Pop Culture Curmudgeon

Book Review: The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan

I was so excited to read The Dead-Tossed Waves. I had been desperate to find out what happened to Mary after she made out of the forest at the end of The Forest of Hands and Teeth. So, I went immediately to the library when they emailed that it was in.

But I got the fear when I sat down with it and noticed that it was a “companion” to the previous novel. And sure enough, it opened with a whole new main character in a whole new location. And, in this book, the characters know much more about the zombies and their place in the world around them, so it offers a much more expansive universe than Forest did.

Of course, Carrie Ryan sucked me into this new character’s story almost immediately, and soon enough I could see how it meshed with Forest. Mary was there, as were some of the other characters from the previous book. They were just older, because this book takes place a few years later.

The main character, Gabry, is placed immediately into danger as one ill-advised trip out into the unprotected area ends in tragedy for her and her friends. Her fear and weakness play a large role in what went wrong, and she spends much of the rest of the book beating herself up for one small mistake.

Her mistake changes her relationship with her childhood love, Catcher, in a way that she isn’t sure she can overcome. Then when she meets a newcomer, Elias, she isn’t sure she wants it to go back to the way it was. Ryan treats this love triangle with care and respect so it never feels trite and you aren’t sure until the end who Gabry will choose.

After my initial disappointment that Mary wasn’t the central character, I quickly became enthralled with this book. I recommend it highly. Buy it from Amazon or Powells.

I haven’t heard anything new about the movie adaptation of the first book, but you can stay up to date on there here or at Carrie Ryan’s site.

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