If you didn’t see my post about Carrie Ryan and her take on the writing process, it’s here. Carrie is indeed a wise woman, not to mention an amazing writer. Her first novel, The Forest of Hands and Teeth, came out last year and recently made the New York Times bestseller list. The companion book, The Dead-Tossed Waves, came out last month. Both books are set a couple hundred years in the future, after the zombie apocalypse. While millions roam the earth in an undead state, hungry to spread their infection to the living, the survivors have fenced themselves off and live in a constant state of fear. I don’t want to say anything else about the plot because it would be too easy to spoil all the surprises.

I’ll be honest: I’m not the sort of girl who enjoys scary books. I’ve never read anything by Stephen King, and I have no interest in most of the paranormal young adult novels that are wildly popular right now. So why did I pick up Carrie’s books?

The Forest of Hands and Teeth snagged me with the title. I mean, it’s a really good one, isn’t it? I just had to see what it was about. And even though I barely took a full breath while reading, I couldn’t put it down. I was completely hooked into this world of the living versus the undead and the main character’s struggle to survive.

I was worried that The Dead-Tossed Waves wouldn’t be as good; after all, it had an incredibly tough act to follow. It didn’t disappoint. In fact, I think I actually enjoyed it more. The main character faced more complicated dilemmas, and the tension was even thicker.

I’m already looking forward to Carrie’s third book, which will be out next year. I can’t wait for her to scare the pants off me again!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 14th, 2010 at 12:00 am and is filed under authors, good books. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can trackback from your own site.