The Dark and Hollow Places (Forest of Hands and Teeth) [Hardcover]

I was desperate to read this last book in the trilogy. The books are called companion books, trying to give the impression that you can read them alone but I don't think that is the case. If you don't read Ryan's first two books about the zombie world it would be hard to understand the relationship between the characters and also the history of the current world that they live in.

I had to re-read The Dead Tossed Waves book before I began this new book just so I could remember who all the characters were and where they fitted into the story. This memory loss is inevitable when there is such a long gap between books.

So this book is told in the words of Annah, the twin sister of Gabrielle who has been living in the Dark City since she left the forest as a young child. The setting of the book is very bleak and dark and there is a menacing air of rape and violence throughout the story. I found Annah's story to be the most depressing of the three books, but this is understandable when you see how difficult her life has been.

The main plot of this book is the horde of zombies (or unconsecrated) entering the city. The characters have to try and escape and at many points the author has you wondering 'how will they survive this?'. Lots of action but also a lot of emotional relationship stuff. Catcher really makes this book for me, his and Annah's relationship adds the positive dimension to the book.

The book is thrilling and the ending is nail-bitingly good. I didn't give this book five stars because I felt that it would have been even better if we could have seen what was happening outside of the Dark City. For example what was happening in Vista? I would have liked to known what happened to our original heroine from the series Mary, who is briefly mentioned.

I loved how most of the loose ends were tied up; and I loved the way that it was told through Annah's eyes - that she thought Gabry lucky. And now that I understand almost all characters, I thought it would have been a little better to have a bit told by Catcher - who is practically Unconsecrated/Mudo etc.

I never thought of Gabry is irritating before - although Mary in book 1 certainly was.

It was amazing- and I wished it could have been longer!

As the third in a Carrie Ryan's "Forest of Hands and Teeth" series, this novel introduces us to Annah. Interestingly, Ryan claims these books can be read as standalone's and considers them "companions" to the first book in the series - I personally felt that in order to fully enjoy each story it's better to read them in order. Why? Well Annah from this third book is the twin sister of Gabry from the second book who is the daughter of Mary from the first book so it's hard to fully connect with the characters if you haven't read the others yet (although you would still be able to follow the general plot).

Remember Annah from the last book, is she just a copy of Gabry? No, Annah is very different to Gabry despite being her twin - Infact, despite loving Gabry in the last book, I think I liked Annah more. She's fiesty and comes across as an angry or bitter character; as we explore her story the reasons for this become clear. Annah is scarred and not just from the loss of her sister and her fake-brother Elias but also physically after a barbed wire accident; because of this Annah is resentful of Gabry and the relationship between the two of them is particularly interesting. Speaking of relationships, what about the love triangle between Gabry, Elias and Catcher? Well, with the introduction of Annah this becomes even more complicated because we are introduced to her inner thoughts about Elias, him leaving her and staying with her twin. But for me, the winner of this series as a whole has got to be Catcher. What a fantastic, intricate and well developed character. He describes himself as "broken" but Ryan very cleverly plays on this word and explores the broken pieces of all of the other characters to bring this into perspective.

But what about Mary? Unfortunately we don't see anything of Mary or Harry in this book (and secretly I expected the breaker, Michelle, to somehow crop up along the way - even just as remains or something but this never materialised). I found this a bit disappointed but with that said, I'm not sure that Ryan could have gone much further with their stories so I suppose we have to let her off the hook. We did get a bit of an insight into Vista (the town that Mary and Gabry were living in) and it's relationship between the Recruiters (those who fight off the unconsecrated). When I picked this up knowing it would be the last in the series I was a bit worried that the ending just wouldn't be enough for me but it was a great ending - the only thing I would have liked answers about was about Catcher and whether he could spread the infection or make others immune like him because this seemed to be left relatively unsaid and I still feel in the dark about the infection.

There's also an underpinning theme running through this book and we're asked to consider many times what we would do in their positions. I felt myself questioning along the way whether fighting for survival is really living, do the unconsecrated really win because they don't have to fight anymore?, can they still remember anything?, if it was inevitable that the unconsecrated would outnumber us eventually would I give up? What's the point in fighting? And Carrie Ryan does offer a couple of suggestions - in particular, Catcher and Annah have differing opinions a lot of the time which was refreshing and showed opposing arguments for the questions I had.

Something which I've noticed throughout these books is the interchangeable names of a number of things. The Mudo are also called unconsecrated or Plague-rats in this book and this made the series seem more real to me - it's to be expected that different places will have different names for the "zombies" of their world because people living in each area generally don't stray far from their homes so their paths don't cross and names aren't shared. I've also found this series to be incredibly unique. The concept of the undead is a very over-done one but by displaying over a period of generations within one blood line was an exceptional idea. I've loved following on from Mary's story and again this made the series seem more realistic because they were continually having to fight off hordes of unconsecrated - the true expanse of the damage done is also discussed in this final installment which was a nice touch.

So overall, another fantastic installment from Carrie Ryan; it's such a shame that this appears to be the last in the series of companion novels but perhaps if we pester her enough she won't let this series end. It really could go on forever couldn't it? With new generations and possibly a cure someday - who knows! I do know however that there is a short novella available for Kindle users out there which explores Sister Tabitha (remember her from the first book?)so I can't wait to read that. I can't recommend this series enough, go out and get yourself a copy - it's so worth it! Hope this helps.