R-r-read

1. The unique zombie mythology.  Forget everything you know about zombies, because Showalter pretty much throws everything out the window. Surprisingly, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Zombies are still out for flesh--but they're no longer rotting bodies, they're spirits. Really interesting concept.
2. Ali's voice.  The narration done by Ali is believable and compulsively readable.
3. The book binding.  I am someone who picks books to read based off their covers--I'll admit it, and this book definitely doesn't disappoint. Even the lime green flyleaves are decorated with cute little skulls. Adorable.

1. The complete lack of Alice references.  If this book was just a zombie book, it would be a fantastic zombie book. Unfortunately for Showalter, this book was advertised as an Alice in Wonderland mashup, which is definitely was NOT. Aside from a rabbit-shaped cloud and the name of the main character, there are pretty much no references whatsoever to Lewis Carroll's classic. VERY disappointing.
2. Cole.  Cole is constantly telling Alice what to do and even physically forces her to do his bidding numerous times throughout the book. His bad boy persona is painted as as desirable, which I think is a really dangerous suggestion in a book for teen girls.  Do we really want teenagers wandering around thinking this kind of behavior is okay, or even worse, seeking it out in potential boyfriends?  This is just irresponsible.

I went into reading this hoping for a mashup of Alice in Wonderland with zombies in it. What I got was a pretty well written zombie novel with two slight references to the classic I know and love. For this reason, this book was very disappointing for me and I can't give it more than a mediocre rating.