Hello all. Some of you may have noticed the blog is still a little slow but don't worry. We are in the process of making some changes and will be back to posting reviews on a more regular basis in the near future.

This is a sequel to The Forest of Hands and Teeth. If you haven't read that book yet, I'd recommend reading it first because even though the main character in that one isn't the main character in this book, it's her daughter. Knowing what happened in the first book will really help when reading The Dead-Tossed Waves. Here is the review I did last year for The Forest of Hands and Teeth: link.

From Goodreads: 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--home is all she's ever known and all she needs for happiness. 


But life after the Return is never safe.


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. 


In one reckless moment, half of Gabry's generation is dead, the other half imprisoned. 


Now Gabry knows only one thing: if she has any hope of a future, she must face the forest of her mother's past.



Overall: I like the book. I didn't quite read it in 24 hours like the first book but it only took a couple of days for me to finish. While I kind of hoped there wouldn't be a love triangle and even though there is one, it didn't hinder my enjoyment of the story. While I've never been into zombie stories before, these are the only ones I've read actually, I really do enjoy the world and stories that Carrie Ryan has created. Since I'd read the first one quite a long time ago, I couldn't remember all of the details and I kept trying to find connections between the two. Some places I was right and others I mixed names up. We do learn more about the villages, the infection, and even get some answers to things from book 1.

Characters: The main character, Gabrielle (Gabry), is well written and complex. She has many different moments of weakness, strength, group strength and even selfishness. The other characters in the story all served their purposes in moving the story forward and giving the reader more information about the world they are within. It's also an interesting side to see of Mary because in the first book we followed her story and survival, but in this one she is the mother. She even admits to how she was selfish when she was younger, which I know some people had issues with when reading her story. So, it was different having the characters point out their own flaws in that way. Again there are two boys that the main character has confusion about and some of those parts lost me a little. Overall, they did add to the conflict as things around them continued to crumble.

Story: One thing that I think Ryan does in a way that I almost envy as a writer is how she manages to make things worse for her characters without it feeling like she just added it to for more tension. It felt right for the story. In both books, things always get worse up to the very end and secondary characters certainly aren't safe. It's hard to tell who will survive and that makes for a need to read feeling that I enjoyed.


It was a good book that many others will enjoy.

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Today I am doing two different writing books. One I read years ago when I first started focusing on writing novels but over the past few weeks have been re-reading. The other is one I bought from amazon last year and have read off and on whenever I feel like checking it out. Both of the books work for the same audience but they are definitely different.

Having read a few writing books over the last 5 years, I have started to glaze over when reading them because there is only so many times I can read things like the difference between first and third person, who is a protagonist and other basic information. On the other hand, I am always learning something new.


Your First Novel by Ann Rittenberg and Laura Whitcomb

From Goodreads: In "Your First Novel," novelist Laura Whitcomb and seasoned literary agent Ann Rittenberg team up to provide you with the skills you need to write your dream novel and the savvy business know-how to get it published.

Section 1 - Writing Your Novel
This section focuses on, as you can tell, the writing end which is more than just the first draft. This is from preparations to writing to editing and more.

Section 2 - Publishing Your Novel
This section is focused on traditional publishing. Topics discussed included what a literary agent does, query letters, and publication day and beyond.

Throughout examples are provided by both authors to illustrate different points.


I purchased this book when I first started focusing on novels and for good reason since the title of the book is "your first novel." Also, what caught my attention about this book was it went beyond how to write the first novel to tips from an agent, which sounded cool and useful. The book discusses so many things in the less than 300 pages of the paperback book, so it might lack some in depth focus on all of the topics, however, it provides a broad basis for a writer to start with when learning to write. From there the reader could jump to a more focused book.

Reading the book over again, I find myself glazing over when reading certain section. Also, I sometimes skip the examples because they are small snippets of books I have never read. It's rare in a writing book to use something I've read as an example but there are a few. One thing that is fun about this book is that at the end of chapters there are recommended readings and some even have web sites and movies suggested. This is good for beginners but would also be a good refresher for veterans too.





Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass


From Goodreads: Noted literary agent and author Donald Maass has done it again His previous book, "Writing the Breakout Novel," offered novelists of all skill levels and genres insider advice on how to make their books rise above the competition and succeed in a crowded marketplace.

Now, building on the success of its predecessor, "Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook" calls that advice into action This powerful book presents the patented techniques and writing exercises from Maass's popular writing workshops to offer novelists first-class instruction and practical guidance.



This is the first "workbook" that I've purchased as far as writing is concerned. I haven't actually read the book that inspired the workbook, so don't know if that factors into anything.

It is an extensive workbook but some of the topics were a bit lost on me, or so I felt. There are some things in writing that not everyone will do the same. For me, character building is one of them. I even noticed this when talking to a friend, as I looked up the section of the book because he was wanting help on developing characters. For now, all I've done is ponder some of the exercises presented in the book but I might try some of them in the near future.

This book is definitely something for a person who liked a hands on approach to learning. Reading advice on writing has its place but there has to be a time to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and this book is good step to learn how to do certain aspects of writing before taking that information to use it in a novel. It might be a good idea to check out the original book, Writing the Breakout Novel for those that are less of a hands-on approach type. This is not my favorite book on writing but it's something that I would recommend friends to at least look at and consider.