No one does doom like Neal Shusterman ( Thunderhead, 2018, etc.)-the breathtakingly jagged brink of apocalypse is only overshadowed by the sense that his dystopias lie just below the surface of readers’ fragile reality, a few thoughtless actions away. Occasionally interrupted by “snapshots” of perspectives outside the main plot, the narrative’s intensity steadily rises as self-interest turns deadly and friends turn on each other.

Their neighbor Kelton McCracken was born into a survivalist family, but what use is that when it’s his family he has to survive? Kelton is determined to help Alyssa and Garrett, but with desperation comes danger, and he must lead them and two volatile new acquaintances on a perilous trek to safety and water. That is, until their parents disappear, leaving them completely alone. When the Tap-Out hits and the state’s entire water supply runs dry, 16-year-old Alyssa Morrow and her little brother, Garrett, ration their Gatorade and try to be optimistic.

When a calamitous drought overtakes southern California, a group of teens must struggle to keep their lives and their humanity in this father-son collaboration. Showalter has created a promising playground for future story installments. The climax is rushed, especially when compared to the pacing of the first act of the story, but action-packed. While using an Alice in Wonderland motif and established survival/horror video game staples (such as a gradually revealed journal written in code), Showalter creates an original zombie mythology and a completely new set of rules for the monsters to follow, as covered by the sometimes-clunky exposition. The obligatory love triangle never threatens the main love story, but at least Ali’s friendships with other characters, especially her quirky new best friend Kat, are interesting. As if being chased by slobbering, decaying dead things wasn’t enough, Ali also navigates well-meaning if out-of-touch grandparents and the tension between her new social group and the rough crowd (more specifically, Ali’s interested in its leader, Cole Holland). Now living with her grandparents and starting a new school, Ali-she eschews her old name due to memories, grief and survivor’s guilt-can’t build a new life while being followed by her father’s demons. But after a terrible car accident kills Alice’s family, she begins to see the undead, too.

Alice Bell has never been an ordinary girl-she’s never been allowed outside after dark courtesy of her paranoid father and the monsters he sees everywhere.

Alice and zombieland