The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan Summary: 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, when the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness.
Now, 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?
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ource: I purchased a paperback
Review:
So.. sometimes I pick up random books based on the cover and the title. The synopsis was vague, so I thought it would be promising. As soon as I began, I realized it was a book about zombies. Duh. The forest of HANDS and TEETH. I actually said “I’m an idiot!” out loud. It’s not that I don’t love zombies. I love a good zombie horror, but the synopsis and writing style was much too… slow for what I prefer in a zombie book. Also, I guess I expected a ton of mystery about this forest and the fact that it was a zombie book kind of ruined that surprise.
I’d love to praise the book because it was cool how it was slow and more character based. It was a lot like The Village if it was surrounded by zombies. The Sisterhood kept the villagers in the dark about mostly everything in order to keep them safe. Unfortunately, The Forest of Hands and Teeth was boring to read. Mary was curious. Of course. Of course the main character would be curious and not fit the mold. No surprise there. And she was in love with a guy who was with her best friend and the guy in love with her was a guy she wasn’t interested in. And none of of these people were getting married for love, because that wasn’t a thing. It was more out of duty to reproduce.
Mary’s mother told her stories about the ocean and it inspired her and made her an even more curious person. That’s all she could ever think about. What was the rest of the world like? Were oceans safe? Where was one? Did they exist? The main character had two thoughts. Ocean. Travis. Ocean. Travis. Ocean.
I probably wasn’t in the right mindset for the book, but I was so disappointed. I could have handled a slower book had the characters not been so aggravatingly lame. I didn’t like a single character and I didn’t feel invested in their story at all. It was like that one season of The Walking Dead where there was only like 5 zombies and a bunch of slow episodes with a bit of drama amongst the group. (And that made me stop watching the show and now I have an entire season left on my DVR..)
The cover is so pretty and I still love the title, so I guess it’ll just be that cool book on my shelf that I wish was as pretty inside as it is outside.
