Review: The Dark and Hollow Places

The Dark and Hollow Places by Carrie Ryan
Publishier: Delacorte Books
Pages: 384
Release date: March 22, 2011
Format: Hardcover
Website
Summary (from Good Reads): There are many things that Annah would like to forget: the look on her sister's face before Annah left her behind in the Forest of Hands and Teeth, her first glimpse of the Horde as they swarmed the Dark City, the sear of the barbed wire that would scar her for life. But most of all, Annah would like to forget the morning Elias left her for the Recruiters. Annah's world stopped that day, and she's been waiting for Elias to come home ever since. Somehow, without him, her life doesn't feel much different than the dead that roam the wasted city around her. Until she meets Catcher, and everything feels alive again. But Catcher has his own secrets. Dark, terrifying truths that link him to a past Annah has longed to forget, and to a future too deadly to consider. And now it's up to Annah: can she continue to live in a world covered in the blood of the living? Or is death the only escape from the Return's destruction?

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I loved The Dark and Hollow Places just as much as I loved The Dead-Tossed Waves. There was never a dull moment in this book, and the characters, some who were in The Dead-Tossed Waves, just get better and better.

When it comes to Annah and her twin sister, Abigail (who goes by another name that I won't say, because of spoilers), I have to admit that I like Annah more. She seems tougher, more of a fighter, I think. Annah did have many moments were she felt sorry for herself, and I understood where she was coming from, but it did get annoying after a while. I wanted her to move past it, and she had a hard time doing so. Still, I enjoyed her character so much. I was rooting for her throughout the novel.

The Recruiters play a role in this novel, too, and they are fantastic. They're terrifying and cruel and so well-depicted. I loved seeing their group develop further in The Dark and Hollow Places.

I didn't think about The Dark and Hollow Places after I finished it as much as I thought about The Dead-Tossed Waves when I finished that one, but this trilogy has definitely left an impression on me. I didn't care for the first novel too much, because it seemed like a typical, slow, boring zombie story. But as the story progresses, Carrie Ryan moves away from the zombies and toward the characters of the story and their lives, and in the process, she changes everything I've known about zombie stories. I can't wait to see what Carrie Ryan has in store for us next. I wish it were another novel in The Forest of Hands and Teeth series, but I'm excited to see what other stories she comes up with that may or may not involve zombies.

Overall rating: 5/5

Cover rating: 5/5