Friday, November 28, 2014

The Forest of Hands and Teeth (Carrie Ryan) Conclusion

Then the Unconsecrated are upon them.  Again.  ‘A thousand thoughts run through my head.  How to stop them.  How to fight them.  Where to go.  How to hide.  How to survive.  Travis’s leg and Argos and the ladder and the attic.’  Only nine hundred ninety one thoughts to go.  It’s a good thing our heroine is a fast thinker!  This kind of sloppy prose – the kind our high school English teachers red-penciled like crazy in a previous century – has gotten more and more distracting as the story grinds on.

It finally occurs to me as I reach page 238 (okay, I’m not the fastest hamster on the treadmill!) that I will enjoy this book much better if I simply pretend that it is a novelization of a cheap, grade B horror flick.  I don’t remember seeing Dawn of the Dead if I ever did, but reading the book, if there is one, I know I would merely chuckle at the ludicrous parts.  I don’t really think Carrie Ryan wrote this in the same spirit as movies like that – I think she meant for it to be taken more seriously.  But downgrading my expectations for this book will improve it immeasurably in my eyes!

There are many possible reasons to read a book.  In general, some books have a great story and are well-written in the bargain.  Sue Grafton’s alphabet series come to mind; always enjoyable on both counts.  Some books have a weak story but are written so well that most people find them compelling anyway.  Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is an example, in my opinion.  Some books have a really cool story but the writing is weak.  Like this one.  Of course, books that are weak in both areas (Danielle Steele always seems to be my go to example) are simply not worth the time it takes to read them.
This book is worth the time, though another hundred pages might have knocked it out of contention.  Is there a sequel?  Yes; in fact, I was given the sequel – The Dead-Tossed Waves – first, but decided that I wanted to start at the beginning.  Is it likely to be better?  Quite possibly – but I may never know…  It does promise to be very different.  The climax of the story comes at the very end – usually a good place for it – with Mary finally reaching the ocean.  Was it worth losing literally everything she had, including her brother and other loved ones to accomplish this?  Apparently so.  I guess that’s one of the things the sequel will reveal.  At the seashore, she meets (and is almost decapitated and buried by) a Nice Young Man who lives in a lighthouse.  Oddly, he isn’t given a name in this book, though presumably he will in the next.  He does have a nickname for the Unconsecrated.  He calls them “Mudo.”  ‘ “It’s what the pirates who hunt along the coast call them.  It means speechless.” ’  And all this time we could have been spared the endless repetitions of the U-word!  I’m liking the next book better already…
If Mary seemed somewhat fickle before, here she is taking notice of this new guy; ‘I like the sound of his voice.  Its depth, its tone.  It reminds me of Travis, melts into my memory of Travis’s voice, of the way the words slipped from his lips.’  Girl, get a grip.  In thinking about Travis and her past life; ‘I wonder if these memories are worth holding on to.  Are worth the burden.  I wonder what purpose they serve.’  (Would she have wondered the same things about this book in general?)  ‘Already the ocean is washing around the Unconsecrated on the beach, pulling them back into the water, reclaiming them.  For a while I stand and watch, until the beach is clear and the man takes my hand and leads me to the lighthouse.’  For someone who has spent the entire book obsessing over her romantic relationships at the expense of survival concerns, she seems to be mighty comfortable with this new arrangement! 





December’s book of the month:

“The Cat Who Came for Christmas,” by Cleveland Amory!

This one is for those who have commented on how “dark” the recent selections have been!

