This third novel in the Forest Of Hands and Teeth series is a marvellous expansion on this terrifying world from Carrie Ryan.
From the blurb;
'Annah knows she has a twin sister, but she forgot her long ago. Back when they went to play in the Forest of Hands and Teeth, she and Elias lost her, and after that there was no going back to the village.
'Life's been hard, but Elias has taken care of her, and living in the Dark City can help one to forget the horror of the Unconsecrated - if you try hard enough.
'But when Elias disappears, Annah's world crumbles. To her, life isn't worth much more than the walking dead who roam the wasted world she lives in. It;s not until she meets Catcher that she cares enough to start living again.
'Yet Catcher has secrets. Dark, terrifying secrets that link him to a past she has longed to forget and a future too deadly to consider.
'Annah must decide: Can she continue to live in a world covered in the blood of the living?
'Or is death the answer to all her problems?'
Finally dropping us into the Dark City hinted at in second novel The Dead-Tossed Waves, Ryan brings us a much grander scale of human civilization in this apocalyptic world, and a new cast of characters to show us around it.
Unlike previous main characters Mary and Gabry, Annah is hard worn. She has already survived her ordeal and is now going through life trying to escape the past that bites at her heels. It is only when faced with the reality she longed to forget that Annah must go through a far more tragically human struggle than her predecessors within the series.
Of course Ryan does not stray too far from the zombie nightmares that have made this series an intense survival adventure throughout, and it is not long before their ravenous effects on the small surviving human population begin to take tole.
Ryan reveals a little more of the mystery of this world throughout The Dark and Hollow Places, allowing us to piece together some of the larger picture, but still entices us with questions and mysteries which lay hanging over this series and make us want to read more.
As with The Dead-Tossed Waves Ryan gifts us with some returning cast members, connecting the blank spaces that lie between the novels, and drawing all three books together.
The Dark and Hollow Places adds to the fear factor as Ryan explores the dark underbelly of humanity grouped into a survival gauntlet. In this novel the enemy is both living and dead, leaving little safety for Annah or for the reader to find rest in.
Ryan's ability to keep readers at the edge of their seat while crafting a fresh premise on zombie survival stories makes The Dark and Hollow Places a marvel to read that will nor disappoint fans of the series so far.
We Give The Dark and Hollow Places Four Stars
ISBN - 978-0-575-09485-7
Cover Price - £7.99 First published in Great Britain in 2011 by Gollancz
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