The Violet Hour

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Waiting on Wednesday 3/30

I'm super late on getting this posted, but ya know, life happens!

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

Teaser & Tune In Tuesday

Tune in Tuesday is hosted by Ginger @ GReads. I really love finding out what everyone's 'song of the moment' is, so you should join up!

I'm doing this one first, so that you can push play, and have something to listen to while you check out my entry for Teaser Tuesday. Aren't I a gem? =)

Review – The Dead-Tossed Waves

The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan

Hardcover, 407 pages

Published: March 9th 2010 by Delacorte Books for Young Readers

more details…

ISBN

0385736843 (ISBN13: 9780385736848)

Primary language: English

Original title: The Dead-Tossed Waves (The Forest of Hands and Teeth, #2)

Series The Forest of Hands and Teeth #2
Purchase from Amazon

GoodReads says: “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.”

My thoughts: Holy WOW! Talk about an emotional roller coaster! These books are killing me in that ‘hurts so good’ way.

Ryan’s writing in this second installment is just as superb as the first. These books are very depressing, but when the characters were able to let their guard down it was so lovely and intense. I was pulled into this world and FELT a little like I was there. I LOVE books like this!

I loved the contrast between Mary (from the first book) and Gabry. In the Forest of Hands and Teeth we saw Mary as headstrong and focused, but torn between what she had been taught her whole life by the Sisterhood, and the ocean her that mother told her was just beyond the Forest. Mary raises Gabry without any knowledge of her life in the Forest, even though some of her quirks and habits drive Gabry to be ashamed of her. Gabry, on the other hand, was content in Vista. She had her mother, the lighthouse, Cira…and Catcher. (Ohhh, Catcher. This kid broke my heart. Big time.) She never had to question life or if there was more out there. Her life was safe, and the biggest problem Gabry thought she had was figuring out how to kiss a boy.

The night Gabry broke the Barrier with her friends, she and Catcher share their kiss near the roller coaster… and that moment is a pinpoint for her throughout the rest of the book. At every turn Gabry is faced with something terrible, and any hope she may have had is destroyed. She thinks that if they could only go back to that moment she could make everything okay. She yearns for something, anything to make world to stop spinning, to make it all go back to the way it was before she crossed the Barrier; a wish, a kiss. It’s absolutely gut-wrenching to watch as she realizes that life will never return to what it once was.

Another character I really enjoyed was Elias. Dark, mysterious, guarded, pained. He saves Gabry on the other beach when she first goes after Catcher. There is a recogniztion there that we don’t understand until quite a bit later in the story. When the proverbial bomb is dropped on Gabry and we find out Elias’ part in this revelation, the guilt he has carried for years is almost unbearable to fathom.

We see their relationship build, as Gabry’s relationship with Catcher diminishes. She struggles to figure out the feelings she has for both. While it is technically a ‘love triangle’, it isn’t like one you see in a lot of books right now. There is a condition to it that cannot be changed. One that forces two of them apart.

Although the ending made me cry, I feel like Gabry came out as her own person. She’d found who she was looking for, had felt loss, found her courage, and found love. I feel like they all had found just a sliver of hope. Love. They’d made it through the Forest of Hands and Teeth, some more than once. If they can do that, they can do anything. And that gives me so much hope for them.

5 out of 5 stars

On to The Dark and Hollow Places!