Such vivid storytelling. The first time I read this book was via audiobook in Germany, with perfect synchronicity between when I had to make the long and arduous walk down the apartment corridor to the toilet and when a particularly frightening part of the book occurred. Had me fearing the colour red for a while after reading. Favourite zombie read. ( )

A long time ago, back when it was common to hear the question because of my age, someone asked me "What do you dream of?". My answer changed periodically, depending on what I was currently into or wanted to be, but there was no sort of consistency. Nothing that made me think, if someone showed me the way, I would take the chance in a heartbeat. Not even writing quite frankly. Mary doesn't have that sort of mentality. Her dream was the ocean. No matter what happened that stayed consistent. Through her mother's Death (and Return), the first pangs of love, village tragedy and personal sacrifice Mary consistently held onto the belief that the Ocean was the answer.

I envy that sort of belief. That faith, no mattered how it wavered, made everything she lost almost worth it. I say almost, because towards the end Mary begins to understand what her brother meant about love and how she didn't understand it (in the beginning of the book) at all. I cried for her, wondering if she would have been happier ignorant of the feeling and safer grasping at her dream. She makes mention of that same thought, wondering if her mother hadn't Return'ed if she'd have lived her life happily (though not content). Unfulfilled dreams are like that.

Throughout the novel, Mary grew from a selfish girl into a young woman who understood loss and regret. Its not that she wasn't consentious of others, or only thought of herself, but very often she would worry about the problems of her village in terms of how it made more misery for her. The laws the Sisterhood put forth. The expectations of Sister Tabitha, her brother Jed, the village in general. She was short-sighted in other words. Little things she did added up to a bigger picture she didn't understand, or want to understand. Instead of worrying what an Outsider could mean to the village at large her thoughts were immediately "There is something else! There may be an ocean!" and she ignored the implied threat.

Those closest to her--her older brother Jed, childhood friend Harry and Travis, best friend Cass--she cared about them. And despite anything else they cared about her. Jed may have been upset about what happened with their mother, but he was still worried about her when she was put into danger. Harry tried so hard to keep her, to possess her, that he failed to understand what she wanted. Travis was guilty of the same thing, though for different reasons. Cass, I think she may have been the most truthful, if also the most hurtful at times. As their journey took them deeper and deeper into the Forest of Hands and Teeth, possibly following an endless maze of dead-ends, they grew to know each other.

So imagine my surprise when near the end everything falls apart so quickly. It wasn't the first dire situation, but it was the worst I think. So much left unsaid, so many regrets and 'If only...' I think they weigh a person down. For Mary this was the hard truth she had to learn. When all you do is look towards the horizon and say 'It will be better there', you can't make a life. You lose what you want to share that 'better tomorrow'. And it made me cry for her (again).

This is a zombie book, no matter what you call them, and it made me cry. Its possibly the first time I didn't root for the Zombies to win the day. That's a little unsettling on a personal level. I look forward to reading the second book, The Dead Tossed Waves and learning more about what becomes of Mary's dream of the Ocean. Did she regret her decisions? Wish she could have stopped dreaming and starting living for the now? It's intriguing and I'm glad I have it waiting on my shelf for me! ( )

Alright, I read this book in one sitting. I’ve been wanting to read it for a while now and had really high hopes for it. Unfortunately, this is the most god awful book I’ve ever read. I love dystopian novels but this just doesn’t cut it… at all.

The protagonist, Mary, is a selfish, insatiable girl who puts her dream of seeing the ocean before anyone else, getting people killed along the way. People actually read this book and call her a heroine. It is just straight up disgusting anyone would think of this girl as a hero. She is stupid, selfish, and irresponsible. She is never happy with anything or anyone. People die because of her stupidity and she acts as if she doesn’t even care because all she cares about is getting to see the ocean, something she doesn’t even know if it really exists or not.

Everyone else in this book are happy just to be alive. But not Mary. She needs more. She always needs more. She has 2 men in love with her, and i don’t understand it. She isn’t happy with Harry, and finally get to be with her true love, Travis. But then she isn’t happy with him because she wants to see the ocean. It takes him dying for her to finally appreciate him. That is NOT the actions of a hero. A hero puts everyone else before their self. A hero doesn’t make stupid decisions on whim, on something they aren’t even sure exists.

I love zombie books but I actually hate this book. Everything about it is just awful. The writing is somewhat bad. There is hardly any dialog. The characters are underdeveloped. It seemed no one else, except Cass, had a mind of their own and were just another extension of Mary. The plot has holes and a lot of things are discovered but never examined properly. Overall, you just don’t get a really big feel of what living in the village was like. You get more of a description of the ocean than their village which is really sad considering we already know what the ocean looks like.

In the end, she ends up getting to live her dream and finally see’s the ocean. Go figure. ( )

Dear God this book was horrible. ( )

I really liked this book. End of the world YA zombie novel. ( )