Alice by Christina Henry

"Alice knew she wasn't mad."

But there's a scar on her face she can't remember getting. And she has nightmares of having tea in Old City with "The Rabbit", a stranger with blue-green eyes and long ears who really scares her. Not only that, but she's been locked up in an asylum for the last ten years. It's enough to make her think she might be mad after all. But then there's a fire and Alice escapes the asylum with the help of Hatcher, a fellow inmate. Hiding out in Old City, Alice's mind starts to clear and she realizes her strange thoughts aren't madness, but memories. Only she and Hatcher aren't safe yet. Because something else escaped the asylum the night of the fire, something monstrous and dark. Something called the Jabberwock. And she and Hatcher are the only ones that can put it back in its box.

Christina Henry's adventure "down the rabbit hole" is a much darker, more macabre tale than the one Lewis Carroll ever imagined. And I think that's why I liked it. Hatcher is a slightly terrifying character capable of murder, but he'd never do anything to hurt Alice. And she supposedly has what they need to defeat the Jabberwock if she can ever figure out the truth, or learn to believe in herself. Their journey is filled with danger, strangeness, mystery and magic, and a lot of crazy characters including Cheshire and Caterpillar, the very scary Walrus, and, of course, the even scarier Jabberwocky. This is one of those unique and delightfully compelling reads that I didn't want to put down. And I think there's a sequel which makes me happy, because....

"There's nothing ordinary about Alice."

Happy Reading!

Don't Judge a Book by Its Zombies...

"My father was right. Monsters walk among us."

In Alice in Zombieland, Gena Showalter has written a fast-paced and fun teen read where everything is heightened and intense--the fight scenes, high school, the romance between Alice and tall, dark and dangerous Cole Holland, and, of course, the zombies. Showalter's zombies are not your typical zombies; her zombies are infected evil spirits that have risen from the grave rather than mere flesh and blood, and only a few humans can see them. As for fighting them? Well, that's where it gets challenging. Luckily, Alice has Cole and his gang of  friends to help her figure it out.

It was the title that made me reach for this book, I admit; I just couldn't resist a book called Alice in Zombieland. (Although there's not a lot of Wonderland in this book.) I did like that Showalter brought a new and unique take on the usually formulaic zombie genre. I also thought she captured the angst and drama and language of high school. (Although some of her choices made me wince.) As for her Alice? I'll let you decide that for yourself:

     Had anyone told me that my entire life would change course between one heartbeat and the next, I would have laughed. From blissful to tragic, innocent to ruined? Please.

     But that's all it took. One heartbeat. A blink, a breath, a second, and everything I knew and loved was gone. 

     My name is Alice Bell, and on the night of my sixteenth birthday I lost the mother I loved, the sister I adored and the father I never understood until it was too late. Until that heartbeat when my entire world collapsed and a new one took shape around me.

The BEST zombie book I've read:

     World War Z by Max Brooks