Post Apocalyptic Reading

» Posted by Alissa on May 17, 2010 in What I'm Reading | 4 comments

What is it about the end of the world that makes for such good reading?

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan was recommended to me by a few different people whose book opinions I value, so I was pretty sure I was going to like this book even before I read the first page.

I hesitate to describe this YA novel as a “zombie” book even though it is set in a post apocalyptic world filled with zombies, because the style of the book is so different from more traditional zombie books. It’s more of a really good post-apocalyptic novel that happens to have zombies in it. Okay, that description isn’t any good either. What it is is a really good book. Read it.

I came a bit late to Suzanne Collins’s Hunger Games series, and only just read Catching Fire. Post apocalyptic purists are probably having a heart attack right now. The problem was that The Hunger Games was such a dark and heavy (but good!) book that I needed a little break before diving into the next book in the series.

Now my problem is that I may not have waited long enough. Now, that I’ve read Catching Fire, I can’t wait to read Mockingjay, the next book in the series to find out what happens. Unfortunately, it isn’t due out until August.

Take your favorite post-apocalyptic tale add reality television and a love triangle to the mix and you have an idea of what the Hunger Games series is all about. If that’s not intriguing enough I’ll add that Katniss Everdeen is one of my favorite literary heroines ever. This is a great YA series, but if you don’t like waiting to find out what happens you might want to wait a little closer to August before you read these books.