The Girl with All the Gifts by M. R. Carey

This is a book best discovered blind, without knowing the plot or even genre. But if you already know, or don't mind mild spoilers, read ahead. 

"That's Pandora...she was a really amazing woman. All the gods had blessed her and given her gifts. that's what her name means, the girl with all the gifts. So she was clever and brave and beautiful and funny, and everything else you'd want to be. But she just had the one tiny fault, which was that she was very, and I mean very, curious."

This is a book that, on its face, is about an apocalypse. But it's also about well-meaning people who make mistakes. Is there a pandemic? Yeah. Is there a quest to find a cure? Of course. Are there great explanations for its cause and future prognosis? Yup.  

But what I like are the characters, and the fact that there aren't really good guys or bad guys. While there are those who seem like they fit one category or the other, Carey blurs those lines and gives her characters more dimension as you get further in. 

"The infection was bad...so were the things that the important decision people did to control the infection, And so was catching little children and cutting 'em into pieces. Even if you're doing it to try to make medicine that stops people being hungries. It's not just Pandora who had that inescapable flaw. It seems like everyone has been built in a way that sometimes makes them do wrong and stupid things."

Much like Pandora, whose legacy is really maligned, Carey describes her as a gifted, wonderful person, with just a tiny flaw. But aren't we all like that? And the more I thought about it, the more I realized Carey isn't just making this comparison to one character. I saw Pandora in a lot of her characters. She has many who are gifted in their own way with their own flaws that, some would argue, are worse than others. How will each be remembered? What is their legacy? And I think whether the legacy is good or bad depends on who survives the apocolypse that has unfolded.

It's a thought provoking read and also just a really great story. There is also a movie that is pretty good as well, but barely scratches the surface when it comes to covering what is in the book. There is also a prequel, The Boy on the Bridge that came later. Might be worth checking out.

The Maze Runner Series (books 1-3) by James Dashner

**No more spoilers given than what is published to advertise each book**

Thomas wakes up one day to find himself in a field with other boys surrounding him.  He has no memory of who he is or how he got there.  Same as the others before him.  He soon learns he is trapped in a maze and joins their quest to find a way out.

This series starts as many YA series do.  Strong, compelling, slightly twisted.  But by book three, I find myself back to 2006, watching the third season of LOST - frusterated, confused, and less willing to believe.

The maze runner was good, if not a bit strange.  Thomas becomes a "runner," or one of the boys whose role is to map out the constantly changing maze and try to find a way to solve it.  The entire first book is consumed by the maze itself and the boys' lives therein.  My questions are the same as the boys'.  Why?  Where?  What caused this?  What is going on in the rest of the world?  But because they have no memory and I don't really know when this takes place or in what kind of world, I am along for the ride.  Dashner ends the book strongly - with a promise of answers to many, if not all, of my questions.  Ok, I say, I can continue down this rabbit hole with you.

So I pick up book two.  Here's where we get into season two of LOST.  I'm invested in these characters, I understand the premise, and I like it.  Yeah, there are some strange things that happen, but I'm willing to trust Dashner and see how he'll tie everything together in the end.  Ok, maybe this book isn't quite as good as the first...but we're building to something here.  I can feel it.

Without giving too much away, book two places Thomas and the other boys, or "The Gladers" as they've called themselves, into the "Scorch," which is basically the desert.  And here's where the series evolves into basically a zombie tale (no complaints yet).  The Gladers have learned they are a part of a special group undergoing trials in order to hopefully effect a cure for the condition of the world today.  Just as a drug undergoes trials in testing, the Gladers, quite literally, are enduring their course of trials.

This second book has a bit more teenage angst and drama, which I feel just meh about.  Thankfully Dashner keeps things platonic and the drama more on an emotional level, which I think is fair.  I'm more interested in how jacked up everything has become and why.  But do I get many answers?  No.  Just more questions.  Well, I'm already invested.  Might as well pick up book three.

Book three picks up the pace.  Answers begin to come.  But the more I understand what is going on, the more I realize how everything in the previous two books was kinda meaningless, subplots within the grand scheme of things,  I guess.  Are the Gladers really accomplishing anything?  Or are they literally just running around for no good?  Dashner puts in details that seem so important at the time but become forgotten as the series evolves.  Is it poor planning?  Did he abandon those ideas?  I start to get ambivalent.  I start to think Dashner has made more happen than he's going to explain.  I can't decide if I like the series or feel jilted by it.  I look at the book like an old lover.  Do I keep you in bed with me?  Or throw you across the room?

After much frustration and some eye rolling, I've finished.  (In case you're wondering, I'm not still using the jilted lover parallel here.)  I like the ending, in all, an interesting series.  There is a fourth book, a prequel.  Will I read it?  Probably.

So it's a mixed recommend.  Definitely something different with its ups and downs, but Dashner has managed to keep me interested and feeling...something...while I read.  I suppose that's the point.

And for you lazies who like the on screen version, I hear this book has a movie in post production, scheduled to be released this fall.  Should make for a great movie.

