the dark and hollow places

Finally.  I finished.

I finished reading up to issue #80 of The Walking Dead over the weekend and though I watched the first season of AMC’s TV show based on it I decided I wouldn’t be watching the rest.  After going though all those issues I put the last one down feeling so hopeless.  There is a never-ending world of pain and death and there is literally no light at the end of the tunnel.  Even though I loved The Forest of Hands and Teeth and The Dead-Tossed Waves, after getting a third of the way though The Dark and Hollow Places I began to feel that depression of hopelessness.

But Carrie Ryan doesn’t ever really let you fall into that pit.  There’s always hope.  The books are a testament to humanity’s survival instinct and their never-ending ability to hope even in the most dire of circumstances.

If you haven’t read the first two books you should stop reading this review now.  There will be spoilers.

It all began with Mary.  Daring to question the authorities of her Village and then when all hell breaks loose the only one seemingly determined to survive.  While she wasn’t the most likeable character in literature she was strong and she was a survivor.

Years later we find that she has built a life for herself in a seaside village and has a daughter who despite not being blood related seems to have inherited Mary’s bravery.  Gabry introduces us to Catcher and Elias who holds all the secrets to Gabry’s past.

Now finally, in The Dark and Hollow Places we meet Annah.  Gabry’s twin sister and the one who has survived in the Dark City by herself for the last 3 years after Elias left her to join the Recruiters.  Deciding that she is not going to wait another day for Elias she heads out of the city only to stumble across her sister, the sister she hasn’t seen since she was 5 years old, but whom she has thought about every day of her life.

The world is literally coming to an end.  The options they once thought might be open to them are gone and with so few left not infected humanity has left this world.  But Annah refuses to give up.  She knows that she made a decision to leave her sister behind once and regretted it every day since then … she will not make that same choice.

The characters are all so strong in their own way.  Once reunited the sisters forge a relationship as if they were never separated.  Despite the grim and apocalyptic subject the book is full of hope and love.  It is at times nail biting, gasp inducing and stomach turning, but it is mostly a love story, albeit quite an unusual one.