The Queen Of Zombie Hearts

The Queen Of Zombie Hearts
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher!

It's been a month since the events of Zombie Glass, and things have calmed down to almost normal levels, Ali's ready to get even more serious with Cole, and thinks the horrors from Zombie Glass are behind her. But when Anima Industries launches a mass attack on the slayers, the objective to kill as many of them as possible, there are tragic consequences and the slayers find themselves in the middle of a war. The humans controlling the zombies are bigger monsters than the zombies themselves.

The slayers must prepare for the war they're about to fight, and they find themselves teaming up with another gang of slayers. Except, there's a mole and a traitor in their midst and no-one has any idea who it is, Ali starts seeing another witness who gives her, her powers, now Ali can control the zombies....and wipe memories, and as her abilities start to rack up and pieces fall in to place, a shocking family secret is revealed. Ali has been living in a lie and she's not who she thought she was. How will Cole and Ali's recently mended relationship endure the knowledge Ali has a connection to the woman who killed Cole's mother, not to mention Veronica's meddling little sister determined to break them apart. Secrets will come to light, 6 will die, a side effect of Ali's fire will leave them with an advantage, one will lose everything and Ali will fight her hardest to bring down Anima, even if that means sacrificing herself to stop her friends getting hurt, even if it means losing Cole.

"I'm On Board The Awesome Train And You Can Hop On Or Get Run Over" 

Jesus no. NO NO NO NOOOOOOOO. HOW COULD YOU GENA HOW COULD YOU?! Man I can't even. Don't get me wrong, the story is wrapped up fairly good, even if it is totally heartbreaking but man I need to know about Frosty, and I need to see what happens with Gavin and you know who! You totally left us hangingggg! Also the little brat should not have gotten off so lightly because UGH. So many feels. So many. I finished this at like 3am and I'm just sitting there like "WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!" I mean this whole time I figured like a miracle would happen, not this. Waaaaa!

I love this series, I really do, and even though I know there's not really anything left to warrant a fourth book, well I guess there is but it's not that brilliant, I need a fourth book for ultimate closure because there was so many things left open, we got told about Gavin and a girl but never knew if it happened or not, then there's the whole Frosty issue, like my poor baby I need to know what happens to him! Then there's what happened to Reeve and yeah. A lot of things left partially open.

Like I said, I love this series, and yes I gave it five stars, well I did originally give it five stars, by the time you're reading this, I'll have switched it to four after I realize that with the little things I picked up on I couldn't really keep it at five without looking like an idiot, that's because it was a fantastic conclusion but I'm not blind to it's faults. SO I'm going to make a little note of them because as well as the things left open there where a couple of other things that where mildly annoying. Like I re-read the first two books before I got started on this one and I noticed a continuity error with Bronx's hair in the second book, and so for this book I had no idea whether it was right or wrong, but I noticed one huge continuity error and I wasn't sure whether to mention it or not because I really really love this series and it didn't change my star ranking, but then I need to be honest in this review so here we go. In this installment Ali says her father watched his mother be killed by Zombie's, but I'm 99% certain that it was his own father, her grandfather, that her father watched die. So yeah. Fairly big error there. The other thing is that to me, the ending felt a little rushed. Ali loses all her memories and she was only barely getting memories of Helen throughout the book, but one makeout session with Cole and she remembers everything, it didn't seem very legit, and it felt kind of rushed to me and I was a bit sad because I thought it was gonna be more of the book, then with the parts not entirely tied up or answered despite the fact it's the last book....so yeah. There we go. I said it.

HOWEVER the rest of the book was truly an explosive ending. The world continued to be vivid and suck you in entirely, it continued to be cinematic and atmospheric in parts. All of the characters are so very well written, there's more to all of them than meets the eye, like Veronica for example, they all have different sides and plenty of depth and this book continued to show that. I loved the development of certain characters, like Cole who now trusts Ali more, and then Gavin and his he-slut ways being put on hold for a girl. Growly Gavin is hilarious, and I continue to totally love Ali and Gavin's relationship, as friends duh, they make me laugh so much and Cole's reaction, particularly at the end is just hilarious.

Cole and Ali's relationship is going strong, and I liked how you could see he had changed from his reactions in this book to certain secrets, he didn't break up with her, he was a bit of a dick, but he made up for it, and he's come a long way from the whole "I'm gonna dump you because I'm actually a pansy". They're so adorable together, and it's so cute and all warm and fuzzy inducing!

We get new characters in River and his crew, I'd kind of like to know more about him and his gang of slayers, it's another of those things that where a bit oookaay, because while I liked him and yay for Kenzie and Chance (even though we don't know what actually happened), he and his gang just kind of sprang up out of nowhere. Before Gavin's crew has only been mentioned, but Cole has never before mentioned that there's another gang of slayers essentially up the road, and I was a bit stumped by it, because you'd have thought he might have mentioned it when Ali was asking about other slayers, and you'd have thought they'd have come across them before, they where kind of shoved in there! But I did enjoy them and the new characters they brought, and like I said, more of them would be greaaaat!

We get loads of backstory in this one. Backstory to Veronica, to Cole and his mother, to Ali herself. Turns out everything has  been a lie and everything we thought we knew was wrong and man I did not see it coming. Well not at first, but more on that later. We spent the first two books thinking we knew everything about Ali, but we really didn't. She's not who we think she is or who she thinks she is, and it turns out she has a connection to Veronica, which happens to be Veronica's ace (I knew we'd find that out, as well as the vision), and so yeah. Lots of background woven through without bogging down the narrative.

This installment continues to be dangerous to read in public. As heartbreaking as it was at points, there was still plenty of humour and bits that make you laugh out loud like a total loon if you're in a public place, and I loved the  blend of humour with the sadness and other emotions that made such a roller-coaster and lightened up a book that could have been very dark. I love the humour, particularly from Gavin, yes he's totally my favourite character, gutted there was hardly any jealous Cole, I mean he totally had it coming with the Zombie Glass thing and then the Camilla thing!

The plot was complex, with the background for certain characters, the secrets coming out that have been there since the beginning really, the mole, the other gang, the whole thing with Anima and what they where after and so on and so on, it was all woven together incredibly well, there was plenty of action and always something going on to keep you reading, the book is truly hard to put down because you just want to get back to it for one reason or another. The twists and turns where everywhere, some incredibly shocking, others where still shocking but slightly dulled, because while a fair few of the plot twists couldn't be guessed and you didn't see coming, there where a couple that if you put the clues together, Helen for instance, you could pretty much guess exactly who someone was or what was going to happen, or at least have a strong suspicion, so while you had known pretty much, the confirmation you where right was still shocking because I half expected to be totally wrong. But yeah, that was once instance among a couple, but there where loads I didn't guess, who was going to die for instance and who the mole was, those totally blindsided me and I'm still slightly not over it.

Queen Of Zombie Hearts has a couple of liiiiittle things that I picked up on, but all the same it was an explosive conclusion to a trilogy I love, entering the world again was like coming home and the characters where like old friends, it's a series, I for one, will re-read multiple times because I just love how each book, the game is upped and the stakes are higher, and they're at their highest in this installment. This conclusion is going to give fans feels. Bad feels, good feels, so many feels, I would strongly recommend chocolate to be consumed while reading, or alcohol, wine or vodka especially, if you're legal drinking age. Oh yeah. That kind of feels!