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naomi_jayIt really is impossible for me to discuss this book without spoilers, so ware!
Also, this isn't the cover my copy has. There appear to be about a million different covers for this book depending what part of the world you're in and whether you have a hardback or paperback. Anyway, this is the cover I like best. My copy has a really boring Twilight-esque cover with a leaf on it, which is just ... unimpressive. I think the cover model here looks like Mary, and it's all moody and bleak, which fits the book perfectly. So, onwards!
Except... um, where to start? I've been wanting to read this book for months because ZOMBIESOMG!!! But for the first half of the book, zombies are in short supply. Our setting is thus: It's some (undetermined) time after the Return (read: zombie apocalypse). Mary is a teenaged girl living in a village at the centre of the Forest of Hands and Teeth. As far as anyone knows, this village is the last bastion of humanity; all else is the Unconsecrated (read: zombies). The village is controlled by the Sisterhood, a shadowy religious order who maintain order in the village. Mary is disenchanted with life in the village and dreams of escape.
As the story starts, Mary has lost her father to thezombies Unconsecrated, and her mother spends her days wandering by the fences surrounding the village, hoping for a glimpse of him. Mary is being courted by her childhood friend Harry, but secretly loves his brother Travis, who seems to be courting her best friend, Cass, even though Travis loves Mary and Cass loves Harry, apparently. Keep up, guys.
Anyway. Mary's mother is attacked and infected by thezombies Unconsecrated, and chooses to join them in the Forest rather than be killed by the villagers, which I guess is fair enough. Mary's brother and wife refuse to take Mary in following her mother's death, so she's sent to live with the Sisterhood. This triggers a series of events that eventually lead to the second half of the book, where we get Unconsecrated zombies.
The first half of the book is ... difficult. It's really a coming-of-age yarn where Mary contemplates her destiny and tests her boundaries with the Sisterhood whilst mooning after Travis. Although thezombies Unconsecrated are a constant backdrop to life in the village, they don't really bother anyone or do anything except moan and shake the fences. You could easily remove them from the first half of the book without really damaging the plot; this could be, for example, a tale of Colonial America. It's the arrival of Gabrielle, an Outsider who's smuggled into the village and imprisoned by the Sisterhood, that really sparks off the action part of the plot. Mary is fascinated by Gabrielle, who is living proof that there is life beyond the village. But before she can talk to the other girl, Gabrielle shows up outside the fence as one of the zombies Unconsecrated. Apparently the Sisterhood decided to kill off Gabrielle, although it's never revealed why. They also apparently decided to do some kind of isolation experiment on her first which result in her being faster and more resilient than the other zombies Unconsecrated, although again, it's never revealed why. In fact, it's never revealed why the Sisterhood do anything they do, including supressing the knowledge of other pockets of survivors, which leads me to conclude that they're all simply bitches.
Anyway. After Gabrielle becomesa zombie Unconsecrated, the village is overrun by the zombies Unconsecrated, and Mary and an ever-diminishing band of survivors are forced to flee the village. This is where the true zombie Unconsecrated action begins, and there are some awesome moments, such as Mary finding a zombie Unconsecrated baby in an abandoned house and dropping it out of a window, which is just kickass. There are also plenty of character twists and turns once our gang is out in the Forest, and lots of shocking revelations and moments of discovery and so forth. Which is great. Mostly.
Except for Mary. I mean, she's not a horrible character. She makes some odd choices, but she's not a bitch or a Mary Sue or an idiot. She's ... odd. Take her love for Travis, for example. She tells us plenty that she loves him and he loves her, but it's not demonstrated very well in the text. There's no reason for their love, no reason why, if they are so in love, they don't bloody say something about it, instead of making themselves, Harry, and Cass miserable about it for half the book. *deep breath* And frankly, once Mary and Travis do get it on, neither of them are any happier for it, so ... so what? In the end, I had to decide to treat Mary as an unreliable narrator because I couldn't entirely trust her perceptions of the other characters. She's unreasonably down on Harry, who proves himself to be competant, compassionate, brave, and capable. In contrast, she's unreasonably up on Travis at first, even though he demonstrates no skills beyond limping around and he lies to her about running away with her before their engagements to Harry and Cass. He doesn't give her many reasons to believe in his love for her, yet she repeatedly insists they have a magical speshul bond. Of course, this is, we are lead to believe, mostly denial on Mary's part, because what she truly wants from life isn't Travis, or even love. It's freedom. Except then Travis dies and she realises that, no, she did want him after all. The moral of the story, kids, is settle for what you've got, okay?
