At first I wasn’t planning to read this book.

Yes I really liked the first book, but I wasn’t sure about continuing it. There were a few things I didn’t like in the first book and I was worried it would be overly present in this one as well.
But then I saw this book (in hardcover) at one of the two ABC stores for a big discount, and then I just couldn’t resist.

Now, the book!
I must say this one is way better than the first one. Of course not all is that good. For instance we still have the whole COLE OMG COLE!!!! stuff going on, which was an annoyance in the first book. Alice kept going on and on and on and on about Cole. Yes, we know you love him (not that you can say it), and that you want to kiss him to death, have his babies and marry him for life. But please, tone it down a bit.
In this book, the whole OMG COLE is my Life! is a bit toned down due to events happening. Now we have more angst and more drama. More on that when I get on the characters.
There is a new twist with Alice, not really a new power, but rather something more evil and more mean. Something that wants to destroy her life, her friends, her family, and this is one thing that made me up the stars a lot. I love Jekyll and Hyde (good and evil in one body) and I was really happy to see it in here.

Add to that, that it was well written. There was a lot of details about the transformation, about Alice spiralling downwards, not only physically but also mentally as her condition gets worse. I just felt at times like I was there, witnessing it all.

However there is still something I don’t quite get. The zombies are unbeatable, the only way to truly kill them is by ashing them. Now I am still confused as to why the slayers are still kicking/maiming the zombies before ashing them. Isn’t it way more effective and faster to just ash them and be done with it? Unless I missed something, it has been a long time since I last read book 1, so I might have forgotten some details.
But it was just silly at times how they hacked/slashed, the zombies just kept popping back and back, and only when the need was really there did they ash the zombies.

Now for the characters.

Alice, oh Alice, silly and impulsive Alice. Not listening to people that much, taking stuff too much, doing too much while you should have just laid down and stayed down for a while. Of course things go wrong, gee, how come?
Still I loved her, she is still one of the most kick-ass characters I have read about and she is still a favourite.
Kicking zombies asses while in spirit form, ashes them to a true death like a champ.
I just hope for her sake that she can relax soon. Losing her parents, her sister, her grandpa, various friends, and in this book various other people. She deserves a big vacation somewhere far away from this all. Of course together with Cole, because well otherwise she would be lonely. 🙂
Her affection for Cole was like I said earlier, still very much present at times to nauseating levels. And when she was with Cole the conversations often bordered on almost 18+ stuff.

Cole, ah Cole. You fricking idiot. Sorry, had to get that out of my system. Not trusting your girlfriend eh? Oh, she has a vision about another guy, let’s just assume that she is digging him instead of you. Not even questioning or just keep on hoping that it might be something totally different. *rolls eyes* Of course he keeps a very close eye on her, and can’t seem to leave her alone, even though he is now with another girl. Drama, so much unneeded drama.
I also didn’t like his hot/cold attitude towards Alice. At times he would be very sweet, and I really loved him, but other times he was just a dick and I wanted to kick his ass.

Gavin and Veronica, two characters that I just couldn’t like. Gavin was someone I started to like very very late in the book, but in the beginning I couldn’t stand him. How he treated women, as toys, as something he could just play with.
But we also see another side of him, a caring and helpful side. A protective side.

There is a whole lot of action in the book next to the drama. The zombies are still very freaky. I mean, zombies that you can see are already scary, but invisible spirit zombies that can just suck you dry????? Nope, Nope NOPE!!!

Then we have the whole evil company that captures zombies and does tests on people. I do hope we will see them going under in the next book. I also hope that during this war against them that we don’t lose to many of the characters. After two books I am really liking most of them and I don’t want to see them die.

Also big big plus points for the awesome cover!

All in all this was one hell of a ride and I would really recommend it. Me? I am going to hunt for the third book and buy it. I want to know what happens!!!