Alice in Zombieland (White Rabbit Chronicles #1) ★★★★☆

Author: Gena Showalter

  Let me start by saying that Gena Showalter's Lords of the Underworld series is one of my all time favorites.  I'm also a big fan of the spinoff series Angels of the Dark.  I keep meaning to read the Intertwined series but haven't.  The funny part about that is I actually have 2 of the books from that series but not the first so I have never read them!

     I have no idea why it took so long for me to read this book.  I was totally jazzed for it the second I saw it in the bookstore.  Not only was it by one of my favorite authors but it also involved zombies!  I am a huge zombie fan.  I was a little shocked when I read some of the reviews for this book before I started it.  It seems that a lot of people expected it to be based on Alice in Wonderland.  Also, there was quite a bit of critisim over the use of a different kind of zombie.  I have always been a fan of authors who differentiate themselves by choosing to come up with something unique.  Anyone can base something on the regular ole zombies and an apocolipse.  But it takes a lot of forethought into coming up with something new and creative like Gena Showalter did in this book.  I say good for you and go on with your bad self!  It seems to have worked because I have been seeing tons of reviews for the sequel Through the Zombieglass.

     So this book is about Alice.  She loses her whole family in a tragic accident and goes to live with her grandparents.  Can I just say that her grandparents use of slang was absolutely hilarious?  For example when Pops says "get all up in her biznez."  LMAO!  Alice meets her best friend Kat shortly after her family dies.  If you like Anya in Lords of the Underworld then you'll love Kat.  Of course I have to mention Cole as well.  I expected more of a relationship with Cole from some of the reviews.  I'm wondering if it blossoms more in the next book.  I liked Alice and her friends.  Alice blames herself for her family's death.  I blame her parents for not sharing everything with Alice and her sister Emma.  If they wouldn't have waited, if they wouldn't have thought they were too young it might have convinced them and saved them all.

     Zombies!  I do luv me some zombies.  As I mentioned before this book's version of zombies is very different.  They're more like ghosts in a way but not really.  Gosh, describing them is difficult.  The zombies are only seen by some people.  They live on a spiritual plane and they crave basically lifeforce.  Their darkness is drawn to the light in people.  If someone is infected and dies they become one of these zombies. Whew!  I hope I did a good enough job describing them!  I loved the chapter titles.  My favorite was: Hungry... Need Brains... Will Have Yours.

My favorite Quotes:
"It's an endless cycle, like a mouse running inside a barbed wheel, bleeding and dying as those sharp tips dig deeper, with no way to stop the lethal momentum."

Dearly, Departed (Gone With the Respiration #1) ★★★★★

Dearly, Departed by Lia Habel
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

My kids will say that I speak zombie blasphemy but it must be said: I liked Dearly, Departed more than my favorite tv show The Walking Dead! There, I said it, whew. I loved this book. What's not to love really? There's zombies, steampunk, victorian, it's futuristic, romantic ect, ect. I swear I highlighted the hell out of this book there were so many good quotes. I shared a lot of them on my updates. I always say that the perfect book will make you laugh and cry. It will make you feel such deep emotions that you connect with the characters. This book did this and more. The chapters are set up similar to The Song of Ice and Fire series. Each chapter is titled by the character that is narrating that chapter. This confused me quite a bit through the book because I had to stop and remember who the chapter was about, it was especially confusing when Bram, Pam and Nora were in the same place.

Lia Habel created such a unique world. I am extremely impressed. I too love victorian books but find them terribly boring. Boring this book was not. Her take on the zombies was captivating. If something happened simialar to how it is set up in the book I can totally see there being people like the Punks and their steampunk creations. I never would have thought that an author could fit so many different things into a book but she did it perfectly.

My favorite character was Bram. He took what had happened to him and made the best of it. I can't decide if I liked Pam or Nora better. I loved how Pam took charge of her family and did what had to be done. Nora was so strong despite everything that happened. I'd rather not talk about my other favorite character due to that being a spoiler. All of Z company was great. I could just gush about this book! But you would be better off reading it than my review. :)

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