Age Group/Genre: Young Adult/Science Fiction, Post-Apocalyptic, Dystopian, Zombies

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? (Cover and synopsis from Goodreads.)

*Warning:  This is the third book in a series.  While I really don’t like spoilers, you will find some slight spoilers for the first two books in this review. Read on at your own risk.*

As with all of my mini reviews, I’m just going to share some of my notes:

• This book takes place pretty soon after the events in The Dead-Tossed Waves. So the timeline of the primary books of this series goes like this: a zombie apocalypse happens; over 100 years later, the events of The Forest of Hands and Teeth take place; at least 30 years later, the events of The Dead-Tossed Waves take place; and then soon after (maybe a couple of months later), the events of The Dark and Hollow Places take place. This, of course, is all according to my own (possibly incorrect) calculations and speculations, and does not include the novellas.
• Oooh, I love this cool way that Catcher saves Annah from some bad guys!
• I love how this is set in NYC!
• I love how in all the different areas, people call the zombies different names. Mary, and those from her village, called them “Unconsecrated” in book 1. Gabry, and those from her town, called them “Mudo” in book 2. And in book 3, Annah calls them “plague rats” pretty often. And I love that name for them!
• Lol, Catcher is Schrodinger’s Zombie. “He’s the line between the living and the dead. He is both and neither at once.”
• Some unnecessary repetition. I would understand if it’s repeating events from the previous books so that we were reminded of what went on in those books, but it’s not. The repetition I’m seeing here is tons of repetition within this book itself.
• I can definitely see this book being a movie, so I really hope they adapt the second and third book after adapting the first one!
• Ooooh, big twist!
• Oh man, one part is so sad and hard to read!
• Kind of unrealistic thing here near the end.