Book Title: What Once We Feared
Author: Carrie Ryan
Series: The Forest of Hands and Teeth #0.5
Series: The Forest of Hands and Teeth #0.5
Date Started: July 21st 2013
Date Completed: July 21st 2013
Genres: Action, Thriller, Dystopian
Rating: Four stars
Review:
I've been hearing mixed reviews about Carrie Ryan's writing, and although it may be steering a little too close to horror for my normal tastes, I actually really enjoyed this novella, and look forward to reading her full novels.
What Once We Feared is set at the beginning of a zombie apocalypse, and tells of Jonah and his friends in the first hour or so after the undead started ruling the streets. After running desperately from their school trip, the five teenagers find themselves stuck in an apartment building with no where to go and lifts carrying the zombies towards them. They have to trust their instincts and abilities to keep them alive.
I really liked Ryan's writing. There was nothing particularly exceptional about it, but it flowed perfectly well and the description was very good. I also liked the narration: you can tell Jonah's a clever boy, but there's none of that annoying inner monologue - it kept true to the instinct-driven nature of people in this situation.
I also got really engaged in the writing. It was extremely thrilling and it ended up making me read the whole thing in one go (admittedly, it was fairly short, but do remember I have a reasonably short attention span). The action caught my attention and I could sympathise with the characters since their emotions and situations were portrayed in a way that made you notice them, but didn't make it blindingly obvious (if that makes sense).
There wasn't much of a story, but for a novella a lot happened. I suppose it's hard to write proper plots set in an apocalypse with under one hundred pages to detail things in. But that didn't stop it from being very interesting and engaging to read.
I don't know if these are the characters that are focused on in The Forest of Hands and Teeth series (I don't think so, since I've heard the protagonist of those stories is a girl), but I kind of hope they are, since I really want to get to know more about them.
Jonah was a good narrator. He was presented very realistically, and even in the short time we knew him, I got a good understanding of his personality and relationships with the other teenagers. I think he dealt with his situation very well, and I liked the way that he was mentioned as being an idiot a few times - that little thing just really brought him to life, I think.
Nicky annoyed me a little bit, but to honest I can't blame her for being hysterical.
I do feel it was a little too fitted to stereotypes, since it was the girls that cracked under the pressure, and the boys that shouted and fought etc, but at the end of the day it didn't really matter for such a short story, and it didn't stick out that much.
The pace didn't waver for the whole thing. Like I said, I read it in one go because it was just so thrilling. It drew me in straight away and I didn't want to put it down.
I think that worked especially well since What Once We Feared is a novella. I think where a lot of authors fall down in short stories is that fact that they try to create this whole story, with character development and a range of paces and atmospheres etc etc, in such a short instalment of writing. And most of the time it just doesn't work. What Ryan did well here was that she understood she couldn't create a whole plot in this little novella, so she created an action-packed terror-driven excerpt that had me on the edge of my seat for the whole time.
The reason I didn't give this novella five stars was that I couldn't think of anything exceptional about it. I really liked it, so it got four stars. I was considering giving it five stars, but I'm quite strict with the ratings I give books, because I want everything I say to be as honest as possible. So, because I couldn't pick out anything particularly amazing, I gave it four stars. But it's definitely worthy of bordering five, and you should definitely check it out.
I would recommend What Once We Feared to anyone who loves dystopians and action. There's zombies and loads of thrills and quite a few scares too. It's a really fast-paced, engaging story that doesn't drag on and is reasonably easy to read, but still has enough detail to make it really interesting to read, as well as experience.
As my first taste of Carrie Ryan's writing, I'm impressed and look forward to reading her other short stories, and full novels.
Image Source: http://24.media.tumblr.com/783958868005a22a5e7
f43eedf97d63e/tumblr_mmukrsrrF91qkrs3eo1_500.jpg
I've been hearing mixed reviews about Carrie Ryan's writing, and although it may be steering a little too close to horror for my normal tastes, I actually really enjoyed this novella, and look forward to reading her full novels.
What Once We Feared is set at the beginning of a zombie apocalypse, and tells of Jonah and his friends in the first hour or so after the undead started ruling the streets. After running desperately from their school trip, the five teenagers find themselves stuck in an apartment building with no where to go and lifts carrying the zombies towards them. They have to trust their instincts and abilities to keep them alive.
I really liked Ryan's writing. There was nothing particularly exceptional about it, but it flowed perfectly well and the description was very good. I also liked the narration: you can tell Jonah's a clever boy, but there's none of that annoying inner monologue - it kept true to the instinct-driven nature of people in this situation.
I also got really engaged in the writing. It was extremely thrilling and it ended up making me read the whole thing in one go (admittedly, it was fairly short, but do remember I have a reasonably short attention span). The action caught my attention and I could sympathise with the characters since their emotions and situations were portrayed in a way that made you notice them, but didn't make it blindingly obvious (if that makes sense).
There wasn't much of a story, but for a novella a lot happened. I suppose it's hard to write proper plots set in an apocalypse with under one hundred pages to detail things in. But that didn't stop it from being very interesting and engaging to read.
I don't know if these are the characters that are focused on in The Forest of Hands and Teeth series (I don't think so, since I've heard the protagonist of those stories is a girl), but I kind of hope they are, since I really want to get to know more about them.
Jonah was a good narrator. He was presented very realistically, and even in the short time we knew him, I got a good understanding of his personality and relationships with the other teenagers. I think he dealt with his situation very well, and I liked the way that he was mentioned as being an idiot a few times - that little thing just really brought him to life, I think.
Nicky annoyed me a little bit, but to honest I can't blame her for being hysterical.
I do feel it was a little too fitted to stereotypes, since it was the girls that cracked under the pressure, and the boys that shouted and fought etc, but at the end of the day it didn't really matter for such a short story, and it didn't stick out that much.
The pace didn't waver for the whole thing. Like I said, I read it in one go because it was just so thrilling. It drew me in straight away and I didn't want to put it down.
I think that worked especially well since What Once We Feared is a novella. I think where a lot of authors fall down in short stories is that fact that they try to create this whole story, with character development and a range of paces and atmospheres etc etc, in such a short instalment of writing. And most of the time it just doesn't work. What Ryan did well here was that she understood she couldn't create a whole plot in this little novella, so she created an action-packed terror-driven excerpt that had me on the edge of my seat for the whole time.
The reason I didn't give this novella five stars was that I couldn't think of anything exceptional about it. I really liked it, so it got four stars. I was considering giving it five stars, but I'm quite strict with the ratings I give books, because I want everything I say to be as honest as possible. So, because I couldn't pick out anything particularly amazing, I gave it four stars. But it's definitely worthy of bordering five, and you should definitely check it out.
I would recommend What Once We Feared to anyone who loves dystopians and action. There's zombies and loads of thrills and quite a few scares too. It's a really fast-paced, engaging story that doesn't drag on and is reasonably easy to read, but still has enough detail to make it really interesting to read, as well as experience.
As my first taste of Carrie Ryan's writing, I'm impressed and look forward to reading her other short stories, and full novels.
Image Source: http://24.media.tumblr.com/783958868005a22a5e7
f43eedf97d63e/tumblr_mmukrsrrF91qkrs3eo1_500.jpg
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