Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter

Good morning everyone! This week I decided to go back to read a Young Adult book. Not long ago my blog was specifically about reading teen books but I changed that as over time I found it was important to read outside of just teen books. A true reader reads a variety of genres. 
I had seen this book in the book store and, being a fan of Alice in Wonderland, I thought I would give it a shot. While there are a few references to the original story this book doesn't relate much to Alice in Wonderland at all.

Alice loves her sister more than anything. On her 16th birthday she decides that for her gift (since her parents forgot her birthday) she wants to go to her sisters dance performance. The only problem with this is that their dad is crazy.
Ever since they can remember their father has been a crazy drunk who refuses to allow anyone to leave the house after dark. He sees monsters that no one else sees and stands guard every night with a gun despite the fact that no one besides him has ever seen the monsters before.
After guilting her mother into asking her father he finally agrees to allow them to go to the performance as long as they come back as soon as possible once it is over. 
On the way home, while the girls are discussing how much fun they had, their father starts to freak out because of the dark. He sees the monsters and tries to take control of the car from their mother, causing the car to flip over and crash.
Alice wakes up to see her sisters dead body beside her and her mother and fathers body being dragged from the car by the very monsters her father had tried to warn her about.
Somehow surviving the incident, Alice moves in with her grandparents to start her new life at a new school. It doesn't take her very long to start making friends, and enemies, as she meets a group of outcasts who are more criminal than rebels. 
When she starts seeing the monsters in more places and begins having strange visions of the leader of the gang of rebels she becomes more and more confused. She is soon going to find out just what the monsters really are and why the criminal group of boys are so quick to push others away.
Alice will have to take over her fathers duty at protecting people from the monsters, only she will have to go that much further to take revenge for her family. 

I found many characters in this book amazingly enjoyable. Alice's friend Kat reminds me a lot of myself in the way she tells people exactly what she thinks and does whatever she wants. I am finding a lot more teen books lately are becoming sexual. This book was borderline on this mark making me feel almost a little uncomfortable.
Alice was a little bit of a strange character although, I believe that I can see why she acts so odd and volatile.
But besides the name and look of Alice and the white rabbit cloud I don't see much relations to the original Alice in Wonderland story. That aside, the zombies in the story are a very original concept that I enjoyed reading about.
With all of this being said I would rate this book at a 3 out of 5 stars.
Have a great day everyone and happy reading!
- K