Book Review Wednesday: The Dead Tossed Waves (Forest of Hands and Teeth 2) by Carrie Ryan

Here’s a link to my review for the first book in this series: https://samaustinwriter.wordpress.com/2014/03/26/book-review-we…-teeth-5-stars/

Years have passed and we have a new pov character who this book is about, Mary’s daughter. So don’t come into this book all amped up from Forest of Hands and Teeth, expecting to see more of Mary’s adventures. Though we do hear about a few of them.

I knew going into it that this was about a new character with a whole new story, but it still felt like there was this huge gap. I wanted to know what happened to the others from the first book. There was so much going on and it just ended. Gah.

As some small consolation we do get to find out some of what Mary has been up to these past years. I guess it’s just something to add to the heartbreak of the first book. Mary didn’t get a happy ending. She found the place she dreamed about, but she lost her family. She couldn’t have both.

Though I still don’t understand why she couldn’t find them. She knew those fences better than anyone. So how could they find their way around in there and she couldn’t?

Well. Moving on. Once I (mostly) got over the broken pieces from the last book staying broken, I started to enjoy this one. There’s a lot to like. The parallells between the stories is pretty cool. The first book is about a bold girl in a timid community. She knows what she wants, and when she gets the chance she goes to get it.

The second book is about a timid girl in a relatively bold community. She’s the last one behind the kids when they sneak out. She doesn’t know what she wants. It takes her life crashing down around her to force her to get out of her comfort zone and find out.

Here’s the blurb:

Gabry lives a quiet life. As safe a life as is possible in a town trapped between a forest and the ocean, in a world teeming with the dead, who constantly hunger for those still living. She’s content on her side of the Barrier, happy to let her friends dream of the Dark City up the coast while she watches from the top of her lighthouse. But there are threats the Barrier cannot hold back. Threats like the secrets Gabry’s mother thought she left behind when she escaped from the Sisterhood and the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Like the cult of religious zealots who worship the dead. Like the stranger from the forest who seems to know Gabry. And suddenly, everything is changing. One reckless moment, and half of Gabry’s generation is dead, the other half imprisoned. Now Gabry only knows one thing: she must face the forest of her mother’s past in order to save herself and the one she loves.

We get to find out a bit more about the world of Forest of Hands and Teeth – outside of the actual forest. There are people who worship the dead and do really creepy rituals that give me the heebie jeebies just thinking about them. I don’t think I’d want to join their group.

There’s also a creepy army type group that spend a large proportion of this book chasing around our main characters which consist of: timid main pov girl, her crush, his sister who happens to be her best friend, and mysterious guy who doesn’t talk a lot but stares a whole heck of a lot. He starts off creepy as well, but grows on her and the reader as the book goes on.

So, a whole lot of creepy people in one book. Well, it is a zombie book I guess.

The writing itself is pretty and smooth. The characters are interesting, the plot action packed, and the world building is beyond interesting. The pure scale of the dead is horrifying, but it does make sense. If most of the world died and turned into zombies – the type of zombies that could go about their shambling way for decades – then you could have millions of dead with only a very small percentage of living people left.

Not a good world to take a stroll anywhere. Though the fenced forest paths from the first book seem safer than most and make another big appearance this book.

This book did have another love triangle. I hate love triangles. I did have to grit my teeth a couple times, but the love triangle in this book was relatively free of woe, manipulation and whining. Not completely free, but more or less.

(The love thing was actually kind of confusing. She starts off with a solid crush on one guy, while the other guy is dubbed creepy. She gives up her life to save her crush. Then comes the developing attraction for now not so creepy guy which leads to ‘which one’ feelings. Then comes her decision which seems to be out of the blue and made up in less than a second.)

There are a lot of brilliant moments that make gritting your teeth through love triangles worth it. There’s one moment at the very end where our girl and the (guy she didn’t choose) have to do something that I can’t explain fully because of spoilers. But it needed her to trust him with her life – literally. One wrong move from him, or her – even a tiny slip – and she would be dead. My heart was hammering reading that bit. So good.

For more reviews on this book go to: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6555517-the-dead-tossed-waves?from_search=true&search_version=service

Free Book

For the next five days my book ‘Moon Madness’ will be free on amazon. So if you want a taste of werewolves, comedy, and sarcastic, hyperactive teenagers, head on over to: here

A human raised by werewolves struggles to find his place in the world.

Heir to the biggest werewolf pack in England, and still human at seventeen, Roy has to face the idea that he may never turn and take on the role he’s been raised for. But that doesn’t mean he’s going to act the passive human. No way.