From Publishers Weekly:
It is fitting that the founder and head of the Fund for Animals personally rescues and takes in strays, and one incident proved to have a profound effect on him. On a snowy Christmas Eve, Amory helped capture a scrawny cat and took it to his apartment. How does a new cat-keeper train a creature accustomed to fending for itself in Manhattan's alleys? Slowly, with patience and respect. Interspersed with tales of Polar Bear are many digressions involving the author's work with animal-rescue and animal-rights organizations. Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal:
Apparently aimed at the holiday gift trade, this is the pleasant, rambling story of a white cat rescued by Amory one Christmas Eve. Struggling to understand his feline friend, he becomes devoted to a degree that not everyone will understand. An animal rights activist, Amory shares his feelings about veterinarians, airlines, hotels, human and animal natures, and the complexities of modern life. Although amusing anecdotes abound, there is little action. Amory's intelligent, educated musings explain life as he and his cat experience it. He also includes interesting trivia on ancient feline history and celebrities who loved or hated cats. Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Week 1:  Chapters 1-3 
(First post, 12-5-14)

Week 2:  Chapters 4-6
Week 3:  Chapters 7-8
Week 4:  Chapters 9-10
 

Friday, November 21, 2014

The Forest of Hands and Teeth (Carrie Ryan) Chapters 18-25

Sometimes speakers or writers have pet phrases which they regularly overuse, apparently with no realization of it.  One that was pointed out to me recently that a relative says is, “Look at it this way…”  Another was a professor who uses the word “Actually” to begin a high percentage of his sentences in lectures.  “Like” and “Totally” are two words we find sprinkled liberally throughout the speech of some young people, as they chew their gum.  On the other hand [there’s another one!] when we notice an author doing this, it becomes a real distraction.  Carrie Ryan probably doesn’t realize – and we might presume that her editor apparently doesn’t either – that she overuses, “cannot help but,” as in “cannot help but think” or “cannot help but wonder” on a pretty regular basis.  Don’t look at me, I’m not going to tell her, either!

When the action keeps up a good pace, this story is as riveting as it needs to be.  But when the action lulls and Mary gets contemplative the story begins to get tedious.  Is it compelling to a 14-year-old girl?  That seems to be the intended audience here much of the time.  There are some embarrassingly awkward sentences sprinkled here and there.  ‘Her long black hair framing skin that was both pale and dark, like the moon as it hangs just over the horizon.’  Skin that is both pale and dark?  You know, like the moon.  ‘I don’t realize until after the word is out of my mouth: betrothed.  It’s as if the individual letters hang in the air like fat rising in water.’  Okay, Carrie, next action scene please.
Except that is it pages and pages of “thoughtful” prose before the Unconsecrated finally break through the front door that had survived the original attack that brought about the downfall of this village.  In any sci-fi/fantasy/dystopia type story, we assume we will be suspending our disbelief a little or a lot to accommodate artistic license.  But we still expect a certain degree of internal consistency.  We want a little assurance that there is a logical reason, for instance, for a corridor of chain-link fences that has been constructed spanning miles and miles from one village to another.
Presumably, the mystery that is the fenced corridors will be explained eventually, even if not to our complete satisfaction.  Somehow I don’t think that’s going to happen here.  There are so many such oddities that go without explanation in this story that I think we’re just going to have to let most of them go.  In a story like Alice in Wonderland, that might work.  But this story pretends to present more Realism than Alice, so we expect a little more.
The wheels really come off the cart at the end of Chapter XXIV, when Mary realizes she can wrap a note around an arrow and send it across the street to where Harry and the others are living in the treehouse section of the village.  She fills many sheets of paper with ‘…everything I wish I had ever said to Harry…’ and wraps these pages around arrows.  As she fires them across the way, only the last one gets to the intended target.  The rest of them miss their mark: ‘Again and again I embed my story into the skulls of the Unconsecrated that surround us.’  Apparently it doesn’t occur to our author how unlikely it is that all of the arrows hit a zombie in the skull, not a shoulder, torso, leg or simply the ground.  Apparently a little realism wasn’t the important thing here.  This is not “artistic license.”  This is sloppy thinking and poor story-telling.  Harry gets the last message.  (Fortunately it did not embed itself in his skull.)  ‘He leans over and plucks the paper from the shaft, leaving the arrow where it lies.  He unfurls the letter and reads it.  I tell him we are well and ask him if they are doing okay.  And then I ask him if they have pondered escape.  I wait for his answer.’  If this kind of story construction is one of the results of a generation raised on texting shallow messages to one another, we are in greater trouble than we imagined!
 
