Review: Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter (White Rabbit Chronicles #1)

Sorry about the mini hiatus guys! I was a little too busy last week, had to prepare for a debate, and had to stay at school till very late to finish everything. We had only 5 days to prepare! Anyway, our team won, which was a good thing, my schedule was interrupted, which was bad :P Okay, let's go to the review now.

Title: Alice in Zombieland (White Rabbit Chronicles #1)

Author: Gena Showalter

Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal(Zombie), Paranormal Romance

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Synopsis/Summary: She won’t rest until she’s sent every walking corpse back to its grave. Forever.

Had anyone told Alice Bell that her entire life would change course between one heartbeat and the next, she 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 she knew and loved was gone.

Her father was right. The monsters are real….

To avenge her family, Ali must learn to fight the undead. To survive, she must learn to trust the baddest of the bad boys, Cole Holland. But Cole has secrets of his own, and if Ali isn’t careful, those secrets might just prove to be more dangerous than the zombies….

I wish I could go back and do a thousand things differently.
I'd tell my sister no.
I'd never beg my mother to talk to my dad.
I'd zip my lips and swallow those hateful words.
Or, barring all of that, I'd hug my sister, my mom and my dad one last time.
I'd tell them I love them.
I wish... Yeah, I wish.-Taken from GoodReads

From the book on: Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / The Book Depository

       I really think this book is good, very good, and wanted so very much to give it 5 stars, but once I've calmed down and survey the whole situation, I found that this book had some flaws, and that's why I had to give it only 4.5 stars :( (Actually, that was pretty close to 5, whatever :P)

      I like the opening, very ominous, with Alice's note and such, I was immediately piqued to what Alice was talking about, what happened that made her regret things so deeply. The car accident was timed well, starting the book with a BANG (no pun intended). I really liked it :)

     The book had several climaxes, I would say about 3 to 4, and most of the fighting scenes were in there. I was cool with that, it kept the book from those awkward middle phases where everything was still in the same place for chapters, and the readers were tempted to leave the book and start another one (I knew I did, I actually still hadn't finish Fallen, I planned on reviewing that :P) But, the multiple climaxes kind of took the excitement from the one main climax near the end of the book, the one that really matters. It's just that the previous semi-climaxes were so great, I felt that that one was a little rushed, the whole fighting scene just span around 10 pages, whereas others had about the same or more. If it was gonna be in the spotlight, you've got to give it more juice, make it special, alas, that was my only complain about the book.

    I seriously LOVE the romance of this book! Cole and Alice were so good together. Although there was a little bit of a insta-love, I still loved it! Plus, they didn't let things go from there just because they were apple to their eyes in the first sight, they got to know each other as sort of friends, though of course they actually would date, so don't worry, the romance is still the romance ;)

    One more thing to praise, I really liked Showalter's writing style. This is my first Showalter book and it left a pretty good impression. She didn't write very lyrically, like Laini Taylor, but more laid back and urban (sorry, couldn't think of other words, please re-frame from saying that I am actually 60 years old, because I am genuinely 14.5 ;P ). It was easy to read, and made me get into the book really fast, whereas I had to reset my channels when I read Daughter of Smoke and Bone. Both were great though :)

     The zombies in this book was really different from what you had seen before. This wasn't some Hollywood block buster, where tons of fake blood and makeup were used, and the zombies were actually evil spirits. They needed to be defeated differently than hand to hand combat, and the setting was really cool. Although I actually knew that the zombies were different before I even read the book (some reviews I've read), I liked it even more when I actually read it. It just had this epic feel to it, good vs. evil, I love it!

    Um, can I say the characters of this book were really all super awesome? Hell yes! Everyone was really well-written, and the characterization was definitely there, I could see it in every character that Showalter created for this book.