So when the last of their friends turns, and turns his back on them, Roy decides this is it. Their last chance to see what werewolf training is like. Dragging Clem; his last unturned friend along for the ride they sneak into the depths of the New Forest where the newly turned struggle to control their bloodthirsty instincts.

Bad idea. Really really bad idea.

Moon madness is around seven thousand words of paranormal humor. It’s the first book in a long line of planned stories exploring Roy’s adventures through the Crystal Wolves world. The next book ‘Blood Trail’ is out now.

Book Review Wednesday: Glitches (The Lunar Chronicles 0.5) by Marissa Meyer (5 stars)

This is another short story in the Lunar Chronicles, set before the events of the first book. For my review of the first novel in this series go to: https://samaustinwriter.wordpress.com/2014/04/02/book-review-we…cinder-5-stars

This is available to read for free! And it’s only 32 pages. So if you’re not sure if you’ll like the world Marissa Meyer created in Cinder, you can read this story first. Neat, huh?

I found the tone a bit darker than the novels. It’s set way back when little Cinder first met her adoptive family. There are so many feels packed into this short story. I’m not sure if it hit me so hard because I read the novel first, so I had that version of the stepmother in my head. I won’t say you have to read it in that order though. I’d imagine reading this first will expand the feels you get reading the novel.

So in the novel the stepmother and the older sister are nasty pieces of work. We get some hints about why they’re so mean toward Cinder but it’s nothing compared to seeing it happen in this story. You see, in this story they start off pretty decent. The stepmother tries, and then things happen that I won’t get into.

It’s so heartbreaking. Cinder is this little girl who can’t remember her past, and all she wants to do is fit in with her new family. Then things happen beyond her control.

If you’ve read the books or are planning on reading the books, then you definitely have to check this story out. It really deepens our insight into the relationship between Cinder and her adoptive family, and it makes her stepmother in particular that much more three dimensional.

For more reviews on this book go to: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13254289-glitches?from_search=true&search_version=service

 

Book Review Wednesday: The Queen’s Army (The Lunar Chronicles 1.5) by Marissa Meyer

This is a short story set in the Lunar Chronicles series. Here’s the link to my review of the first book: https://samaustinwriter.wordpress.com/2014/04/02/book-review-we…cinder-5-stars

If you liked Cinder and plan to (or have already) read Scarlet, then you need to read this short. It follows Wolf; a character introduced in Scarlet. You can read this before or after Scarlet, it doesn’t matter.

Wolf was one of my favorite characters in Scarlet. He’s bad-ass, but also sweet. This 18 page story follows him from a kid taken from his parents to right before the events of the second book. It helps expand his character and give us more insight as to what it’s like living under Levana’s rule.

Last I heard this story’s free to read, so go check it out. For more reviews on this book go to: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16075962-the-queen-s-army

Through the Ever Light (Under the Never Sky) by Veronica Rossi (4 stars)

This is the second book in the Under the Never Sky series. For my review of the first book go to: https://samaustinwriter.wordpress.com/2014/06/04/book-review-we…er-sky-4-stars

You know, I think this book was actually better than the first one. The character’s actions feel more natural in this one, whereas in the first they do a lot of things that seem forced. And while I applaud the author’s decision not to go for insta-love, the two main characters flipped from ‘hate their guts’ to ‘lovey dovey’ way too quickly.

The best thing for me about this sequel was the world building. We get to spend more time with other characters that make our world that much wider since the first spent a lot of time just with the main couple. The interactions between Aria and Perry’s tribe are really interesting, as are her reactions to the rest of the world she explores in this book.

Aria spent a good chunk of this book away from Perry’s side, and went on a quest with Roar. And guess what? She didn’t flop down in despair, not able to function without her guy. She got on with things and grew as a character. Too many books have the girl’s only thoughts being about the guy, and without him they become two-dimensional. She functioned well enough before him, and functions even better afterward because of how he had helped her grow as a person.

To me that’s the definition of a healthy relationship. Each person helps the other face new challenges and become better. If you end up even more useless because of knowing someone, then there’s something wrong with that relationship.

Plus she got to spend time with a male character other than her boyfriend, and they don’t hook up! In fact they form a pretty cool friendship. Finally, an author who believes a guy and a girl can spend time together without it ending in sex (and if they get together in the next book I’m going to be really cross).

The plot is good, and the book is action packed. This book was a fun read, but wasn’t edge of your seat, will stick with you forever kind of thing. There seemed to be something a little off with it (other than the flawed science), so this gets four stars from me instead of five.

For more reviews on this book go to: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13253276-through-the-ever-night