The Dead-Tossed Waves, Book 2

Title: The Dead-Tossed Waves - Book 2
Series: The Forest of Hands and Teeth
Author: Carrie Ryan
Publication: March 9, 2010

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.


Amber's Review:


Well, she's done it again. Left me completely numb. Still trying to absorb everything I read, felt, and now want from the third book. I wish I new how to put my emotions toward this series into words. I don't know how to explain why I love it so much. I've seen people rate it like me with 4 and 5 stars. But then I've seen it rated as a 2 or a 3. Maybe I'm just looking too deeply into this series, but I would rate it higher than what I did if I could. The only other books I would do that for are The Hunger Games and Fever! So what is it that takes my breath away?

I just can't explain it. The turmoil that her characters go through... It's about life and choices, and love and regret, and pushing forward when everything around you is miserably falling apart, when all you want to do is lie down and close your eyes and let it all just silently slip away. It's about learning how to stand on your own two feet, and be strong and fight for everything you believe in. It probably has more substance and meaning than any other YA/PNR book I've ever read, other than The Hunger Games.

This book was amazing. I was captivated from the first page. No, really. The first page. There is just something about Carrie Ryan that draws you in so deeply. She is the essence of what a storyteller truly is. She's the one who could keep fifty kids completely hypnotized for hours around a campfire with only her words. Her writing style is just that mesmerizing to me. Ryan knows exactly which emotions to play on to keep you completely absorbed in the story. She has a way of making you actually feel the pain of the characters, hear the hurt in their voices, see the hope in their eyes. When I read her work, I feel like I'm there. It's so descriptive, I could honestly get it confused with a movie I watched rather than thinking of it as a book I read. Her imagery is that vivid.

In The Dead-Tossed Waves, we get to know more about the characters from the first book in the series, but they aren't the focus of the story this time. The new characters are connected to them in intriguing ways, which left my head spinning and my fingers itching to get the next book in my hands. The characters were amazing. They had flaws. Big ones. They had fears and made huge mistakes. They were real, not some make-believe perfection that comes swooping in to save the day like in so many YA books nowadays. Their actions were believable and left me feeling like I know them. Like we could have been friends.

In this second book, past secrets are brought to the surface, old friends thought long ago forgotten are not gone afterall, and the connections between them all left me saying No way! and  I want more! I love excitement, action, mystery, love and loss, and this series has it all and so much more. It takes an amazing author to make you feel like you've lost something and gained something at the same time once you close the book. Carry Ryan accomplishes that and much more with this series. I definitely recommend it as a Must Read!