    Alice Bell was our main protagonist, and I love her. She somehow always had a snarky comeback for things, although when I read the book I pictured her as kind of meek, goes to show that everything is not what it seems. She was a very pleasant main protagonist, not too whiny, even though her parents and her sister died within the first 30 pages. Not too strong, there were times when the female protagonist was too invincible (I am talking about other books), and it just kind of ruined the whole thing :P But strong enough to defend herself (physically) and pull herself together for everyone to see (mentally), I really liked this kind of heroine. Not perfect, but perfect enough ;)

    I love Cole a lot too. True, he was actually a very guy guy, but he really cared a lot about Alice and constantly showed it in his protective nature, and I like that he was very loyal to his friends. I guess that was required though if you were to hunt zombies together :P

    When I read the reviews, I found that many people actually loved Kat a lot. I was okay with her too, and quite strangely, her oversized ego didn't bother me at all. Which just goes to show that Showalter really was great with her characters :)

    And, like I said before, I loved the romance! Alice and Cole would be so cute together, I just knew it! They had so much passion (?) for each other, especially Cole, who seemed madly in love :P I wouldn't go into details but I must say even before they were officially together, there were a lot of steamy scenes which was skirting the line of YA books ;) So expect some drama and some steam if you catch these two together~

    I would give this book 4.5 stars, the 0.5 was actually attributed to the not too impressive climax among semi-climaxes, which showed that less is more. Other than the minor complaint, everything in this book was just peachy! This book featured an exciting storyline with multiple fighting scenes, original world-building and lovable characters! I would recommend this to general YA readers, although it was a paranormal, it was definitely worth your time!One more thing, the cover design of this book was so great, I actually sighed whenever I see the book cover. I liked the model, the frames, the backgrounds, everything. And since I bought the American hardback edition, I could take away the cloth and saw that even the spine of the inside of the book was gorgeous, seriously, the cover alone could actually warrant a 5 star from me ;)

Rating: 4.5 stars!

The zombies were making its comeback! I saw many zombies that was released this few months or next year. So, how do you like your zombies? I know decaying flesh was hardly a lovable trait, but you never knew ;) This book might have some similar traits with Alice in Wonderland, but as you would have read in other reviews, it was not a retelling :P I knew that some people were disappointed at that, but I wasn't, the moment I saw that there was a character called Cole in the book's website, I knew it wasn't a retelling (I don't know how, sixth sense?), so I was prepared :) Anyway, were you disappointed that this wasn't a retelling of Alice in Wonderland? If you've read the book, how do you like it? Does it make up for the fact that it fooled you with its resemblance with the famous tale? Happy reading!

Review: Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor (Daughter of Smoke and Bone #1)

Title: Daughter of Smoke & Bone (Daughter of Smoke and Bone #1)

Author: Laini Taylor

Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal Romance, Fantasy

Publisher: Little, Brown & Company

Synopsis/Summary: Around the world, black hand prints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky. 

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grows dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages—not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.

When one of the strangers—beautiful, haunted Akiva—fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?-Taken from GoodReads

From the book on: Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / The Book Depository

     Gosh, this is a really great book, with its epic story line, the wholeness and richness of the world-building, even of its slightly strange aspects, this book is close to perfection in my opinion.

    First of all, I must say I love all the mysteries set up from the start of the book. Black hand prints on doors? Made by mysterious people with winged shadows? I am sure you could guess what species these strangers are, but you don't know the rest, and I am sure you will be delighted to find out ;)

    Second, I love all the strangeness (in a good way) of the book, especially at the start. When we were introduced to Karou, a girl with blue hair naturally growing out of her head, runs secret errands for her sort-of-family, I was immediately riveted by her. She was just such an interesting character that I couldn't help but want to find out more about her. And knowing her we did, and the pull Karou had on me kind of vanished, with her secrets being peeled and we saw her, knew her. But by then the story had already drawn me in and even without the urge to know all about this peculiar main character, I still read on, and was deeply satisfied with my experience :)

    Which brought me to the third thing, the wholeness of this book. There was a past-life story line going on there and I was glad that the mysteries of the past was revealed slowly, chapter by chapter, bits by bits, mostly through out the book (the last part had more of the past, but it was so cool, I loved it!). There was not really a second when this book was boring, or any parts or events that were redundant. The story was fully developed with a solid back-story, amazing world-building and mysterious and intriguing characters.

