The Dark and Hollow Places | by: Carrie Ryan

The Dark and Hollow Places is the final book of Carrie Ryan's Forest of Hands and Teeth trilogy, and I have been in love with the first two books for quite a while now; they were so fantastic in several different aspects and focused on a different character each time.

 

In this installation, the story continues through Annah's eyes. Annah has spent majority of her life in the Dark City with Elias, both fighting to survive in a horrific post-apocalyptic world crawling with Unconsecrated ever since they were children. But Elias has been gone for a long time - for years - and just as Annah thinks she may have to move on forever, she encounters a man named Catcher. He knows where Elias has been; he even knows her sister, who has constantly haunted her thoughts.

 

Her life has consisted of so many struggles, between the Unconsecrated, her aching regrets regarding her long-lost sister, and the general sense of ugliness she constantly feels, but now Annah has to face even more of the monsters of both the dead and the living. What will push her - what pushes everyone - to continue fighting?

 

With all its action amid a dreary dystopian setting and emotionally-charged characters and situations, The Dark and Hollow Places explored some really deep concepts and kept me anxious. But all together, I must say it's my least favorite of the trilogy. It's a great book, but I didn't find the perfection that was reminiscent of the first two.

 

One of the things I loved about The Forest of Hands and Teeth and The Dead-Tossed Waves was Carrie Ryan's writing, but unfortunately, the way this book was written was probably its biggest downfall for me. It was just too repetitive at times. I realize that Annah was dwelling on memories and emotions that have scarred and shaped her life, and I think this is why it was so repetitive - to show how it all dominated her. But, I really felt it was just too much. Because of this, sometimes I doubted Annah's strength even though she kept reminding us how she survived all alone in the Dark City.

 

Even though I wasn't always a fan of the way the author tackled the ebb and flow of Annah's POV, her internal conflicts are a big part of what made this book interesting. This girl has obviously felt a great deal of pain and regret in her life, and I don't think I've ever read anything that dealt with the concept of self-perception like this one does. Annah feels ugly all the time; her self-esteem couldn't possibly be lower due to her scars. Carrie Ryan tackled these issues in what felt like the most realistic way to do so.

The bleakest aspect of this novel, however, was the Recruiters. Their general brutality was difficult for me to read about; they honestly scared me more than the Unconsecrated zombies... Well, I think the zombies were pretty equal by the end of the book. (Seriously. That was a whole lot of action to make up for any lack of Unconsecrated in the rest of the book - SO intense!) There were warm-hearted moments amongst our protagonists as well though. I really enjoyed the focus on sisterhood; Annah and Gabry happened to be in some unique situations considering how their childhood went and how they seemed to swap love interests, and I was so happy to see them push past all of that and still love each other. And of course... CATCHER. I LOVE HIM. He's one of my favorite love interests - that's always a plus! Moments of romance were always relatively brief, but they spoke volumes. It's what they had to hold onto when continuing felt hopeless.

The Dark and Hollow Places also dealt with questions concerning whether the living suffer more or the dead suffer more, how to rebuild, and how to find happiness when living in a world so full of fear. Like I said, there's a high level of emotion in this novel, and I always appreciate that. There were so many things I loved about this book, but I just didn't love it as much as the previous two due to the writing's repetitions. However, I can definitely still say that I loved the trilogy overall - this one just wasn't my favorite.

The Dead-Tossed Waves | by: Carrie Ryan

Carrie Ryan had proven herself to be an amazing author with her first novel, The Forest of Hands and Teeth. With a novel like that, I was sure that The Dead-Tossed Waves would attain a certain level of greatness, but I wasn't sure if it would be quite as amazing as her first book. I knew that it wasn't going to be about Mary (the protagonist of The Forest of Hands and Teeth) and thought that the new setting probably wouldn't be as creepy.

But, The Dead-Tossed Waves certainly filled with awe-shocking moments that left me gulping down this novel all at once. I'm not sure if one is better than the other.

Gabry lives in Vista, though her mother is from the Forest. For her entire life, she's known nothing but to stay within the Barrier, for death awaits anyone who goes past it. The Mudo are out there, just waiting in their hunger, in their desire to infect.

After a night of hellish terror, Gabry finds herself in a compromising new life. A new life that has not only affected herself, but her friends and mother. One where she is forced to leave Vista and enter the outside world, where the Mudo are a threat beyond the Barrier. While she is in flight from Vista, she yearns to go back in time and fix her mistakes in order to reclaim her old life. In her struggle to survive, will her fear and sorrow swallow her up? Or is she more like her mother, as she had always hoped?

It's been too long since I've read a book so good. Where should I start?

Well, first of all, Gabry is a very different character than Mary of The Forest of Hands and Teeth. She's much more fearful and less adventurous. While Mary had always valued exploration and escape from her village, Gabry has no desire to leave Vista. She often wants to go back and change things, and reality leaves her broken. The pain cuts especially deep since before she had to leave, before her world was shattered by a terrible encounter with the Mudo, her life had just seemed to be coming together. Things were going right with the boy she's grown up with, Catcher.

