Bookalicious

Review: The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

People have recommend that I read Carrie Ryan’s” The Forest of Hands and Teeth for some time now. I was always hesitant stating the fact that I dislike zombies, and flesh eating, and rotting corpses and really anything undead that isn’t a vampire. Finally in search of a great book to read and after watching the trailer 50 times over the past few months (this book should really be a movie) I ordered the book and it came in the mail yesterday. I was immediately swept up in Mary’s story and feeling claustrophobic with her as she lived her life fenced in her small village ran by religious zealots.

Carrie Ryan created a world many generations after the zombie apocalypse (hey we all know its coming with all the wonky stuff they are doing in labs now) and what life is like for the few who survived the initial outbreak.

Mary’s Mother told her there was an ocean with water full of salt as far as you could see. No one else in the village save for Mary believes these tales and when Mary is forced with the decisions pressured on her by her circumstances. Who to marry, to become a sister, or to run on a new path to find the ocean she is hit with many hardships with all her choices.

I gave this 4 out of 5 stars only because I wish we would have learned more of the secrets along the way. So many things were hinted about but left open. Maybe that is resolved in the next book which seems to pick up with Mary’s daughter possibly from the description.

THE DEAD-TOSSED WAVES

Coming March 2010

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 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.

Gabry knows only one thing: if she is to have any hope of a future, she must face the forest of her mother’s past.

Tags: carrie ryan, Teen, teen fiction, the forest of hands and teeth, YA, ya fiction, zombie

This entry was posted on Friday, November 20th, 2009 at 12:16 pm and is filed under Fantasy, Reviews, Teen. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Review: The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

To be quite honest I had never heard of this book until I saw the trailer linked from Twitter in reference to the moving coming out next month. After watching the trailer I said to myself “wow that had to have been a book first”, a little tiny search on Yahoo brought up a plethora of results and I am happy to say that Sebold’s book is the second I purchased on my Sony Pocket Reader. I tore through this book in a day, staying up into the night to finish it. It brought me out of my funk of not reading after having the baby and put me back on track. I am so happy to have read the book before watching the movie.

The story follows fourteen year old Susie Salmon from her after life as she deals with her rape and brutal murder. She resents being killed and wishes her murder to be brought to justice. She also wishes to relive her first kiss and have many more, she wishes of course to have grown up. We watch her family crumble under the pressure of having a child murdered, her school friends grow up without her. How everything evolves except for Susie who is stuck just watching waiting for her murder to be captured.

This is a lovely story that will keep you on the edge of your seat, and will also make sure you lose some sleep due to the fact you cannot put the book down. Don’t watch the film without buying a copy first!

Tags: Fiction, murder, susie salmon, Teen, the lovely bones, the lovely bones book, the lovely bones movie, YA, young adult

This entry was posted on Monday, November 16th, 2009 at 4:53 pm and is filed under Fiction, Reviews, Teen. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Review: Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Thirteen Reasons Why follows Clay who is listening to outdated tapes from a suicide victim he went to school with. The girl Hannah who made these tapes sent the box to the first person who she wanted to listen and then committed suicide. I really wanted to like this book because so many reviews and people I spoke with did but I couldn’t help the fact that I couldn’t stand any of the characters. Clay for being too wussy to talk to Hannah, and Hannah for blaming everyone else for her problems. Things that shouldn’t have happened and that were not great in her life, but also things she set herself up for, even on purpose towards the end. The book never said how Hannah ended her life but there was a lot of speculation. A lot of girls deal with worse things than Hannah in high school and live productive normal lives, I guess I just expected if this girl was going to end her life and be dramatic by sending tapes to everyone on the list that something life changing might have happened. I am the first to love the books that deal with tough issues for teens. Wintergirls from Laurie Halse Anderson is one of my favorite reads of the year. She however makes the situation grave enough so that these are extreme cases. This book gives the air of “Oh so that was a tough year in school it sucked, kill yourself and do something really cool while you do that!” Hannah blames her counselor for not running after her, why did she leave if she truly wanted help? I found Hannah’s reasoning annoying and her reasons not good enough. This being said, the writing style is amazing and I love the different fonts for when Hannah is talking and Clay is talking or thinking. If you like Wintergirls or Speak then you may want to pick this up.

Tags: Fiction, jay asher, suicide, Teen, teen suicide, thirteen reasons why, YA, young adult

This entry was posted on Monday, November 16th, 2009 at 8:43 am and is filed under Fiction, Reviews, Teen. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Pitch Black: Are you a lover, fighter or a biter?

Harper Teen Publishing has this really cool site Pitch Black for their paranormal YA books. Most of you have probably seen it before but it has been revamped and updated with more titles. You can take quizzes on your favorite novels and find out how easily a vamp can sink his teeth into you… for me I am an idiot loner who doesn’t pay attention… aka vamp bait!

So check it out and let me know if you are more clever than I am, or if you are vamp bait also!

Tags: biter, Fiction, fight, harper, harper teen, lover, Paranormal, pitch black, Teen, YA

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 29th, 2009 at 2:01 pm and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.