooot of extra clothes. (Thank you, Gena Showalter for bestowing upon us this very, veeeeery fine specimen.)

Now, why don't you go and pick this book up and use Alice, Cole and their band of kickass zombie hunters to keep you company during this fine Halloween because you never know when you might get an unexpected visitor. Alice in Zombieland has not only managed to make me want to crap my pants several times a day but also made me want to hop on some bad boy's motorcycle and never look back. So if you don't pick this book up ASAP, I might have to sic my crazy chihuahuas at you. And always remember, watch out for the white rabbit.

Rating:

(As usual, thanks so much to Nancy from Tales of the Ravenous Reader for recommending this to me! :D)