That being said, while she and the small company of friends that go with her fight to stay alive and try to outrun both the Mudo and the government's Recruiters, Gabry has a couple of love interests. But, I stress that this isn't a gushy paranormal romance ordeal, this is an eerie dystopian novel. Seriously, it takes her until the last fifty pages to make a decision between Catcher, who's from her village and has known her forever, or Elias, the guy she meets in the ruins of a village just outside of Vista. (Don't worry, I won't tell you who it is.) Though I have always preferred Elias, I knew that the outcome could very well go either way. This scared me, and Gabry taking her dear sweet time to figure it out drove me crazy.

But that's one of the important elements of Gabry's character. She grows so much from the beginning! I loved seeing her transformation from a scared girl who doesn't know what she wants to a strong, experienced, and determined character.

And let's face it, she goes through a lot throughout the pages of this book. Trying to figure out who she was led to many twists that I didn't expect, and really, this whole book had twists I didn't expect. There were a few times where my jaw dropped in surprise, if that says anything about the intensity of this novel.

Fans of Mary from the previous book in this series should be excited to see her appearance in the novel. Although this book may not be about her, she's definitely important within the plot. It's so interesting to see where she ended up and how she's doing. In some way, I guess it sort of is an indirect continuation of her story as well, though one doesn't need to read The Forest of Hands and Teeth before The Dead-Tossed Waves. However, I certainly reccommend it; both are outstanding despite their distinguishing differences.

One thing I loved about Carrie Ryan's first book was her wonderful writing. This is still evident in this novel, making this already fantastic plot even better. As long as she continues to write like this, I will read her books forever.

Another element from The Forest of Hands and Teeth that remained for this novel? Both are so, so bleak. However, I wouldn't say that this is a bad thing; it just makes the ending all the more hopeful. And believe me, the ray of hope is worth it all.

I can't even begin to say how excited I am to read the next book in this gripping series, The Dark and Hollow Places. Again, we get to read about a new (though mentioned) character's struggles - and I do love that. But, I can't help but hope to hear more about Gabry, if her story intwines with this character's story, especially since it's clear that Gabry still has a journey ahead of her at the end of this book.

With that, The Dead-Tossed Waves was an adventurous and dark read, and you don't even have to like zombies to enjoy it. It's one of those things that are just too good not to read. I loved it.

5/5 Stars


Ryan, Carrie. The Dead-Tossed Waves
New York: Delacorte Press
2010

The Forest of Hands and Teeth | by: Carrie Ryan

When I first saw this book the title immediately intrigued me. Later on, I heard that The Forest of Hands and Teeth is about zombies. This turned me away since I've never cared much for the idea of zombies. If this fact also makes you want to stray from reading this, do not let it. The Forest of Hands and Teeth is scary and sophisticated.

In The Forest of Hands and Teeth, the world has turned horrifying. A small fenced-in village lies in the midst of the Forest and it is dominated by the ideals of the Sisterhood. Mary can only dream of life outside the Forest, for she has been told that they are the last of humankind, that only the Unconsecrated lurk in the Forest outside of the fences, trying to get in and kill off the rest of them. Still, Mary questions the Sisterhood as she makes a few discoveries about them and the outside world, which she refuses to believe is nonexistent.

Mary is quite unhappy with this confusion as well as the confusion of having two men in love with her. But when the Unconsecrated manage to slip through the fences, pandemonium spreads, and everything Mary believes is tested as she strives to survive.

Wow. That word pretty much sums up this reading experience. This is a gripping page turner that is both suspenseful and sad. It's kind of a combination of The Village and Clive Barker's The Plague, only done much better and will appeal to much more people.

From the very first page I knew that this novel is darkly and wonderfully well-written. It was so epicly beautiful and really fit the storyline and situations throughout the entire book. I can't stress the practically perfect writing enough! Carrie Ryan is an artist with words! It's part of the reason why I love this book so much!

The Forest of Hands and Teeth had an effect that I don't recall ever experiencing while reading... I actually got scared. And I don't scare easily. But the Unconsecreated never rest, and I kept jumping at noises I heard while reading and had eerie dreams if I read too late into the night. The general setting kind of creeped me out even though I loved it (I'm a fan of forests), and it's all because of the Unconsecrated.

Everything in this book is so different than others I've read. Although it's dystopian, it feels more like you're going backwards in time by the way the community functions under the Sisterhood. (Might I add, the Sisterhood also scared me!) Even the love theme was atypical. It isn't a typical love triangle, it's more of a love square, but it's not always the most evident thing in the storyline. It seems that Mary knew who she wanted, but the question of what was more important hung with her: Fulfiling her childhood dreams and her curiosity, or love? I've never read about this sort of thing before since in most books nowadays love isn't questioned unless there's more than one man involved. I'm happy for this refreshing change of feel, and it fits Mary's character and showed that she really valued exploration. She's is a curious wanderer surrounded by tragedy, and I felt for her.

The ending was satisfying, but I'm still anxious for more! I recommend this frightening apocalyptic tale to just about anyone... Go buy it and read it NOW!

5/5 Stars


Ryan, Carrie. The Forest of Hands and Teeth
London: Gollancz (imprint of Orion Publishing Group)
2009