 
 Next Week: Chapters 26-36 (Conclusion)




December’s book of the month:

“The Cat Who Came for Christmas,” by Cleveland Amory!

This one is for those who have commented on how “dark” the recent selections have been!

From Publishers Weekly:
It is fitting that the founder and head of the Fund for Animals personally rescues and takes in strays, and one incident proved to have a profound effect on him. On a snowy Christmas Eve, Amory helped capture a scrawny cat and took it to his apartment. How does a new cat-keeper train a creature accustomed to fending for itself in Manhattan's alleys? Slowly, with patience and respect. Interspersed with tales of Polar Bear are many digressions involving the author's work with animal-rescue and animal-rights organizations. Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal:
Apparently aimed at the holiday gift trade, this is the pleasant, rambling story of a white cat rescued by Amory one Christmas Eve. Struggling to understand his feline friend, he becomes devoted to a degree that not everyone will understand. An animal rights activist, Amory shares his feelings about veterinarians, airlines, hotels, human and animal natures, and the complexities of modern life. Although amusing anecdotes abound, there is little action. Amory's intelligent, educated musings explain life as he and his cat experience it. He also includes interesting trivia on ancient feline history and celebrities who loved or hated cats. Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Week 1:  Chapters 1-3 
(First post, 12-5-14)

Week 2:  Chapters 4-6
Week 3:  Chapters 7-8
Week 4:  Chapters 9-10
 

Friday, November 14, 2014

The Forest of Hands and Teeth (Carrie Ryan) Chapters 9-17

‘It has been weeks since we have seen each other, months since we have spent time together as friends the way we used to before my mother became Unconsecrated.’  The term “Unconsecrated” as it is used to indicate the zombies is always capitalized and is almost never varied from in alternative terms.  It seems to be overused a little gratuitously, as if we, along with the author, never tire of how wonderfully clever it is.  I imagine a deep-voiced announcer intoning “Unconsecrated!” each time with great drama and a touch of reverb.  The above could have been, “…before I lost my mother” or “…before my mother changed over” or “…before my mother became one with the Forest.”  I get that the idea is that these people view the zombies in quasi-religious terms; I’m just getting a little jaded on this one.

The situation that our villagers have lived with all their lives is ultimately rather ludicrous.  The zombies have been clawing at the protective fence for generations and have never found their way through.  As our current story unfolds, the breakthrough finally happens.  ‘…we simply stand and stare.  Unable to fully comprehend what is happening.’  They’ve been dreading it all their lives, drilled for it, taken all kinds of precautions over it, but still can’t imagine it.  ‘That such a thing would occur must have been inevitable and yet none of us ever believed it would happen.’  Is Carrie Ryan, our author, trying to tell us how we might feel if and when the American Political/Economic System collapses?  I’m finding it hard to believe that this story is that deep, that allegorical.  But it wouldn’t surprise me if an English teacher, having the class read this as an assignment, would expect the students to buy into that interpretation…

Or how about this: ‘ ”Don’t you see?  Everything has changed,” I say. “Jacob’s parents may not have even survived.  Nothing will be the same.”  She moves her hand from my cheek to cover my mouth.  “I don’t want to hear such things,” she says, her voice even and serious.  “Don’t you see that believing the village is gone means that everyone we have ever known is dead?  I won’t give up that easily on them.  And neither should you.” ’ Is this primacy of what one Chooses to Believe over Reality, irrational as it is, a commentary on the psychological mechanisms that lead to reactionary religious belief?  Again, I have a hard time giving our author that much credit.
For one thing, she herself seems to accept that it is perfectly understandable that “Love” (depicted here as the idolization of a potential mate, perhaps the advanced stages of a “crush”) should occupy a rational person’s mind more than the dire survival challenges that our main characters are facing.   Mary’s obsession with Travis in the face of real peril qualifies as a severe neurosis – but the author seems to be showing us that not only is this normal; it is noble.  The love letter prose – ‘It feels as if my heart is about to explode . . . as I wonder if I have ruined any chance for Travis and me to be together because I didn’t wait for him until the end.  Because I chose to Bind myself to Harry. Because I gave up on Travis.  On Love.’ – positively reeks of middle school puppy love sentiment.   This, when she might well be wondering where her next meal is coming from.
So, am I enjoying this book?  Actually, on some levels, yes!  The storyline, plot, action sequences and several other elements are strong enough to make up for the weaknesses, strangely enough.  There’s even this:  ‘Jed turns to me.  “That’s where I was the day that mother was . . . infected.  I was out on the paths, checking supplies, making sure the fences still held.  That’s why I couldn’t return before she . . . turned.” ’ He avoided saying, “Became Unconsecrated”!  Twice!






