The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

" 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 by so much death? " -Book Cover

      Mary used to be an happy child, even though her village is the last hope of humanity (or so the Sisterhood says), but everything changes when her father goes missing and her mother is afterward lost to the Unconsecrated. Her brother can't stand the grief and cast her out of his life, Mary as only one other thing to do, join the Sisterhood since no man "claimed" her.

This story takes place in the future, but the community lives following the old ways. God and the Sisterhood rules, men choose a wife and they are expected to have children to support the next generation. A marriage isn't about love but about commitment to the village. The Sisterhood educate every child and God words are engraved by every doorway.

Beyond all expectations, Mary is caught in a love triangle, or maybe I should say square. She loves Travis, who claimed Cass (Mary best friend), while Harry (Travis' brother) claimed Mary. but Cass is in love with Harry. A bit complicated hen?

All hell break loose one morning when the Unconsecrated succeed at breaking the barrier surrounding the village, and our group of young people are forced to flee for their life, and Mary doubts everything the Sisterhood ever taught them.

This book really feels like all the zombie movies, a group of young folks try to escape a horde of zombies and avoid getting transformed. Like in every movies there's always some of the heroes getting caught. It also has the "last survivors of humanity" kind of feel and you can't help but feel the desperation in the characters actions.

I'll be honest with you, Zombies aren't my gig, but I gave this book a try 'cause I heard so many great comments. I don't really know how I feel about the book to tell you the truth, I didn't like the story all that much, but Carrie's writing is really great and I got sucked in pretty easily.

The first 50 pages or so are slow and I dare to say boring, but than there's a spark when Travis enters the story and from page 150 I couldn't put the book down.

Carrie really has a way to captivate a reader's attention and you have no other choice but to crave for her words. I needed to know what would happen next and the suspense was unbearable, I even had unshed tears at some point in the story.

I didn't like the end, I felt like the loop wasn't closed and I wanted to know what would happen to the secondary characters. I'm guessing it's Carrie's type of a cliffhanger, but I didn't fall for it. I don't think I will buy the second book, but if I get a copy I'll read it lol

I didn't like the story enough to need to read the next installment.

I will keep my eyes open for another series from Carrie Ryan because I really liked her writing, but zombie definitely aren't for me.

Read an excerpt
 
 




The trailer is awesome, really captures the atmosphere of the book, I suggest you watch it!

Companion book:
Dead-Tossed Waves

Book Stats:
Publisher: Delacorte Press Books for Young Readers
Published: 01 March 2009
Format: Hardback 320 pages
ISBN 13: 9780385736817
ISBN 10: 0385736819

Book Source: Peronnal Shelf

Posted by Tynga at 13:26

 Random House, Review, young adult  3 People left their mark

Tynga is a 32 years old mom of two, from Montreal, working as a lab technician in an hospital specialized in heart disease. In her free time, she enjoys reading all things Paranormal and photography.

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