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks (CBR #7)

The zombies have taken over the world, but slowly, life is returning to normal...if that word exists anymore. World War Z is an account of the zombie war as told through interviews with a range of characters from simple survivors to politicians to those who were on the front lines.

Pros? The story is told through a range of perspectives

Cons? The story is told in bits and pieces and sometimes, just when it starts to get really good, the "interview" ends and you're on to another character.

Overall, I liked the book but it didn't have me on the edge of my seat. I can appreciate the style in which the story slowly unfolds through the eyes of various people; but occasionally I felt the voices were contrived. Rather than reading like a book, sometimes, the text reads more like a script. And at times, I could imagine a character as an actor sitting on a stool onstage, speaking his monologue. But the monologue seems more like someone reading lines, as opposed to speaking extemporaneously...if that makes sense outside of my little head.

Anyway, if you're into zombies, give it a go. It may not be the best one, but it may not be the worst either.

The Dead Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan

This sequel to Ryan's first book, The Forest of Hands and Teeth, started off strongly but overall fell short of the first book. But let me begin with the reasons why I liked the book.

First of all, you quickly learn that Ryan sets her book years into the future from when the last book left off. And the perspective has changed from Mary to her daughter, Gabry, which brings me to the main reason I liked the book. Because the book is written in Gabry's voice, it's not necessary to read the first book to understand what is going on. There are many things from the first book Gabry doesn't know because she doesn't know a lot about her mother's past. She isn't aware of the Sisterhood, which was so central to the first book, for instance. But Gabry's story continues despite this. And that is the perspective the reader takes on if he/she hasn't read the first book. Gabry will say things like, "my mother has a habit of writing on the door thresholds and I never understood why." Well, if someone hasn't read the first book, then they would simply not understand this as well, just like Gabry. If someone HAS read the first book, like me, you'd understand,. This is because you're going into the second book with the mother's perspective.

In a strange way, this made me feel aged. The traditions and customs I was "used" to based on the first book, now seemed years in the past and obsolete. It made me wonder how much of this feeling happens with my parents, or my grandparents, or even with me when I compare myself to people younger than me. I felt like this gave me perspective into how one generation sees another. For that reason alone, I am happy to have read the book.

Now for the reasons why it didn't measure up to the first...There were times when I read the book that I was reminded it's a young adult book. For me, that's a good way to separate good YA books from great ones. For example, there were a lot of teenage angsty moments that didn't seem to quite fit. For example, Gabry can't decide which boy she likes better even though there are greater things happening as far as people dying and being hunted. I guess these moments were in the first book too but Ryan seemed to blend them a bit better. Also, I liked Mary's character better than Gabry's. Mary was a lot stronger and didn't seem as whiney (as my husband put it) as Gabry. Finally, I was disappointed that the second half of the book was basically a replay of the first one - the characters are left wandering between fences in the forest. I was hoping for something new and different, which was offered in the first half of the book only.

Despite these disappointments, I will definitely read the next book in the hopes that Ryan will wow me with something new.

The Hubs' Take: "whiney...really whiney...not as exciting as the Hunger Games. Very lifetime story-ish."

Reviewed by Cathy

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

I wasn't more than two pages into this book before I knew I was going to love it. And it wasn't because of the plot line, not yet at least. There is just something about the way Carrie Ryan writes that suites me. Her book is introspective, but not too intellectual; smoothly written, but not rushed.

The Forest of Hands and Teeth is the first in a trilogy of zombie novels. At some point in time was the Event, in which people were infected with a virus that killed them, and then turned them into zombies. But Mary's village was created with a fence that separated the healthy from the sick. The zombies live on one side, in the Forest of Hands and Teeth, while the people live on the other side. The village is run by the Sisterhood, women who know secrets about the Event, the Zombies, and the creation of the village. But they run the village tight lipped about these things, and espouse a strange brand of religion that involves traditional beliefs in God but also new customs created by the Sisterhood.

Despite these extraordinary circumstances, Mary struggles with normal things like who she is going to marry, and what she is going to do with her life. And like the rest of her town, she also lives with the threat of a breach of the fence hanging over her head. One day, when the town alarm is raised, Mary realizes this is no drill. The zombies have entered the town and she and her friends must now run away, into the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Having learned her whole life that there is nothing beyond the fence, Mary travels with her companions to discover what lies beyond her village and beyond the Forest of Hands and Teeth.

For me, this book was a cross between Suzanne Collin's "The Hunger Games" and M. Night Shymalan's "The Village" with the romanticism of Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" mixed in there. It can be a quick read; with a library deadline on the horizon, I read it in two days (and had vivid dreams both of those nights!). I wouldn't describe the book as scary, but Ryan's imagery can be dark and chilling. And she explores subjects like religion, evil, indoctination, and death in a fascinating way. She really makes you think about reality and how much of it is created by life events and what you've been taught. She makes you wonder, how much of my life is like Mary's? And even without the zombies in that equation, the answer to that can be what's truly scary about this book.

Reviewed by Cathy