Everyone else was just padding, the whole cast consists of extras, jealousy fodder, or people who conveniently adapt their character to the current state of things in Ali and Cole's relationship. And violet eyes, my butt.Īli's best friends were also reduced to side romances with their respective buff-sexy-tough bad boys, and at times it felt like a musical or something, with the couples on stage clinging to each other on raised platforms, the boys scowling sexily and the girls smiling beatifically. Why not a symbol, man? I could have dealt with that. Her name? In bold letters? If anyone would get my first and last name tattooed across his chest, I'd dump him on the spot. Anyway, his character jumped the shark when he got the new tattoo. Yes, I get it, he's tough and ripped and sexy and controlling and only Ali can tame him! All girls want him! Grown men cower! But he's still 17, and in my experience, 17 year olds tend to be gangly and pimply instead of dreamy stripper boys.

It feels so empty! I got bored of the main couple's back and forth thing very early on, and though I liked Cole in the first book in a 'yah I know it's not real'-way, his exaggerated bad boy image got on my nerves after a while. The connection to Alice in Wonderland stays superficial, by the way there are more elements added to underline the 'Through the Looking Glass' reference, but it's as meaningless as the 'darkness' - it's just a gimmick.Īnnnd the romance. In the end there was no meaning to the book's alleged plot, and it became even more apparent than in the first book that there is no substance to the zombie plotline and that it only serves as a halfway original selling point for more plastic YA romance. The slayers did get a bit of helpful information, true, but they could have gained that knowledge elsewhere, and it seemed like a sad attempt to justify the inclusion of the 'darkness' in the first place. The whole zombie/spirit form thing was almost chucked, with bushes rustling and twigs snapping when they shouldn't have, and the 'darkness' within Ali (which was presented as the deathly threat throughout the book) was pretty much a red herring - instead of a big confrontation and grand finale, it fizzled out without any big impact, and things were resolved with a hurried handwave so that everyone could get back to snogging. I guess the author couldn't be arsed, since there was making out to write and teenage romance to focus on.

Alice through the zombie glass