The Forest of Hands & Teeth (and sequels)

[★ Jess]

Has anybody read The Forest of Hands and Teeth, The Dead-Tossed Waves and The Dark and Hollow Places by Carrie Ryan?

They are a YA dystopian trilogy...with zombies.
The books have received a lot of mixed reviews. It seems either you love them or hate them. I would love to know what people think of them. Personally, I love the books, I would love to discuss/debate them with other members.
What did you think of the world Ryan creates?
What did you think of the characters? The romance?
Discuss why you enjoyed/disliked them here!

[Ingrid]

I've read the first book . It has been so long, that I can't remember a lot about it.
I remember not being able to get into the second one though. I don't know why though.

[★ Jess]

As soon as I finished the first one, I picked up the second one and ditched it after a couple of pages. I couldnt get into it either.
That was over a month ago...I picked up 'The Dead Tossed Waves' again, and am loving it.
I guess it just needs time in between, since the characters are mostly different.

[Ingrid]

Yes.
Just after I read this, I went to the library and got The Forest of Hands and Teeth. I am going to try again!

[Beatrix]

I read the first book when I first found a goodreads, but before I made an account. I really liked The Forest of Hands and Teeth, and I enjoyed how it was written. I tried rereading the first book to refresh my memory because I wanted to read the sequel, but I couldn't get past the 2 chapter. It just wasn't a rereadable book for me. So instead, I tried diving into Dead Tossed waves. I couldn't get far either. I guess I just lost interest. It's good for readers who like serious narrators. I'm more for a little humor in my books. (:

[Ingrid]

I retried The Forest of Hands and Teeth.
I don't know why, but I didn't like it. It is well written, interesting, the characters are well crafted.
I don't understand why I don't like it.

[Beatrix]

To me, it feels a little choppy, especially with the present tense use of narration. I'm just not use to it, I guess.

[Sophia]

I loved the first book. As soon as possible, I'm going to read the dead tossed waves.

[Randi]

It's definitely an interesting take on zombies, but I couldn't get into the first one and mostly just skimmed it. I want to know what happens in the Dead Tossed Waves, but I'll probably just get the basics from someone who has read it.
I honestly wanted to strangle the narrator by the end. She gets on my nerves. I forgot her name though. It's been a while since I've read The Forest of Hands and Teeth.

[Kate]

If your problem was the narrator, the narrator in the second is a different character.

[Randi]

Really? I might give it a shot then.

[Sophia]

Yeah, the narrators change in each book. (I just finished the last one) The first has Mary the extremely selfish character that I like because she isn't perfect. The second is Gabry and the third is Annah. But personally, I see The Forest of Hands and Teeth as a companion or prequel while the other two are more related and are easier to identify as sequels. The charecters in the first book are not very important in the second and third while the charecters in the second and third interact a lot with eachother because they're virtually the same cast of characters.

I loved all of the books. I especially felt the vulnerability of some of the charecters in specific scenes.

[Alexandra]

I really like the first book, but I'm hesitant to read the second and third books because it is a different character. I hate when I read a book and the sequel doesn't have that character as a main character. It's kind of confusing to me because by the end of the book I'll be used to this character and then I find out it's someone else's story.