Review: Through the Zombie Glass

 

Ｔｉｔｌｅ：Through the Zombie Glass

Ａｕｔｈｏｒ：Gena Showalter

Ｓｅｒｉｅｓ： Book 2

Ｒａｔｉｎｇ： ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩

 

＊Ｎｏｔｅ：Check out my review for the first book here.

Ｓｙｎｏｐｓｉｓ

After recovering from the blow they were dealt in the first book, Cole and Alice are doing pretty well. Great, actually. Until a new batch of slayers come in to help out while they can find permanent fill-in’s for their group. Then everything goes wrong. While Cole and Alice haven’t had a vision in weeks, Alice and one of the new slayers shares one instantly and it sends her world tumbling. On top of dealing with the emotional drama, Alice soon finds herself fighting for her very life. Her enemy? Herself. It’s a race against the clock to find the cure before she loses control and hurts the ones she loves.

Ｆａｖｏｒｉｔｅ Ｃｈａｒａｃｔｅｒｓ

I had a back and forth kinda thing going with Cole and Alice in this book. At times they both drove me insane with their lack of backbone and self-respect. Although, Cole definitely got better towards the end when he started to open up.

In the meantime, fortunately, we had some new characters come in to offset the craziness. Despite being a total playboy, I really grew to like Gavin. He didn’t judge Alice and tended to be a voice of reason (ironically) whenever Cole would lose his temper. He also didn’t push Alice very much and respected her a lot.

Of course, I’m going to throw Kat in. She’s totally awesome. True story.

Ｆａｖｏｒｉｔｅ Ｓｃｅｎｅｓ

► I always enjoy a little banter between Cole and Ali.

My first outing in weeks would be a date with Cole. Yes, please. “I think you’ll make a very sexy naughty nurse.” 

“I know,” he said without missing a beat. “Just wait till you see my dress. Slutty doesn’t even begin to describe it.”

► Unfortunately, this describes a good third of the book. And it applies to both Cole and Ali.

I was trying to trust him like he’d asked. I really was. But the hot-and-cold treatment was wearing me down.

► Oh Kat, how we do love you so ❤

Wait. “What are you talking about?”

“My dream last night,” she said easily, then sipped her hot chocolate.

“Your dream.” Reeve shook her head. “You’re more mad at him than ever because of a dream?”

“Hey! I always behave myself in dreams,” she said. “He should too.”

► Always do your best.

“You’re a grade-A douche bag, Cole Holland.”

“According to your grandmother, it’s douche purse. And if I’m going to do something, it’s good to know I’m giving my best.”

► Gavin’s forwardness actually made me bust out laughing.

“Will you please stop forgetting you’re into brunettes?”

“I realized I can’t see hair color in the dark.”

Ｒｅｖｉｅｗ

So, I’m going to take this tidbit off my Goodreads review because it’s pretty accurate:  What does this book break down to? Well it goes something like this: 30% teen angst because your boyfriend dumped you, 20% “omg he’s so hot and we need to bang”, 10% “no we shouldn’t I gotta be strong but can’t make up my mind dang it”, 5% canceling plans with your grandma, 35% zombies.

Like I’ve mentioned a few times now, this book really focused on the romance (or the lack thereof?). There was a pretty decent balance in the first book, but in Through the Zombie Glass it dominates a good chunk of the book. It’s not even romance really, it’s more about the teen angst about not being able to be with the person you want, and crazy teen hormones on overdrive. Besides, having both characters pushing each other away and then being all over each other in the next instance was driving me up the wall. It just got to be too much. And then at the very end Cole did kind of change up a bit and open up which was so weird. It was a new side of him, but it was good. He needed the change.

As for the rest of the book: it was so great to finally have all these characters change! Kat and Frosty both grew significantly in this book. They get more committed to one another and it made me very happy for both of them. Of course, we had all the secrecy around Reeve which kept things tense throughout the book. It’s always hard not being able to tell your friend what’s really going on. It was good to get to know Reeve and her father a lot more in this book.

I think the whole zombie soul inside Alice was a great twist (no big spoiler there). It was a constant fight between her good and bad side. Plus the way that the visions tied into it was also pretty smooth. I liked how it made all the fights seems silly, and worked to strengthen the relationship between Ali and Cole. It was also nice to have Alice’s zombie spirit have her own little personality instead of it just being some type of infection (like the other slayers get). We finally get to know more about the passages in the journal. Everything kinda just builds up in this book with the slayers all having more weapons against Anima and them finally deciding to go on the offensive.

So, final thoughts? I didn’t like how there was too much romance and not enough zombie action–at least not compared to the last book–but it was still a fun read. I’m definitely looking forward to continuing the series and I’m excited to read more from Gena Showalter (i.e. I am so reading her Everlife series).