The Dead-Tossed Waves is the second in a trilogy of books by the lovely Carrie Ryan. Her debut, The Forest of Hands and Teeth, was a random recommendation to me last year when I was searching for something new to wet my reading palette. And as I’m generally wary of first-time authors, not much into horror, and rather icked out by zombies I was never more surprised to find I rather enjoyed it. It’s not without its issues, but it sparked a genuine curiosity to see where the story would go.
Having recently read The Hunger Games I’m more acutely aware of how strange a combination having first-person perspective told in the present-tense in a young adult novel is.1 Ryan manages this rather obscure technique quite adeptly, but I still find it an adjustment to make when reading. Once moving past this, though, I found this sophomore effort quite masterfully written. Ryan’s style has an almost antique feel to it that gives her world a rustic quality that is both beautiful and fraught with peril.
While this is not a direct sequel to The Forest of Hands and Teeth, many of the lingering questions raised from the previous book are answered. However, this being the middle of three separate books, there is even more left hanging at the end. That in itself is not a bother to me, but the fact that so much of this book’s plot seems recycled from its predecessor did unnerve me a bit. I’ve long since grown weary of the often used love-triangle angle, and since this is a big plot point of the first book I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at its nearly identical usage here. That isn’t to say the characters in this book are just recycled elements; Gabry in particular is nothing like Mary which may actually be a weakness in some cases. I’m never more happy to read about strong, empowered female characters . . . and while other characters in the book seem to claim this of Gabry, I’ll have to agree with her on this one: she isn’t. And even when she starts to seem like she is a few paragraphs later she’s back to sniveling and wanting to run away or blaming herself for, well, everything. I give her the grace at least to assume there’s an arc planned, but if it was in this book I clearly missed it.
The most refreshing element of this second book is the deeper mythology Ryan has created with her zombie world. Many of the more peculiar elements from the first book are explored in further detail, explanations are given and histories are revealed. Much like the characters, the reader is shown that there is far more than a tiny village lost in the Forest and that there is indeed a vast, and possibly intricate, world beyond. Frankly, the enormity of it all is almost horrifying, which just adds to the thrill of the book. And, lest I forget to mention it, all this is accomplished without relying on being overtly gory as so many other horror writers do. Since I’m easily squicked out, I can’t begin to express how much this pleases me.
Yet, I have to admit, I still can’t fully determine my feelings on this “companion” novel. In some ways I feel it’s lacking in comparison to the first book and in others I feel that it truly surpasses it. And the more I go round-and-round about it, the more confused my thoughts seem to get. I do think Ryan has only grown as a writer and my personal appeal for the book is no doubt due to this. However, I can’t quite shake my irritation at the repetition present. So, mostly I’m just focusing on the inevitable third book that wraps all this up.
1. It should be noted this issue has little to do with The Hunger Games (which is an awesome series I think everyone should read), but most probably entirely the fault of Mark since he’s the one who brought it up and thus made me so vividly aware of it.
