This is the third book in the Forest of Hands and Teeth books (click here for reviews of first two), a series I have enjoyed immensely. Needless to say I was very excited to get this book in the mail. I didn't like the second book as much as expected, mainly due to the main character, Gabry, but I am so very happy to say that the third book was even better than the first one.
********EXPECT NECESSARY SPOILERS FOR FIRST TWO BOOKS*********
Ever since Elias left Annah to join the Recruiters, she has had to rely on herself for everything and has learned to not trust anyone. Still, she thinks about her twin sister Abigail, whom she left behind on the Forest of Hands and Teeth, and she waits for Elias to come back, like he promised. After a disturbing encounter with an infected woman, Annah decides to take charge and leave the Dark City to find her sister. On the way out, she sees Abigail, who is with a man who is infected. The man jumps over the bridge, and Abigail is taken by the recruiters. Annah gets back into the city, desperate to help her sister.
Heading back into the city, Annah meets the supposedly infected man, who helps her escape to the only place left, the old underground subway system, where downed plague rats wait for one whiff of human that will reanimate them. Here, Catcher reveals his identity and his knowledge of both Elias and Abigail (Gabry, from book 2, of course). Once they rejoin with Elias, it becomes clear that the slumbering horde in the valley is fast approaching the Dark City. With the island of the Recruiters as the last safe haven, and Catcher being the Immune that the Recruiters are desperate to get, they manage to gain access to the island. Unfortunately, such a safe haven is just as dangerous as the dying city.Like I said, this book rocked. First of all, I did like Annah much more than I did Gabry, mainly because of her independence. Like the previous characters, Annah has a major flaw (in this case, she can't trust and struggles with the scars that cover about half of her body), which is slowly resolved through the events of the story and the character development that results from that. This is fine, but it did become a little repetitive (remember, I fell into barbed wire? And I took care of myself for years after Elias left?), especially because phrases like "The night Elias made me feel beautiful" occur over and over, sometimes on the same page. This did make Annah come across as less complex, since the focus of the story was so narrow. Still, there was much less of Annah contemplating her flaw(s) than there was with Gabry; whereas Annah must take action to survive, Gabry was the opposite. I feel like Annah's way of seeing the world just propels the story forward more than did Gabry's.
Once again, there's a love triangle, sort of, since Catcher is also involved. Basically, all the romance from the previous book must be resolved now that Annah is part of the group. I was pleasantly surprised that Annah let Elias go fairly quickly; the main conflict was her issues with letting Catcher close, and Catcher's fear that he'll infect her. This I definitely appreciated, because the same basic plot for a third time would have been too much, especially since the book already has elements repeated too often for my taste.
Now, what about the actual zombies? Well, if you thought a giant gorge full of them wasn't crazy enough, get ready, because there were some truly terrifying moments (especially the last scene…very scary). Like the other two books, there's lots of action packed throughout, although it was much more consistent than in the previous books; even in the middle section, when they were safe from the horde, they were facing other threats, since the Recruiters are really sadistic jerks who bait live people against the infected in a giant cage for entertainment (which was very disturbing).
Overall, I think that this book is the strongest in the series. Although some repetitive elements grated on my nerves, I still felt like Annah and the other characters were well-rounded overall. The story itself was fantastic, and the action wasn't concentrated towards the beginning or the end, but remained constant throughout the story. It was a terrific end to an awesome series.
Grade: 4/5, leaning strongly towards a 4.5-the repetitiveness was distracting from what was otherwise fantastic
No comments:
Post a Comment