She's so focused on her own goal of leaving the Forest that she ignores the wellbeing of the others and keeps information from them for no reason beyond "I didn't want to tell them. " In short, she's a frustrating narrator. If you're going to read this book, I suggest you keep in mind from the start that Mary's viewpoint is often flawed. Maybe this was a deliberate choice by Ryan? I don't know. I'm not sure what it was supposed to achieve if that was the case, beyond making me want to reach in the pages and choke Mary soundly.
I will say that the payoff for the novel is brilliant, and the reoccurring theme of the ocean is lovely and works very well. The worldbuilding was a little thin for my liking. Look, if you're going to give me a zombie novel, give me more zombies, that's all I'm saying. The navel-gazing coming-of-age finding-myself stuff is fine, but throw in some more full-on zombie-fighting like we get in the last chapter or so. It's what the people want! Will I read the sequel, The Dead-Tossed Waves? I don't know. I'm already having some trouble with the title, which I think should be The Wave-Tossed Dead, since the waves are tossing the dead rather than the dead tossing the waves, you know? But that's pedantic. I'm really not sure whether I want to read it. I liked TFOHAT - I even liked Mary, despite my misgivings. But I need more zombies.
Except... um, where to start? I've been wanting to read this book for months because ZOMBIESOMG!!! But for the first half of the book, zombies are in short supply. Our setting is thus: It's some (undetermined) time after the Return (read: zombie apocalypse). Mary is a teenaged girl living in a village at the centre of the Forest of Hands and Teeth. As far as anyone knows, this village is the last bastion of humanity; all else is the Unconsecrated (read: zombies). The village is controlled by the Sisterhood, a shadowy religious order who maintain order in the village. Mary is disenchanted with life in the village and dreams of escape.
As the story starts, Mary has lost her father to the
Anyway. Mary's mother is attacked and infected by the
The first half of the book is ... difficult. It's really a coming-of-age yarn where Mary contemplates her destiny and tests her boundaries with the Sisterhood whilst mooning after Travis. Although the
Anyway. After Gabrielle becomes
Except for Mary. I mean, she's not a horrible character. She makes some odd choices, but she's not a bitch or a Mary Sue or an idiot. She's ... odd. Take her love for Travis, for example. She tells us plenty that she loves him and he loves her, but it's not demonstrated very well in the text. There's no reason for their love, no reason why, if they are so in love, they don't bloody say something about it, instead of making themselves, Harry, and Cass miserable about it for half the book. *deep breath* And frankly, once Mary and Travis do get it on, neither of them are any happier for it, so ... so what? In the end, I had to decide to treat Mary as an unreliable narrator because I couldn't entirely trust her perceptions of the other characters. She's unreasonably down on Harry, who proves himself to be competant, compassionate, brave, and capable. In contrast, she's unreasonably up on Travis at first, even though he demonstrates no skills beyond limping around and he lies to her about running away with her before their engagements to Harry and Cass. He doesn't give her many reasons to believe in his love for her, yet she repeatedly insists they have a magical speshul bond. Of course, this is, we are lead to believe, mostly denial on Mary's part, because what she truly wants from life isn't Travis, or even love. It's freedom. Except then Travis dies and she realises that, no, she did want him after all. The moral of the story, kids, is settle for what you've got, okay?
She's so focused on her own goal of leaving the Forest that she ignores the wellbeing of the others and keeps information from them for no reason beyond "I didn't want to tell them. " In short, she's a frustrating narrator. If you're going to read this book, I suggest you keep in mind from the start that Mary's viewpoint is often flawed. Maybe this was a deliberate choice by Ryan? I don't know. I'm not sure what it was supposed to achieve if that was the case, beyond making me want to reach in the pages and choke Mary soundly.
I will say that the payoff for the novel is brilliant, and the reoccurring theme of the ocean is lovely and works very well. The worldbuilding was a little thin for my liking. Look, if you're going to give me a zombie novel, give me more zombies, that's all I'm saying. The navel-gazing coming-of-age finding-myself stuff is fine, but throw in some more full-on zombie-fighting like we get in the last chapter or so. It's what the people want! Will I read the sequel, The Dead-Tossed Waves? I don't know. I'm already having some trouble with the title, which I think should be The Wave-Tossed Dead, since the waves are tossing the dead rather than the dead tossing the waves, you know? But that's pedantic. I'm really not sure whether I want to read it. I liked TFOHAT - I even liked Mary, despite my misgivings. But I need more zombies.
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Warning: comment contains spoilers...
on 2010-05-18 02:54 pm (UTC)I may pick up the sequel eventually, even though it apparently takes place years after the first novel. I dunno...
Re: Warning: comment contains spoilers...
on 2010-05-18 03:03 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2010-05-18 04:23 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2010-05-18 06:22 pm (UTC)