The Dark and Hollow Places

I was really surprised that I enjoyed this trilogy so much! At the time of reading, I was most definitely not a fan of zombie novels, but I was looking for something new to read, along a survival/dystopian theme, and this had such good reviews that I thought it was worth a try, at least. Then I found myself totally immersed in the world Carrie Ryan had created, despite the fact that I didn't especially *like* a lot of the characters in the first two books of this series. I understood them though, and felt them realistic considering the circumstances they were living in.



Then I reached this third book in the trilogy ... and I fell in love with Annah. She was totally my kind of character - kick ass but damaged - and as such, she made compelling reading and a far more interesting point of view than either Gabry or Mary ever had (though I was often riveted by them also). Although the beginning of each new book was a little bit of a jolt to adapt to the new 'narrator', I really loved the spiralling, generational feel to the stories, and especially to the kind of repeating patterns/history in the different relationships. (eg, Mary choosing between two men, then Gabry in the same position) It was a clever way to bring some sort of continuity to the three stories even though in some ways they were quite detached from each other. All in all, I was really sad when I reached the end of The Dark & Hollow Places and felt at a loss as to what I would go on to read next. To my mind, that's the mark of an excellent novel!!!



A note on the audiobook versions - all three books in the trilogy were extremely well read, and a joy to listen to!



And a more random note on the book covers - absolutely lushly beautiful, but I have to ask ... what relevance did they really have to the content of the books? It would have been nice to see the same great graphic eye applied to actually reflecting the characters in the stories.