The Dark and Hollow Places by Carrie Ryan (CBR-III #40)

Cannonball Read III: Book #40/52
Published: 2011
Pages: 352 (16,353 total pages so far)
Genre: Young Adult/Zombie

Previous books in this series:

The Forest of Hands and Teeth

The Dead-Tossed Waves

***Possible spoilers if you haven't read the first two books***

This is the third book in this teen zombie trilogy. I normally don't care for zombie stories, so I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed these books. I think they actually progressively got better too. In this third book, we follow Annah, Gabry's long-lost twin from the last book. She and Gabry got separated in the Forest of Hands and Teeth as children and Annah ended up scraping by in the Dark City with Elias (also from the last book).

They also really amped it up with a love QUADRANGLE instead of the love triangles we found in the first two books. It's also vaguely annoying and full of teen angst, but the story and plot are good enough to make up for it. Early in the book, Annah reunites with her twin as well as Catcher and Elias just as the Dark City is infiltrated by a massive hourde of the undead.

I thought this book did a great job of tying together the trilogy. I actually think it was my favorite of the three. There seems to be less teenage love drama and more suspense and action in each book. I also like how each book took place in a totally different environment, but still tied together key characters. It kept the series from getting too monotonous. Overall, a good read.

The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan (CBR-III #39)

Cannonball Read III: Book #39/52
Published: 2010
Pages: 416 (16,001 total pages so far)
Genre: Young Adult/Zombie

Previous books in this series:

The Forest of Hands and Teeth

***Possible spoilers if you haven't read the first book***

This is more of a companion novel to The Forest of Hands and Teeth than an outright sequel. It follows Gabry, the daughter of the heroine from the first novel (Mary). In the last book, Mary made it to the ocean after travelling on the mysterious paths through the forest full of the undead. We find out here that she ended up staying in the oceanside village of Vista and now lives in and runs the lighthouse and kills the Unconsecrated (or Mudos, as they're called in Vista) as they wash up on the beach during high tide.

Her daughter Gabry is a teenager who is terrified of ever leaving the fenced in city. However, most teenagers are dumb and easily swayed by boys so she gets talked into sneaking out one night with her friends by Catcher. Catcher (dumb as his name may be) is Gabry's best friend's brother. He's Boy #1 in our required YA novel love triangle. The sneaking out plan goes awry and several of the teens get bitten by Mudos, including Catcher. Gabry ends up escaping.

A few days later, Gabry ends up sneaking back outside the gates to find Catcher, hoping that he didn't actually get bitten and escaped. During this outing, she meets Boy #2 in our love triangle, Elias. Of course he's mysterious and sexy, blah blah.

I actually did like this book, although I could have did without the nauseating love drama. It was pretty bad. This is an actual quote from the book: "His words explode inside me, touching fire along my veins and spiraling into my heart." Ugh. We're bordering on Twilight territory here. I just think these books are better than that -- like they were going for The Hunger Games and the editor told them to just add a little more Stephenie Meyer to appeal to the pre-teens.

I loved how they tied this trilogy together. Instead of being just continuations of the previous books, they follow different characters who have tie-ins to previous characters. The third book in the trilogy is the same way and looks really promising. I think that also helps me stomach the love triangle when I don't have to read about it for three straight books.

Overall, the story is really great if you overlook the teenage romance parts. It moves quickly and the action starts right from the beginning. I love the mystery and the tension in these books and will definitely be picking up the third in the series.

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan (CBR-III #28)

Cannonball Read III: Book #28/52
Published: 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.