Alice in Zombieland by Lewis Carroll and Nickolas Cook

I have read and watched a variety of Alice based books and movies since I was young.  None of them have held my attention like this version.  Alice in Zombieland kept me laughing page after page.  I couldn't help but compare each of the scenes with my memory of how it was presented in a more traditional rendition.  Alice is still a sweet, innocent girl, though her perfectly pressed dress and starched pinafore does take quite a beating and bloodying.

The story starts with Alice and her sister outside enjoying the lovely day.  This time they are in a graveyard., and it is a black rat that distracts Alice and leads her astray and down into an open grave.  The tale continues to parallel Mr. Lewis's original story line, though the descriptive details and much more dark and dead.  Zombie dead that is.

As with the first version, I loved the description of the Mad Hatter's tea party.  The teacups are all there, ample food to share and the same company.  It was the change in the details that kept me in rapt attention.  While I have had many tea parties with my daughter when she was young,  I couldn't successfully imitate this one.

I don't know that zombie books will ever become a first choice read for me, but this one kept me coming back for more.  I loved the descriptions of the blood spurts and gore, the flesh ragged bones lying around and the listless responses of the 'cards'.  Frequently I would stop and read a particularly descriptive gruesome passage out loud to which ever family member happened to be in the same room with me.  I fear that they now think I am truly demented.  If you have read Mr. Carroll's version and are looking for a read that is a little  lot less sweet, give  Alice and Zombieland  a read.


To learn more about Lewis Carroll, visit Lenny's Alice in Wonderland Site.

Nick's website and blog The Black Glove Magazine.

Thanks to Sourcebooks for my review copy.