Friday, January 13, 2012

Review: The Forest of Hands and Teeth

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan



Synopsis (From Goodreads):In Mary's world there are simple truths. The Sisterhood always knows best. The Guardians will protect and serve. The Unconsecrated will never relent. And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village; the fence that protects the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth. But, slowly, Mary’s truths are failing her. She’s learning things she never wanted to know about the Sisterhood and its secrets, and the Guardians and their power, and about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness. When the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, she must choose between her village and her future—between the one she loves and the one who loves her. And she must face the truth about the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Could there be life outside a world surrounded in so much death?

Mary has always been taught one thing: Stay away from the fence that surrounds the village. The Sisterhood has always known what's best for the village while the Guardians protect. When she watches her mother turn into one of the unconsecrated she is turned over to the Sisterhood. But with an inquisitive nature, Mary is learning that the Sisterhood have secrets. Secrets they don't want the village to know, including that life exists outside the forest of hands and teeth.

When the gates fail and the unconsecrated attack the village, Mary is forced to run, venture through the gates she was warned to stay away from. With a small group, she aims to find the last haven away from the unconsecrated, to find out whether the stories from her mother are true. She heads out to find the ocean. As they venture deeper down a path that is surrounded by the unconsecrated, will they manage to escape from the forest of hands and teeth?

It's taken me a while to read this book and I wasn't disappointed. For a zombie novel, it had the right amount of psychological tension and drama as Mary learns that the truths she thought were real about the world around her anything but real. I liked how the horror elements were described without overly abusing the gore factor that are present with most zombie novels.

Mary is a strong character, but at times can be annoying as her mind is always focused on finding the ocean no matter what other obstacle she may encounter or whoever else may be affected. The relationship drama between Mary, Travis and Harry was built on and could see the real emotions she felt towards the two boys. I felt sorry for both boys for different reasons, but due to not wanting to spoil anything I'm not going to say a word about what those reasons were.

As a post-apocalyptic, zombie novel, The Forest of Hands and Teeth was an interesting take on the zombie genre and with a lot of character development. I'm looking forward to picking up the other novels in this series.

Source: audio book
2012 TBR Pile Reading Challenge: #1 of 11
2012 YA Reading Challenge: #1 of 50


3 comments:

Summer Lane said...

When I picked up this book in the store, I didn't even know it was about zombies. I read it when I was young so it freaked me out. But now I really enjoy the entire Carrie Ryan 'Forest of Hands and Teeth,' trilogy.

Sarah Ahiers said...

I really enjoyed this book. The second one too, though i haven't had a chance to get the third one yet,

Anonymous said...

I'm still to read this book - have it in my kindle, just haven't got around to it... good review.

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