Review - 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 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?

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan reminds me a lot of the movie The Village. Which, weirdly enough, is one of my favorite movies. Add a few generations and some zombies and there you go.

The Sisterhood knows the truth but won't share with anyone, especially Mary. But Mary, who has lost her mother and her father to the Unconsecrated, is not content with just becoming the wife of someone she's not sure she loves and having children to repopulate the village. She's heard stories of the ocean and she dreams of seeing it one day. Unfortunately, she gets her wish. I say unfortunately because it came at the cost of 99% of the people she knew. Totally not her fault, but devastating all the same.

I liked this story. It was interesting and I enjoyed the fact that it wasn't like your normal zombie story. Like I said, it reminded me of The Village so that made it a little easier to picture the setting and the types of people that would have lived in that particular place.

I couldn't stand the Sisterhood. I hate liars and manipulators and they just rubbed me the wrong way immediately from the beginning. They knew about what the world was like before the Rising but kept it from everyone thinking that was the way to keep them safe. They all died anyway.

I didn't like the love triangle. I never do. I especially didn't like it because once Mary got the one she wanted, she treated him like dirt. Completely ignoring him and just wallowing in self pity. And yet, he still sacrificed himself for her. I also did not like that she was just dragging everyone along with her, seemingly to prove to them that she was right and they were not. And then after they'd been through so much together, she just LEAVES them.

The story made me angry. I'm not going to lie. But I reckon that's a good thing. I hated the ending though. I just couldn't believe it ended that way. So sad.

I'd recommend this story as a good read for any zombie fan though. It's different and it's interesting. I enjoyed it. Perhaps for a bit of the older crowd though. Definitely not a read for kiddos.