Next Week: Chapters 18-25

Week 4:  Chapters 26-36 

 

Friday, November 7, 2014

The Forest of Hands and Teeth (Carrie Ryan) Chapters 1-8

Yes, here we go with another book from the YA section of the library.  My wife makes fun of me for reading from this genre, and you may too, if you want.  But some of the most compelling fiction-writing going on these days is from a new, untested generation of authors who haven’t yet established a following or a niche in the market, and are seeking a good way to break in.  Even some of the old-guard writers appear to be looking for a little YA boost in their careers, for one reason or another.  (James Patterson comes to mind, although I won’t go into my opinion of why his career needs a boost…)

The story is told in first person, beginning with a little background but quickly getting to present events.  When the topics switch from past tense to present tense, we segue from, ‘Jed and I watch our mother closely now…’ to ‘And then one day Beth’s brother catches up with me while I am dunking our laundry in the stream…’   It seems to me that there was a time when this use of tense would be considered incorrect, or at least gauche.  Correct would then have been, ‘And then one day Beth’s brother CAUGHT up with me while I WAS dunking our laundry in the stream…’  I have noticed this sort of “present action” tense-mangling more and more in the last few years, especially in books written for young people, and I have wondered when it became acceptable, even fashionable to write this way.  Surely there is a term for it – any Literature professors out there?  What’s this called?  And what’s next, using text abbreviations?  “U R my 1 and only luv!”  It’s not that I’m all that put off by this – it’s just that it still comes across as a little naïve and Middle-Schoolish to me.  Oh, well.

What I do like very much about the story is its palpable Darkness.  Like many of the best Dystopian stories, it is permeated with a deep, brooding aura that many of us find appealing.  But instead of mankind having been mostly wiped out by bombs, pestilence or well-meaning politicians, this story shows what might take place after a zombie apocalypse.   I’m pretty sure this is the first book I’ve ever read of that type – and since I never watch TV, I haven’t seen Walking Dead,  though I have seen the Will Smith movie, “I Am Legend.”  At least it’s not another vampire knock-off (though I’m not as jaded on those as most people claim to be!).

Before dealing in too much detail with “The Evil That Is The Unconsecrated [Zombies],” we are treated to an uncomfortably close look at “The Evil That Is Reactionary Religion” – another popular theme in much of today’s literature.  Mary, our heroine, is caught between these two hard places and we share with her some doubts about which one is worse.  The “Sisterhood” actually forces her to choose between joining them and being “fed” to the zombies.  Questionable recruiting methods, to be sure, but as Mary points out, she doesn’t have much of a choice.

Now that we have a clear picture of the bleak environment in which Mary has been trapped all her life, and a revelation for her of just how bleak it is she stumbles upon the game-changer, the pivotal plot event that is The Outsider.  Someone from the outside is being kept a secret from the village by the Sisterhood, and Mary – a little too conveniently – encounters the Outsider, named Gabrielle, by whispers through the wall separating Gabrielle’s room from the room Mary just happens to have been called into by the most powerful member of the Sisterhood.  Maybe it’s not supposed to be obvious yet, or maybe I’m reading too much into it, but this looks just a little too much like a set-up!  Let’s read on!





Next Week:  Chapters 9-17
Week 3:  Chapters 18-25
Week 4:  Chapters 26-36