ONCE UPON A ZOMBIE: The Color of Fear

I never thought this doll/book line would ever do anything again, but like a zombie, it's been resurrected. The original six dolls, for those that don't know, are Snow White, Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Belle and the Little Mermaid. The main character in this book is a human, Caitlin Fletcher, who travels to the land of fairytales, which is powered by imagination. She's recruited by a zombified Rapunzel and only goes along because her brainiac little sister Natalie went through the portal (Lewis Carroll's grave) first. Basically, the Big Bad (called The Enchanter) tricked the Queen of Hearts into using a scepter to mind-control the populace. Their world is controlled by the color spectrum, each color providing certain aspects. The Enchanter gives the QoH a sceptre that she uses to block out the green spectrum (free will) and enhance the red (fear). This turns everyone into zombies, called the Blood-Eyed. The royals are a bit more pure of heart and heavy on courage, so while they're zombies, they maintain their own free will and just have a little craving for other things. They can be turned Blood-Eyed from a bite by a Blood-Eyed though. The princes that pair the princesses are all Blood-Eyed, because they got bitten in the original battle against them. But if the QoH waves her sceptre one more time, even the unbitten royals will turn. Caitlin somehow holds the key to saving their world. The main players are Caitlin (very fearful), Natalie (very book smart, especially about science), Rapunzel, Cinderella, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty. Rapunzel is the leader and the most stoic. She's got her hair powers. Snow White is predictably gentle, sweet and nature-loving, but she's got some neat nature-based abilities. Sleeping Beauty is the least characterized of the four. She has prophetic dreams when she falls asleep, which (like Briar) she does a lot, but she doesn't do much besides that. Cinderella is my favorite. She seems to have gotten some ass-kicking skills from Fables-verse Cinderella. She's the sassy, funny one. She's also not royal by birth, so she's a bit closer to giving in to the temptation of her cravings. Belle does make an appearance, but she loved her prince so much, she let him bite her, which turned her into one of the Blood-Eyed. And the Little Mermaid has a nice heroic cameo near the end. She's got healing skills. Even though she was just there for a bit, I think she's my second fave of the six. I'll leave the rest for you to learn if you want to read the book. It drags a bit in places and suffers from some overdescription. Like do we really need a list of ALL the plants the caterpillar is growing in his lair? But the characters and basic plot are fun. My biggest complaint is actually that Alice is on the cover, but doesn't show until the epilogue, which basically teases the next book. Rapunzel or Cinderella should have been on the cover instead.