Alice in Zombieland (White Rabbit Chronicles, Book 1) (The White Rabbit Chronicles)
Alice Bell has led a sheltered life in suburban Alabama, shaped by her father’s insistence that no one leave the house after dark because of the “monsters.” On her sixteenth birthday, Ali insists the only present she wants is to see her beloved eight-year-old sister’s evening dance recital. On the way home, their car is attacked by zombies in front of the cemetery, and Ali alone survives. Now living with her maternal grandparents, she is consumed by guilt (her dad was right after all), fear (the zombies are still out there), and confusion over her powerhouse attraction to bad boy Cole. Though bearing trademark Harlequin emphases on romance and appearance (every character is gorgeous and described in loving detail), Showalter’s novel also includes ironic allusions to Lewis Carroll (a puffy white rabbit cloud always appears before a zombie attack), as well as pathos, as Ali struggles with the loss of her family. It’s an odd mélange that is more successful in the first half of the book, before plot details set up the action for further titles, but when it works, it’s compulsively readable. Grades 7-12. --Debbie Carton