     I did have a small complaint, that was that the romance aspect actually took up too much of the story, if you ask me. I am not really a fan of romance, but I don't hate it. Every book has a little romance, sometimes even the whole book is a love story, and those were the kinds that I am quite annoyed with. The whole romance just felt a little too boring to me, I mean some moments were sweet, by too much really made me wanna gag, and I felt that this book had gone a bit overboard. But that's just my opinion, I know a lot of people love books that have a bigger romance aspect in them, or even a whole romance novel, and I am sure this book's love story will be satisfying to you ;)

    By the way, I absolutely loved the writing, the prose. It was so lyrical, beautiful, the prose helped wove a beautiful yet tragic love story with the most unique world-building I have ever seen!  At times the whole metaphor and analogy thing might me a little annoying, when you just want to know what happens next, but most of them are good, and the third person POV blended into the story perfectly. I was aware of it, not like when I read The Secret Sisterhood of Heartbreakers, when I didn't even realize I was reading it, but it was still very good and worked well with the story. Plus the transition of POVs was not confusing at all, and there weren't actually that many POVs, just two, so I am good :)

    Oh, the world-building, where do I begin? It was so great, everything about it was just so well thought-out, there were no holes in it at all. Well, maybe some tiny ones, but those could be easily overlooked. The whole world-building was very imaginative, the paranormal aspect was so unique, it definitely made it stand out of all the paranormal novels being sell these days.

    The story was first set in Prague, and most of the story happened there. I have never been to Prague, but I liked it. The way Taylor described Prague, it sounded like a beautiful city, yet I could feel the melancholy in the air, in between the lines, and that fitted the story pretty well. Hack, this book made me want to go to Prague!

    Like I said before, there were some really interesting characters in this book. Karou, as an example, and Akiva too. His story felt a little less riveting as Karou's, but no doubt it was a sad one. I absolutely love Zuzana. She is Karou's best friend and I really liked her. She might get ignored a lot because Karou always had to read secret errands, but she didn't really left her side, no matter how hurt she was that her best friend was hiding secrets from her. She didn't really appear in the last half of the book, but I would really want to see her more, and I am sure Karou does too! ;)

    I would give this book 4.5 stars! Why not 5 stars you ask? Since I sounded like a salesperson just there, keep ranting on about how great the book is? Well, because the romance kind of annoyed me, so the 0.5 star was gone :P Anyway, it was still a very good book, a little too long for a relaxing read, but it was definitely worth reading. You could read it one part at a time if you don't have time to finish it in one sitting, and the beauty of the book is, it has short chapters! Really, I am that kind of person who couldn't put down a book unless I finish the chapter I was reading, and the short chapters really did justice :P Daughter of Smoke & Bone is a high fantasy novel with unique world-building, mysterious and eccentric characters (at least at first glimpse they were :P And I meant that in a good way) and a bitter-sweet love story that I am sure readers will enjoy, though some parts are a little too much for me. I would recommend this book to every reader out there, the paranormal aspects of this book is really different, the love story was flushed out, though at first it felt a little like insta-love, it turns it wasn't. Hope you will enjoy this book! :)

Rating: 4.5 stars!

Review: Anna Dressed In Blood By Kendare Blake (Anna #1)

Title: Anna Dressed In Blood (Anna #1)

Author: Kendare Blake

Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal Romance, Paranormal, Fantasy

Publisher: Tor Teen

Synopsis/Summary: Just your average boy-meets-girl, girl-kills-people story...

Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.

So did his father before him, until his gruesome murder by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father’s mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. Together they follow legends and local lore, trying to keep up with the murderous dead—keeping pesky things like the future and friends at bay.

When they arrive in a new town in search of a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas doesn’t expect anything outside of the ordinary: move, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he’s never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, but now stained red and dripping blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.

And she, for whatever reason, spares his life.

Find the Book on: Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble

     Anna Dressed In Blood is probably a perfect story to get into the Halloween mood. It had scary ghosts and a hero to save the day.

    The plot is well-planned. With some foreshadowing in the front, which sprang into a full-on climax in later part of the story. I love that kind of layout, that way I don't feel like I am being thrust into events after events just so the author can fill his/her book. The foreshadowing might not help me to prepare what was coming, but the show of planning that counts ;)

    This book is also pretty fast-paced. The story progressed way further than I expected, I actually thought some plots will be dragged to the next book in the series, but it hadn't. I like that, Blake didn't leave me hanging after reading this book, she gave me a sad and tragic closure, and I am very satisfied.

