Cannonball Read III: Book #28/52Published: 2009
Pages: 320 (12,185 total so far)
Genre: Post Apocalyptic/Young Adult
This is a zombie book. I don't really care for zombie books, but this one looked pretty promising. It follows a teenager named Mary who grew up in a fenced in town in the middle of the Forest of Hands and Teeth -- named for the zombies that reside there. After the zombification of both her parents, Mary is rejected by her brother and sent to live with the Sisterhood in the town chapel. While there, she falls in love with Travis and meets a strange girl named Gabrielle who appeared from the forest one day.
The premise of this book was very interesting. I kept wanting to read more, which is always a good thing. It was also well written, so aside from the sort of cheesy romance it didn't feel as "dumbed down" as some YA books seem.
Speaking of the romance subplot, it did suffer a bit from the Twilight Syndrome. There was sort of a love quadrangle between Mary, Travis, Travis's brother Harry, and Mary's childhood friend Cass. You see, in their village they do some sort of courtship thing where the girls are chosen by a guy to court in the fall and then they get married the following spring. Travis and Cass are courting and Mary is chosen by Harry, Travis's brother. However, Mary loves Travis and Harry and Cass have a thing. See? Very confusing. It's all the more confusing since we never really get much from any of the characters besides Mary. I have no idea why anyone is in love with anyone else because they don't really have distinct personalities.
Aside from the eye roll inducing teenage love crap, I really did like the story. Mary was a fairly strong female character, which seems to be rare in YA these days. She dreams of one day seeing the ocean and is even willing to give up the supposed love of her life to do so. I just wish the supporting characters were fleshed out a little more.
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