Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter

Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter
Release Date: October 1st 2012
Publisher: HarlequinTeen Australia
Add it: Goodreads
Overall: ♥♥

As soon as I heard about Alice in Zombieland, I immediately thought of a weird, wacky, crazy fantasy world riddled with zombies (or even like the Alice game) and thought it would be an awesome retelling of the classic tale. I was disappointed. What was one of the most brilliant concepts I've ever heard fell flat completely.

Alice's dad was always considered bat-shit crazy by everybody including Alice because he could see zombies when noone else could. But when Alice is the soul survivor of the car crash that killed her entire family, she finds that her dad was right all along - because now she can see the zombies too.

Alice in Zombieland more closely resembles Twilight rather than the classic tale. If you're a fan of dark, brooding romances, dangerous bad boys and teenage high school melodrama then you might enjoy this. However, while I do enjoy the occassional light-hearted, fluffy high school read (think Crave by Melissa Darnell - I LOVED that), when I see an awesome concept that is so poorly executed like this, I just can't find it in myself to love it.

First of all, Ali is the typical Mary-Sue:
- Her family is dead
- She moves to a new school as a result
- The popular crowd immediately love her and she captures the attention of two of the hot guys at school
- Later on in the novel, she is a special snowflake with the best and rarest of abilities (this was predictable as well)

Okay, so I sort of understand why she manages to have friends when she first starts - she meets her best friend Kat in the hospital after the car accident - but that still doesn't explain why everybody else seems to love her. I also get why Cole was interested - they had a shared vision of the two of them making out the minute they laid eyes on eachother. But that just adds to the Mary-Sueness of Alice's character and seems like an excuse for their romance. There are some things I liked about Ali though; I liked that she could stand up for herself (against the Zombies), her determination, the fact she didn't just forget about her parent's dying after she falls for a boy (which happens WAY too often in YA), that she didn't back down in a fight and I liked that her confused and mixed thoughts about Cole were realistic. I could actually believe that those things would go through a 16 year old girls head if they were getting mixed signals from a guy.

Speaking of, Cole is an ass. He is one of those characters (Edward, Patch etc) that are hot because the MC says he is but in reality he is an arrogant, controlling douchebag who can't seem to grasp the concept that they don't live in the 1800's anymore. Cole may be hot, but he is controlling, over protective, demanding and condescending. I just couldn't really find any characteristics that I really liked.

Can we just talk about Kat for a second? This will be quick because I plain loved her. I loved her sassy attitude and how good of a friend she was to Ali. Kat was bubbly, funny and frantic and I think she is awesome. Although, I'm just gunna say right now - and people who've read the book will understand - FORESHADOWING MADE THINGS PAINFULLY OBVIOUS BUT I LOVE YOU KAT.

The writing overall was okay but the character dialogue annoyed me; the dialogue of the 16 year olds sounded outdated and like they lived in the 90's and Ali's 8 year old sister sounded MORE LIKE A 16 YEAR OLD THAN ALI DID. One thing I did appreciate were how the zombies and (the majority) of the fight scenes were described. Things such as Cole's barn and the school were described well and gave me a very vivid image.

As far as plot goes... Well.
It does have a reasonably solid plot and the ending answered some questions whilst leaving questions to be answered in the next installment, although the main thing I wasn't happy with was all the teenage melodrama and how little relevance it had to Alice in Wonderland at all! I mean, I get it. Her name is Alice, the chapter titles were cool (although they had nothing to do with the chapter content whatsoever) and there was a white rabbit.... But...
*falls silent* *crickets begin chirping*

Overall, whilst it was interesting enough to keep me reading, it was more like a compulsive "is this going to get better, it has to get better" read rather than a "HOLY SHIT WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN OMG THIS IS SO GOOD" compulsive read. I think my expectations were way too high for this because as I said, I was expecting awesome, gory zombies in a weird and twisted Wonderland, but instead I got teenagers in a highschool fighting spirit zombies.

If you love bad boy romances (like the Hush Hush saga) or if you simply like the idea of highschool vs zombies (HAHA, now I feel like watching Highschool of the Dead, bye bye reality), then I think you might enjoy this more than I did so I'd still recommend it to some, especially considering it was admittedly a compulsive read :)

Thankyou HarlequinTeen Australia for providing me with a review copy. This has in no way affected my review

White Cat by Holly Black

White Cat by Holly Black
Release Date: June 2010
Publisher: Gollancz
Add it: Goodreads
Overall: ♥♥

I've had a busy past few weeks at uni so I haven't had much time to read or write reviews :( Though I am very happy to say that I have finished all my assignments for the semester including a 20 page report then a 36 page report! WOO! Okay, so last week, I had a nice review half written and I leave my computer for a bit to go do other things and I come back to find that somebody closed the window that my review was being written on. So please excuse if this seems half-assed, it probably will be :)
In short, I'M SORRY I LOVE YOU!

White Cat tells the story of a boy named Cassel who is part of a family of magic workers, but isn't a worker himself. There are different types of workers; luck workers, dream workers, memory workers, death workers and transformation workers, the practice of these are illegal whether the worker is using their magic for good or for bad. When he was 14 years old, Cassel murdered one of his friends, but he doesn't remember exactly what happened. White Cat begins with Cassel finding himself on the roof of his boarding school one night after following a white cat in his sleep. This leads Cassel to discover secrets that his family have been keeping and other things he doesn't know.

I've seen *so many* awesome reviews for this so I sorta had high hopes but I was pretty disappointed.. I think the major problem I had overall was simply the fact I couldn't engage or connect with the characters or the story. I'm not saying I didn't really enjoy the concept, because I did, but unfortunately I found the majority of the story fairly predictable and a bit dull. I figured out the major twist of the story very early in so when it was actually revealed, I felt really let down. Although, I thought the end of the book was pretty cool and it did leave me feeling a little bit surprised with the turn of events, and I also loved the fact it didn't end with a cliffhanger! YAY!
But yeah... That's probably the extent of my excitement :S

For the brilliant and fascinating premise, I thought it was a bit dull to be honest. The pacing was a bit strange - I didn't feel compelled to read at all (in fact it took me AGES to read, as in a good week and a bit), I just read Harry Potter in my spare time!! The pacing was good, but it just wasn't exciting enough for me and it didn't keep me reading. I could read a chapter and then put it down for a good 10 hours! I'd read something else and not even think twice about the book. I love books that keep me thinking about them, that keep me thinking about the characters. I love books (and hate books) that DISTRACT me in the middle of a class because I can't stop thinking about the characters, or what will happen to them next. I suppose I found it dull because I found it predictable as well, so I didn't feel a if I HAD to read the next chapter immedietely. I don't dislike all books that I find predictable. I don't mind finding something predictable if I enjoy the journey the character takes to get there. If the journey to that point keeps me engaged or entertained then I'm going to be a lot less disappointed when I find my prediction was right!

I think this is a book that you'll either love or hate. My distaste for this  book is mainly due to the fact I couldn't connect with the characters and I didn't really care about finishing it. I WILL be reading the next book out of curiosity and just because I have this horrible thing where I HAVE to finish a series! (Damn you, House of Night and Halo)