    Also, this is one of the recent books that the plot twists are surprising enough. Okay, technically, only one plot twist in this book managed to knock my socks off and have me shivering from the creepiness of it. But at least I know where the plot twist is! Some other books, if you have read some of my reviews, you will find that I often complain that a book lacked a shocking plot twist, but Anna Dressed In Blood delivered even that to me. How can I not love this book?

    The whole ghost-hunter concept might not be the most original one, but I like it. I like the alterations the Blake did too, like you have to kill the ghost again to banish it forever, it makes much more sense than sucking it into a vacuum :P I also like the setting in Thunder Bay. It sounded like a beautiful town with yellow and orange leaves piling up on the floor by Autumn, which was not at all what we had in Hong Kong, I would love to go there someday (And, I want to know if Anna's house does exist) :)

    Oh, I love the characters of this book, well, all except for a few d-bag that died along the story.

    Cas was so much fun to read. His no-nonsense tone with the occasional jokes are what I liked about the story. He was a good guy, a little too isolated maybe, but I am glad he changed throughout the story. He is also pretty protective of his loved ones, but I guess that's what happens when you lose your dad, you don't really want to lose anyone again, and I like him for it.

   Ah, Anna, I love her so much! So is strong yet fragile, and she can kick Cas' butt if she want ;) Anna had a tragic past, it was horrible what happened to her and I really felt for her. I do think she talked a bit too modern for her time of death. She didn't exactly say any slang or show any signs of knowing any pop culture references, but it's something about her tone that made me feel like she;s modern. Maybe she start up conversations before twisting people's head off :P Anyway, except for this minor complain, I love Anna!

    I would give this book 4.5 stars (round up to 5 stars). It's a very intriguing ghost story and is perfect for anyone looking for a ghost story. It's not very scary, there are some gruesome deaths, but other than that, it's actually more of a paranormal book than a horror book. I would recommend this to all YA readers or fans of paranormal stories, it's a light read with a very lovable ghost and ghost hunter, with the tragic ending, it will be sure to keep you interested for the less-than-enough 316 pages (I mean that I would want more Cas and Anna, not that the story didn't end well;) ).

I've been gushing about Anna Dressed In Blood for a few weeks now and the review's finally out! So, now's the perfect chance to tell me your opinion on the book. I know some of you don't think it was a good fit for you, and I wanna know why. So, tell me, what do you think about the book? Love it? Or hate it? What other good ghost story books are out there that you think I must read? Recommend some! Look forward to seeing you on the comments! ;)

Review: Jenny Pox By J.L. Bryan (The Paranormals #1)

Title: Jenny Pox (The Paranormals #1)

Author: J. L. Bryan

Genre: Young Adult, Horror, Paranormal

Publisher: Self-published (Author's site: www.jlbryanbooks.com)

Synopsis/Summary: Eighteen-year-old Jenny Morton has a horrific secret: her touch spreads a deadly supernatural plague, the "Jenny pox." She lives by a single rule: Never touch anyone. A lifetime of avoiding any physical contact with others has made her isolated and painfully lonely in her small rural town.

Then she meets the one boy she can touch. Jenny feels herself falling for Seth...but if she's going to be with him, Jenny must learn to use the deadly pox inside her to confront his ruthless and manipulative girlfriend Ashleigh, who secretly wields the most dangerous power of all.

Not recommended for readers under eighteen.

Find the book on: Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble

   Okay, if anyone actually read the basic information before reading this review, you would see that it was said that this book was not recommended for readers under eighteen. And I shamefully tell you, I haven't read the blurb before reading the book and let just say, that line was quite wise :P This books contained some graphic sex scenes that would not be seen in YA, violence of some sort and there are several mentions of drugs and alcohol, but nothing major. This book also have religious contents, with the religion portrayed as bad and corrupted. So readers, beware before you decide to read this book.

