Review: Forest of Hands and Teeth

Book: Forest of Hands and Teeth (Book 1)
Author: Carrie Ryan
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Release Date: March 5, 2009
Pages: 320
Source: Borrowed
Date Read: March 15, 2011

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 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?

Yani's Analysis:
WOW, just wow wow wow. I have been thinking about this book since I finished it, trying to come up with a way to explain the awesomeness of this book. It was so true, as in while things might not be really this way, there was truth behind people motives, actions, and this world that was created after life lost some of its meaning.

This is the first book in a series that will depict what it is like to live in a world where zombies (or something like them) exist. The other books are in different people's point of view, which is interesting but kind of makes me sad that I won't here more on the lives of these people I had grown to know and love.Everything about this book was so interesting from the town and it's leadership, to the children and their curiosity on what lies outside the fences built to keep the dead out, but also caging them in.

"I think about how fragile we are here - like fish in a glass bowl with darkness pressing in on every side" Mary

The mythology and the back story are great. With the sisters as the secret keepers, the ones who fight for the good of all. At first you might see them as the evil ones, trying to control everyone, but as the book progresses you understand where they are coming from. And Mary, oh Mary...Mary is a really strong female protagonist, which I admire but at the same time feel it causes her to be a bit selfish and a little foolish. I won't go into why, but it was probably the only thing I didn't like about the novel, but at the same time I can't help but respect her for making decisions and caring about herself and her happiness above all.

In the end, you might not agree with all the choices made, but you understand them all. If you grew up in a world such as this and where desparate for a different life, one with possibility and hope, how would you find it?

"And I wonder if there ever was a crueler world, than this one that forces us to kill the people we love most."

This is a dark and twisted tale, and I highly encourage reading this, but heed my warning, even at the end one is left with little hope and happiness for the future of these people that are living in the time after The Return. 



Ratings:

Plot: 5/5
Writing Style: 5/5
Uniqueness: 5/5
Characters: 4/5

I haven't heard that many great things about the second book, and it is for that reason and that I was a little disappointed with Mary, that I could not give the book 5 hoots. Still this has been one of the best books I have read in a while and I think everyone should at least read it once.

Other Memorable Quotes:

"...and I realized that sometimes death comes before you expect it. That while we are rarely prepared for our friends, family, and loved ones to die, we are never prepared for our own deaths. Never prepared to reconcile our own regrets."