Series Review: Is this series worth your time? Does it get better as the novels progress? Or does it get worse? Find out below:
Synopsis for Alice in Zombieland (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….
Series: White Rabbit Chronicles
Author: Gena Showalter
# of Books: 4 # (Full Reading Order Here)
There are a few bonus novellas.
Book Order: Chronological (#1-3); Connected (#4)
Complete?: Yes
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal, Romance
Heat Rating: Toasty *Spicy YA*
Point of View: First Person, Single
Publication Dates: September 2012 – September 2015
Source & Format: Public Library–eBook (#1-#3); Audiobook (#4)
**This post was originally published as a Series Review of the first few of the series. It has now been updated to include the newest publications in the series.**
Why I Picked it Up / My Expectations:
Alice in Wonderland isn’t my favourite book or movie ever. It’s ok but I’ve always found it a little odd and I struggled to finish the classic novel. I never bothered picking up Through the Looking Glass because I just couldn’t handle another round of weirdness. I like odd stories as much as the next girl, but Lewis Carroll is just that little too much over the edge for me.
So I think it’s obvious to say that a retelling of Alice wasn’t too appealing to me. But what was appealing to me was “zombies”. My exposure so zombies isn’t that great to be honest. I don’t watch or read The Walking Dead but zombies are a paranormal creature that have always fascinated me so I decided to give this book a shot. Plus they seemed like a lot of fun in Shaun of the Dead 😉
The Concept / The World:
I’m really glad that I did grab this series because I enjoyed both books immensely. They are filled with romance, paranormal creatures, action and feature smart AND mature high school students. I know that last part is a little shocking and it shocked me when I read Alice in Zombieland too.
The Plot:
I think what I like most about these books is the layers involved. The romance between Alice and Cole (and the other characters) is one of the main aspects I love but the paranormal aspect of everything is really interesting. While each book has its own plot that begins and ends within that book, there are aspects we learn about the zombie world that carry into the next books that keep you coming back. It goes without saying that these books are non-stop action and something is always going on that causes you to never want to put the book down.
Through the Zombie Glass was even better than Alice in Zombieland in my opinion. So many things came together in this book that I just couldn’t put it down. I didn’t know what was going to happen and what I love about Ms Showalter’s writing is that she isn’t afraid to go places you think she isn’t going to go. Both books have a lot of shocking reveals but Through the Zombieglass went in a direction I wasn’t expecting and one I am super excited to see where it goes in the next book, The Queen of Zombie Hearts.
The Characters:
I’ll start with Alice. I really liked her as a heroine. She was strong, brave and while she does suffer from lead-heroine sacrifice syndrome (ie she always has to be the one to save everyone even if it risks herself) I didn’t find it overly annoying. I think it helped that she seemed very mature for her age as did her companions in the book.
The maturity of all the teenagers really stood out to me in this book. This book is definitely for the older young adult crowd, especially Through the Zombie Glass. There are lot of more sexual situations present in these books that often get glazed over in other books–if they are even brought up at all. I would almost classify this book as New Adult except for the fact that all the leads are in high school. (Though when they have normal conversations, they do seem a little odd but I chalk that up to being a parallel to the original Alice in Wonderland with all its oddness)
Speaking of sexual situations, most of those happen to be courtesy of Cole. He is every young adult bad boy fantasy wrapped up into one. I really, really liked his character. I thought he was funny, tough and charming all at once. He has great character development throughout the series as do the other characters. I have to say that by book 2, I was just as invested in the secondary characters as I was in Alice and Cole.
The Romance:
Like I said, I got really invested in everyone’s romances throughout the series. There’s just something so sweet about first love–especially when you add in the danger of zombies.
–November 14, 2014– Book #3: The Queen of Zombie Hearts
This was a great way to end the series. It was action-packed, featured lots of twists and turns and was a lot of fun to read. Again, this series went in a direction I wasn’t expecting and I loved the unpredictability. Fans of the series will be happy with how it all wraps up!
–July 9, 2021– Book #4: A Mad Zombie Party
It’s been a long time since I finished the 3rd book in the series so some of the finer details were lost on me. I think if I read this right after, I would have loved returning to this world and getting all the fan service this delivers.
So maybe Frosty and Camilla’s hate-to-love-you tension probably would have been more obvious to me had I read this sooner. But it had all the action, twists and romance the original trilogy had and I really enjoyed the audiobook!
Series Rating: 4.5/5
Alice in Zombieland 4/5 | [Cole…Meet Ali 4/5] | Through the Zombie Glass 5/5 | The Queen of Zombie Hearts 4/5 | A Mad Zombie Party 3/5
You don’t need to be a fan of Alice in Wonderland or even know the basics to enjoy these books. It’s a great mashup of romance, teen drama and zombies. Highly entertaining!
Read if You Like: zombie stories, retellings of Alice in Wonderland
Avoid if You: dislike YA stories
- Starling by Lesley Livingston (Starling Trilogy #1)
