Ok, here goes round 2 of me reading book 2. I did finish it this time! It wasn’t that long, so I’m not sure what exciting thing was happening in my life 5 years ago that I couldn’t finish it. I guess I just wasn’t reading books to raise money for cancer back then. Silly me!
So again, there are some editing mistakes, and the writing is a little clunky. I looked this book up on Goodreads, and man do people have things to say about it. I echo some of their comments with this: 3 stars for the idea, 2 stars for the execution. It’s still a cool story idea. It’s still Alice in Wonderland and zombies. But now it’s also BIG BAD CHINA, revolution, and lots and lots of fighting.
This story brings us another half-girl / half-biter. She’s called the Red Queen. Alice is called the White Queen in this book, and I’m guessing from now on. I liked the idea of the red queen. She has a sword and cuts people’s heads off a la the Queen of Hearts “off with their head”. That made me chuckle. I don’t think I paid much for these first three books in the series, so I don’t feel like I wasted money on them. That’s not the most ringing endorsement of the series so far, I know.
I do see some of the criticism that this book portrays the Chinese as slightly racist, but there aren’t any actual stereotypes or slurs used (which is really really good, duh). I think Mr. Dhar just chose the Chinese because they’re close in proximity to India (where most of the story takes place). The big bads could just as easily be the Russians, or the Taliban, or whoever. Anyway, since I bought myself a Kindle unlimited membership this year, and all the books are included (to me for free!), and I just signed up for CBR9, I will continue on with this series. I’m expecting either a positive turnaround in the quality of the writing / editing in the next few. I’ll keep you all posted! Get it? Posted?