Review - The Dead-Tossed Waves / Carrie Ryan

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.

Review - The much anticipated companion novel to Ryan's debut release, The Forest of Hands and Teeth, left me in a bit of a quandary. Though it was fantastic to rejoin this world thirty years after we left Mary on that beach, The Dead-Tossed Waves seemed forever trying to find its own identify. At times it wanted to be closely correlated with its elder and at other times it wanted to break free. It never seemed to settle. Every few chapters the focus would alter in a somewhat disjointed manner, scrambling to make sense of itself.

In some respects the story mirrored Mary's evolution in the first novel and that's what proves to be most problematic. Love triangles, betrayed friends, an unpleasant antagonist plus a dearth of community bureaucracy and religious zealotry permeate The Dead-Tossed Waves as well. It is just not executed nearly as well. Throw in a secondary story regarding the protagonist's true identity, what initially seems delicately achieved later reveals itself to be a throwaway. The coincidences and the fortunate fate of some fails to ring true. Ultimately this book isn't necessary.

On the other hand, some of the developments that arise from the formerly discussed, clunky story points are fantastic. It is just that the connectives are weak. Elias is a character draped in intrigue and untapped emotions. His interactions with Gabry are consistently the strongest as the character is the mostly strongly motivated. Ideally the whole novel should have been told from his perspective, start to finish. Think about it and you will know I am right.

Mary does appear in the story infrequently. Every time she does pop back into the mix it reminds the reader how much more complex she is than Gabry. Her perspective was a much more interesting place to look through. This book, like it's protagonist, wants to be more than it is but ultimately it is a pale imitation of its predecessor.

Disappointing.

Published: March 9, 2010
Format: Hardback, 407 pages
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Source: purchased
Origin: USA

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