Alice in Zombieland Review

Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter is a interesting adaptation from the classic story Alice in Wonderland. This is definitely nothing like the original, so don’t worry over having to read an all too familiar tale. Overall, I’d give it a rating of 3, though I am being a little generous.

The book combines various elements that have been rather popular recently in pop culture. The two most obvious being that it follows the zombie trend and the even more recent obsession with Alice in Wonderland (i.e. Once Upon a Time in Wonderland,  fairly recent remake/adaptation of the movie which contains Depp). However, there is only a minimal connection between this story and the original, no strong influences.

Instead of being in Wonderland, it has a more conventional setting in Alabama. Thus, making a good portion of the story revolve around high school melodrama. Oh, and don’t forget the Zombie drama, too. 

Alie (Alice), is nothing like you’d expect her to be-really. The novel repeatedly displays her as someone whose never intimidated (even by her hard core intimidating love interest: Cole), stands up for her true friends. A big issue that I had with her, however, is that there is almost always someone present that bosses or dictates her actions. It starts out with her younger sister, pressuring her to guilt her mother into convincing their father into breaking his own house rules, and her love interest Cole is the worst. Why? Alice tries to make her self known as only following whatever she wants to do because she’s miss independent (nothing wrong with that), but she often follows what Cole says (granted he is the leader of his group). The possessiveness in this book kind of bugged me too. There are constant acts of being jealous or possessive that it’s just rather pathetic that they are so insecure with themselves to that extent. Personally, I don’t find it an act of love or endearment. But hey, this is normal high school drama… right? Well, as someone who is very familiar and experienced being in high school, I can say I haven’t really experienced or witnessed some of the things that went on in this book: the group of intimidating boys, girl hate, misguided slut shaming, possessiveness, going out to clubs. I always find myself asking, “Where are the parents?!” I typically can’t fathom how minors in young adult fiction are able to do so.

The author tries really hard, sometimes unrealistically so (keep in mind this is just my subjective opinion formed from personal experience), to have all the teenagers to speak really “teenagery”. I’d rather have them speak as normal human beings, but whatever. On the contrary, I do understand that the author chose to write the dialog in this way in order to make the book more “authentic” and to give the impression that they’re truly badass. 

Despite these issue I had with the book, the plot (especially towards the end) did keep me interested and engaged to read on. I was actually shocked at some of the revelations! In addition, the story did contain good messages and morals about it being okay to wait to have sex until you’re ready. Big A+ from me on this aspect of the book. 

Don’t read this if you’re expecting a close connection or even a retelling of the original Alice in Wonderland. Accept that it’s drastically different and just read. If you like zombies in literature, trying reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies or Dearly, Departed.