The Dark and Hollow Places

By: Carrie Ryan

Narrated by: Allyson Ryan

Length: 11 hrs

Publisher's Summary

There are many things that Annah would like to forget: the look on her sister's face before Annah left her behind in the Forest of Hands and Teeth, her first glimpse of the Horde as they swarmed the Dark City, the sear of the barbed wire that would scar her for life. But most of all, Annah would like to forget the morning Elias left her for the Recruiters.

Annah's world stopped that day, and she's been waiting for Elias to come home ever since. Somehow, without him, her life doesn't feel much different than the dead that roam the wasted city around her. Until she meets Catcher, and everything feels alive again.

But Catcher has his own secrets. Dark, terrifying truths that link him to a past Annah has longed to forget, and to a future too deadly to consider. And now it's up to Annah: can she continue to live in a world covered in the blood of the living? Or is death the only escape from the Return's destruction?

©2011 Carrie Ryan (P)2011 Listening Library

Keeps getting better

This series gets better with each installment. This one is the best so far. Looking forward to book four.

Five stars!

I LOVED this series sooooo much! I wish there were more books, or at least an epilogue. This book is my favorite of the series and also one of my very favorite books.

love it

love this book series. the story the characters and the plot are so awesome .

Speechless

This book was AMAZING. I am not someone who reads books for fun, but I am sooo happy I decided to read this one! Everything from the plot to the characters were tremendous. Truly an honor worthy book. I can't wait to read another book in this series!!

Emotial and Dark

I was attracted by the name of the book, the title would make an amazing sculpture. I was truly unable to put this audio book down. From the very beginning Carrie Ryan introduces you to a dark new world or should I say what is left of our world and the people who are trying to eek out a life and love in it. In the beginning it did remind me of "The Village" however, you quickly find out it is significantly different. In this book the threat is real, the threat is constant and death is never really the end of existence. I truly found myself wrapped up in the darkness and emotion of the main characters journey in this coming of age novel of love and loss. One thing I felt Mrs. Ryan did well is never let you forget the threat, but always kept the human story in the front.

Buy the book - terrible narrator

I have no idea why they replaced the very capable Tara Sands with a woman whose voice is much older and doesn't match the protaganists' tone - it just doesn't work. Throughout the book, which I did enjoy despite the awful narration, I couldn't get carried away as I had in the previous two novels because the narration was so off. I strongly recommend reading this one as it's a riveting end to the series.

Beauty, danger and excitement - a memorable story

Delightful story about a group of young friends trying to survive a zombie apocalypse and monstrous human militiamen, while discovering their feelings, their emotions and their loves. The narrator voiced this so well, conveying the emotions of each character and effortlessly changing her voice so the listener knows who is talking. This is the third book in the trilogy and I loved every minute of it. Thank you to both the author and the narrator for many hours of enjoyment!

Revolutionised my reading! Yup, I now love zombies

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.