Review: The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan

The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan








Goodreads description:

Gabry lives a quiet life, secure in her town next to the sea and behind the Barrier. She's content to let her friends dream of the Dark City up the coast while she watches from the top of her lighthouse. Home is all she's ever known and, and all she needs for happiness.

But life after the Return is never safe and there are threats even the Barrier can't hold back.

Gabry's mother thought she left her secrets behind in the Forest of Hands and Teeth, but, like the dead in their world, secrets don't stay buried. And now, Gabry's world is crumbling.

One night beyond the Barrier . . .
One boy Gabry's known forever and one veiled in mystery . . .
One reckless moment, and half of Gabry's generation is dead, the other half imprisoned.

Now Gabry knows only one thing: if she has any hope of a future, she must face the forest of her mother's past. 

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I wanted to love this book. I wanted it to be incredible. Unfortunately, in the end, I'm really torn with rating this book. I overlooked some of the flaws in the first novel, The Forest of Hands and Teeth, because it was a first novel and I thought there was so much that was compelling and unique. But many of the flaws of the first book were repeated in this one.

This book seemed like a repeat in many ways of the first novel. The same plot in many ways, the same use of a love triangle, the same type of inner dialogue from the main character. It just felt like Ryan re-wrote the first novel with new characters and situations. There wasn't a lot of NEW stuff here. Which is sad. Occasionally, new stuff would come up but then be left out there with no exploration. I just think it was sad and ultimately took away from the book.

All of this to say, I still enjoyed the novel. It kept my attention but I didn't LOVE it as I'd hoped. I felt like the love triangle in particular was really badly done and made me roll my eyes a few times.

To be fair, I love that Carrie Ryan has created a world of Zombies for GIRLS! That is very cool. Very unique! And it will probably have me reading the next book as well. I really want to love her books!!! I'm not giving up them yet!

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