Review: Book Whisperer's Review
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 12, 2014
As a huge fan of The Walking Dead, I knew I had to get my hands on this book when I read the synopsis (especially since TWD is on a break right now…I need my zombie fix.)Whoa! Alive was so much darker than I expected it to be when I started reading the first pages.  It was very intriguing to read how Eve’s has battled through all this darkness in her life but still has the push to survive every day (minus that one episode.)  I was surprised to read about a character that was such a fighter given her youth.  It was tough to read how crazy religious her parents were, how horribly mean they treated Eve, and how she never had an escape from being treated poorly; most children could escape by attending school, but Eve was bullied there as well. However, her strength resided in the fact that she fights to find her sister, Olive, every day and ended up running into Gage, a former acquaintance.Once Gage enters the picture, you are given snippets into Eve’s youth.  You learn how they met, how their friendship bloomed, and how it all crumbled down in a second.  You really do feel for Eve in every chapter because it seems as if when there might be a split second of sunshine in her life, a massive storm comes in and wipes out the chance.Gage was a good character to place beside Eve. He brought out her past memories and you learn why Eve is the way she is now but you also get to read sections that are told from Gage’s perspective and you learn a lot more about him and his struggles.  If it wasn’t for Gage’s chapters, I would have never believed how he truly felt about Eve because it felt like he was handing her the crappy end of the stick all the time.Olive, on the other hand, infuriated me until the very end. The very end!  I truly hated her character and then in the end, I kinda felt bad for her. I know that the second book is based on Olive’s perspective and first I thought, “Nope, don’t like her, don’t want to read it,” but now I am intrigued.On a personal note, it was hard to read how her parents were so crazy religious and horrible people at the same time.  I just want to say that not all religious people are crazy like this but I do understand that it makes for a good story. ☺