Through the Zombie Glass

Alice is getting used to the new world she has been thrust into with zombie, violence, and magic. She's lost family and friends along the way and is still healing. Then a zombie attack turns her world upside down once again. Mirrors come to life and a sinister voice whispers in her ear. She has the urge to do terrible, zombie-like things like bite her friends. Just when she needs her bad boy boyfriend Cole most, he pulls away because she has visions of the future with another guy. With her best friend Kat at her side, Alice must beat the darkness inside her, fight the zombies, and foil her human enemies' plans.

I was not a huge fan of Alice in Zombieland, but I had already had the sequel, so I figured I should just read it. I still like Gena Showalter's prose. The book moves very quickly and does keep my attention. However, there are just so many annoying elements to the story. I still don't like the type of zombies, which attack the spirit/soul of people, making a usually cool monster into a weird religious metaphor. Please label your Christian fiction as such so I don't mistake it for something I might actually want to read. The religious zombie metaphor holds true in the "darkness inside" plotline. Alice is bitten by a zombie and suddenly has to battle her inner Zombie Alice that wants to eat and kill people. Her main urges to do evil just happen to coincide with make out sessions with her boyfriend. Really? This is literally demonizing female sexuality by showing that temptation to have sex before marriage is turning her into a soul eating monster. I just shake my head. Male sexuality isn't seen as terrible and many of the male characters are experienced.

I hated Alice's little sister showing up all the time like a guardian angel and acting as a deus ex machina when it was convenient. I just found it to be lazy writing and really annoying to read. Cole pulls an Edward Cullen from New Moon and is in full douchebag mode for most of the book. Alice's visions of the future are still not explained at all, but are happening with a new guy as another lazy plot device to pull them apart and then stick them back together. The human villains are one dimensional and a stark black to the zombie hunters' white. The lack of shades of grey is what most bothers me about these books. Everything is either good or evil, with absolutely nothing in between and there is no questioning how things are. The shades of grey are what make life interesting and to show a world where there are only 2 extremes just doesn't excite me as a reader.

Overall, I did not enjoy Through the Zombie Glass. The religious aspects are too obvious for me and show a view of a world in two extremes. I won't be continuing the series.

My rating: 1/5 fishmuffins