Review: The Queen of Zombie Hearts

Rating: ★★★★

So I finished this book last night (ok actually early morning), and I have a few thoughts about it. This the third and I think final book in The White Rabbit Chronicles by Gena Showalter. The first book is called Alice in Zombieland and the second is Through the Zombie Glass. The basic premise of this series is that it's a play off of Alice in Wonderland but set in the present and deals with zombies. I've never read Alice in Wonderland but I know what it's about and I can say that these are completely different stories. Anyway, throughout the series Ali comes to know of the zombie slayer world, which she had previously had no knowledge of. She learns to fight from the slayers she meets, including Cole Holland. I would say this book has equal amounts of action and romance. It's a really great blend throughout the series. Now that's all I'm going  to say for the non-spoiler section! Now let's talk about the third book!

Ok so I'm going to assume that whoever's reading this review has already read The Queen of Zombie Hearts. So if you haven't stop reading this now! Or keep reading, just remember I warned you! Anyway, like I said before this is the last book in The White Rabbit Chronicles. I'm not entirely sure if this true because the ending did not satisfy me at all but I'll talk about that later on. The beginning of the book picks up where book two left off, Ali, Cole and the rest of their zombie slayer team are going about life, killing zombies, and basically waiting for the next attack from Anima Industries. The attack comes in the very beginning of the book, killing two of Ali's slayer friends and kidnapping two more. One of the friends that is kidnapped is Justin. The slayer's main goal throughout the book is to get Justin back and destroy Anima, however, some issues come up.

First of all, we find out that Ali isn't who we thought she was. Her real mother was a woman named, Helen, who worked for Anima Industries and was responsible for the death of Cole's mother. This whole situation just was really confusing to me because we learned all about it in this one book. Helen appears to Ali and gives her some of her powers. One of these powers is the power to make a person forget all of their memories. These "powers" just seemed really weird to me. I have no idea how that relates to zombies at all. Anyway, obviously the knowledge that Ali is the daughter of Cole's mother's killer put a bit of a strain on their relationship. However, it was quickly resolved, which kind of bothered me but I can deal with it. 

The one thing I really need to talk about is the last 100 pages of this book. Those pages are what made this book only 4 stars for me. One of the things that has been constant throughout this series are the visions that Cole and Ali have. In the second book, Through the Zombie Glass, they have a vision where Cole is carrying Ali and she is yelling at him asking him who he is and what's going on and stuff like that. Obviously, we can see that Ali is going to lose her memories. However, this vision did not come true in the second book. And then when we get into the this book Cole and Ali keep having this same vision over and over again. The vision gets more detailed but it's constant repetition that soon really started to bug me. When I was around page 350 I was getting really antsy about how this whole thing was going to play out because 100 pages was not enough to end this book. 

Ankh's house gets bombed. Of course. Ankh dies. And Kat dies. LET ME REPEAT THAT. KAT DIES. And now that I've had time to process it it does make sense. I really should have seen it coming because there was a little foreshadowing in the middle of the book that got me thinking. The whole thing with Frosty though is heartbreaking. While the book ends with Ali and Cole together, that can't be said for Kat and Frosty, leaving me with a really sad and unsatisfying feeling. I hope the author does some sort of spin off or at least a novella where we can see how Frosty is doing. 

Ok now let me back up a bit. So after the bombs and Kat dies, Ali decides to hand herself in to Anima because they are who she wants because of her "special" abilities." They do some tests on Ali and she of course fights back. But Rebecca Smith, the director of Anima, is able to wipe away Ali's memories and for 18 days she stays at Anima. The book skips for those 18 days to when Cole and the whole team show up to save Ali, woohoo right? Sure, but that seems just way too easy to me. How did they find the lab so easily? Throughout the ENTIRE book they were trying to find the lab where Justin was kept. Yes, I know that Ali released Justin when she got to the lab but HOW THE HECK WAS HE ABLE TO ESCAPE THE BUILDING? If there's supposed to be so much security and guards how on earth can one person, who is supposed to be really weak and all that, escape? It was too easy.

And then when Cole shows and up and finds Ali, he realizes that her memories have been wiped. And she apparently was told by Rebecca that slayers like him are evil but she just accepts it. There's really no hesitation at all until he grabs her and brings her back to their new safe house. And then rather quickly, her memories come back! NO NO NO ! Ali's memories were first wiped when she was six-years-old and those memories never really came back. So how on earth do these memories come back so quickly? 

I know what the author was trying to do. She was trying to give us a semi-happy ending. This is great but I felt like it was way too rushed. The first half the the book I would give 5 stars, the second half 3 stars. So I am going to settle and give this book a rating of 4 stars. Despite the problems I had with the ending, I really did love this series.