SHORT REVIEW: No tie to Carroll's creation. Flippant, stupid dialogue with a lot of cliche sass and absolutely no substance. Blah characters, including Alice's megalomaniac boyfriend and twerpy best friend. Ridiculous concept riddled with plotholes ... but pretty, pretty cover. 
 LONG REVIEW: HOW DARE YOU SULLY MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE CHILDHOOD BOOK??? I get that re-makes of childhood favorites have been popular in teen fiction recently, but if you're going to associate with Lewis Carroll's beloved ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND, at least do it PROPERLY. As in, have there be a Wonderland, for starters! And Alice may be Alice, and she may have a (younger) sister, and there is a girl who smiles a lot named Kat, and a rabbit-shaped cloud... but that's where the Alice allusions end. Yup, very shallow, unimportant references. Seriously. If you wanted a girl named Alice, just name her Alice. (Though she spends the majority of the book going by Ali, so there's not even that.) 
 I don't mind that zombies are different... but I do think that the concept has not been fully fleshed (haha) out. For example, zombies are "spirits" and cannot be seen by the average human. They also cannot really interact with physical things ... oops, wait, somehow they can. Like when they stumble into trees, though they cannot actually eat people's guts. Also, you do get "infected" when zombies bite you, but you can be bitten, and pretty much devoured, but still be cured! Hurray. As long as you get the magical antidote within an hour of (the first?) bite. Which goes against all zombie lore. Because if you can be bitten, where is the harm, the danger? Oh sure, it hurts. A lot. But that's okay. It just means the author can write loads of prose about how painful it is to be bitten. 
 And the characters. Alice isn't bad ... but she goes from being a meek homebody (not really her own fault) to an aggressive battle-queen within the span of like a chapter. I understand that certain antagonistic people will draw that rebellious and snarky nature out of a quiet person, but the change was a bit overdramatic and unrealistic. I like that she's not a "Princess" character ... but what YA heroine is? Also, I was irritated with how Showalter wrote her following the first "Incident"; Alice's emotions and stop-start thoughts read contrived and forced. I almost didn't care what had happened because it felt so much like a flashing plot point. I saw that it didn't matter because death is not, apparently, eternal, in any way, sense or shape. 
 Cole Holland reads like a hero in an adult romance novel (at least I imagine, as I've never actually read one, besides the first 25% of Fifty Shades) ... which is not good, considering he's like 16? 17? Not because I'm lusting after him, because I'm not. He completely turns me off, which sucks because it's fun rallying for the love interest(s) in teen series. He goes from being taciturn and beast-like (he snaps his teeth at Alice) to over-possessive and ridiculous. All with a slick coating of testosterone. Yes, it's a simple part of human nature to feel flattered when someone is enraged with jealousy over you, but at the point that Cole enacts his jealousy, he has no claim to or relationship with Alice. So he just ends up looking like a douche-bag. 
 Kat is kind of unbearable. She is chatty and believes herself to be extremely witty and charming. She may be sassy, but she is neither snarky nor witty. Or maybe it's because I prefer wit that is less showy and not aggressively punched into your face. I do like that she's loyal--especially since she's apparently this series's depiction of the Cheshire Cat--and that she has a personal problem that makes her a bit more sympathetic, but again, she does not really display the Cheshire Cat's mischievous and tricky nature. At least not in a classy way. (But then again, I never really was the type of girl who calls her best friends bitches and uses insults as endearments.) 
 Speaking of which, the dialogue left a lot to be desired. If John Greene's characters talk like Harvard-educated 40-year-old literatis, then Gena Showalter's characters talk like the teenage version of The Real Housewives. Absolutely no substance. I don't expect them to speak like frumpy professors, but does every other line have to be an attempt to out-funny another character? 
 The revelations at the end were entirely foreseeable. The sci-fi nature of the zombie plotline was not a good choice, seeing as how poorly it has been handled so far. No technicality to it; we are told that you can "force" zombies inside an actual human ... okay ... how? Uhh ... let's make this into a series and put off answering that question for a while! 
 Then there's the shadowy, antagonistic Corporation. (Cliche.) The evil love interest. The uber-sexy, smoldering, hunk-a-hottie love interest, who is also unsexily aggressive and macho. There is also the stupid plot device of the "visions" which allows Alice to "see the future" but not really ... oh, and also to make out with her guy. (Who has purple eyes. Have you ever seen genetically purple eyes on an actual human being?) The cliche betrayal by a trusted figure. (If you want to read undependable authority figures from a youth's perspective done right, read the fifth Harry Potter book. Seriously.) 
 I don't want to offend anyone who read this and genuinely enjoyed it, because a lot of my hate does have to do with the improper use of ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND, but ... there are also many more books and teen series out there are that are better worth your time ... I'd say skip this one.