The Dead-Tossed Waves

February 15, 2010
Ryan returns with a companion to her critically acclaimed debut, The Forest of Hands and Teeth,
which functions as something of a retelling of that story, albeit with a different protagonist. Gabry lives in the seaside town of Vista, the same place that Mary landed at the end of the previous book. Like Mary's former village, Vista is carefully protected from the Mudo (the Unconsecrated), zombielike humans constantly seeking people to infect. After a reckless nighttime adventure with her friends turns tragic, Gabry avoids punishment, but can't escape the changes to and revelations about her life that quickly mount. Like its predecessor, this book features a breach of the town, an escape into the Forest, a love triangle, the ever-present and inexhaustible Mudo, and an extraordinarily bleak mood. But it also offers an expansion of postapocalyptic detail (including the Recruiters, a militant, policelike organization that hunts and brutalizes as much as it tries to protect) and a few inspired surprises. Despite the books' similarities, readers are sure to be hooked, as this novel also retains Ryan's gripping storytelling style and engaging prose. Ages 14–up.

March 1, 2010
Grades 9-12 The Forest of Hands of and Teeth (2009) spliced classic zombie mythos into a world that was one part postapocalypse and one part colonial America and drove the plot with a healthy surge of teen hormones. This companion piece, which features some returning characters in minor roles, involves another discontented young woman, Gabry. Life within her walled town is shattered when a group of her friends step past the border and are attacked by the Mudo (thats zombies to you and me). A series of calamities results in a third act much like the one in Forest: Gabry flees through an unknown wilderness with companions including potential new paramour Elias and former crush Catcher, who may be immune to the Mudos bite. Though her reliance on sentence fragments is a bit irksome, Ryan knows how to put together an action scene; the final pages are especially thrilling. Savvy readers may scoff at the constant lusting going on amid the carnage, but fans of Forest will be happy to find a familiar flesh-eating formula.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)