    The book was labeled as a horror book somehow, personally, I didn't think it was all that scary. It did get quite disturbing towards the end though, imagine a the results of a zombie attack (this book has nothing to do with zombies, don't worry, no spoiler here), that's disturbingness of that scene. When I read that part, I just read the words without thinking too much of the scenario, so it was okay. A friendly remainder, when you read this book, don't think too much about the scenes, especially towards the end. That said, it wasn't the kind of "horror" I was expecting, just a big bloody mess, so I didn't really get scared or scarred after reading it.

    Back to the plot, this is actually a really good book. The plot is well thought out, and have some foreshadowings. I feel like there are 2 climaxes in this book, one during the middle and one towards the end and got me engaged. There's not much of a plot twist though, but the urge to keep reading is enough for me. However, although officially, the books is just 309 pages for the Kindle edition, I felt like it was much longer. I felt like I have just read a 500 page book when I finished, I enjoyed it a lot, but the pages didn't flow by. There were also some excessive scenes, like a particularly sex scene somewhere in the book. It means nothing, it does nothing to push the plot forward and there was actually no follow up after that scene. Luckily, it was just a chapter, so that didn't kill my enjoyment of the book.

    I like the ending of this book. It was a bitter-sweet ending, with the whole grim and heavyset of this book, it was pretty satisfying.

     Jenny can kill with her touch, it's the power that she had been born with, and there are other characters in this book that has special power with their touches too. These origin of these powers weren't explained until the end of the book. Personally, I didn't really thought much about where their powers came from, I was more focused on the plot. The revelation of it was a good addition to the book and made the world-building a lot more completed, it was nice touch. However, it did come in one pretty short chapter, so prepared to have some big information being thrown at you.

    The atmosphere of this book is very, very heavy. I didn't even noticed how grim it was until I finished the book and kept listening to sad and depressing songs. :( The atmosphere fitted the story well. What with the unfortunate experiences and hardships Jenny went through, it was perfect for readers to really blend into Jenny's world.

    There are three main characters in this book: Jenny, Seth and Ashleigh.

    I really felt for Jenny. Her life.. Well there was no other way to say this, it was a living hell. She was bullied, without friends and can't even fall in love (she'd kill anyone who touches her). With her family in poverty and her mother dead, Jenny really can't afford to lose anything anymore. She was treated badly by almost everyone in town, even the adults thought she was a freak and disliked her. She was treated unfairly for many times and that really aroused my anger. It also portrayed the ugly side of humanity really well, a little extreme, but not exactly unreasonable. All of this combined, we have a tragic main character. And like I said, I really felt bad for her, especially when she was so sweet and kind, it's just that no one wanted to know her and be near her. In a way, her growth throughout the book was kind of like a YA contemporary story, and I am so glad she was way stronger and happier by the end of the book. I also learned that she can get pretty scary if she want, so don't mess with her!

    Seth is a pretty nice guy. I like him a lot. He treated Jenny pretty well, and he didn't judge Jenny at the start of the book. He and Jenny were kind of in a insta-love, but I liked it, those two fit together pretty well and were destined to be together.

     Finally, Ashleigh, I hated her guts, I wanted her dead from the start of the book. Through the whole book she picked on Jenny for no apparent reason. She was just a generally horrible person with a gift that she didn't deserve and was a hypocrite. She was such a hypocrite that I wanted to personally struggle her with my bare hands. On the outside, she was all sweet, cheery, considerate, innocent and whatsoever, but on the inside, she's the most manipulative character I've ever read. She span vicious lie, only used people to her own advantage and was generally cold-blooded. There was nothing to like about her. She was just born a b*tch, so readers, don't hold hope for her to change or actually do anything good, because she would NEVER do that.

    I would give this book 4.5 stars. It was a good and engaging story but I felt a little uncomfortable reading some the parts. I would recommend this to New Adult readers. Yes, that new genre aimed at college readers. One thing that I wanted to complain that has nothing to do with the story is that the title actually read kind of silly. "Jenny Pox"? Didn't that just make you want to giggle? Or is it just me? But, don't let the title fool you, things got pretty ugly in this book.

This is a pretty bloody book I just read, and depressing too. So, what do think about Jenny Pox? Have you guys read other books by J.L. Bryan? How do you like it? What would you do or feel if you touch is deadly? Tell me in comments below. I am all ears! ;)