just finished reading Carrie Ryan's The Dead Tossed Waves

I know, I know. What is a pretentious, literary chick like me doing starting her blog by writing about a paranormal YA novel, right?

I'll tell you. Carrie Ryan is brilliant. She creates worlds and crafts story as well as anyone I've read. I find myself telling people, "It's a zombie book but it's not a zombie book. Because that's not what it's about." I find myself reaching more and more towards fantasy, sci fi, and fabulism in the fiction I read because when a writer isn't limited by the physics of the natural world, I find -- at their best -- they can say something more true.

Jeanette Winterson. Joss Whedon. Haruki Murakami. Neil Gaiman. Bless you all for giving me great entertainment while also touching a part of me that reaches out, points a finger, and says, "Yes! That's more real than reality! That's my truth!"

The Dead Tossed Waves and Ryan's early book in the series, The Forest of Hands and Teeth find that truth. Thank you, Carrie.

And the fact that the plot is so rich and engrossing that it made me miss my subway stop? Icing on her cake of brilliant.