The Forest of Hands and Teeth (The Forest of Hands and Teeth, #1) in SOS: Serious Overload of Series

Jan 19, 2010 Shelleyrae at Book'd Out rated it liked it · review of another edition

The first half of The Forest of Hands and Teeth was compelling - creeping menace from beyond the chainlink fence and within. The writing is a contradiction, both spare and lyrical, you are provoked to use your imagination to draw in the details.
Unfortunately the second half of the book was spoiled for me, I grew tired of Mary's selfish, almost narcassitic, thoughts and behaviour very quickly after they fled the Cathedral. I really wanted and hoped for some genuine growth for her character, inste ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Jun 11, 2009 Samantha rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2009, ebook-own

Mary is a young girl that lives in a village surrounded by the Unconsecrated, or zombies. The village is ruled by the Sisters who maintain the religious practices for the people that live within the fenced-in compound. It is the only world she has ever known, but her mother has told her stories of another time and place before zombies. It is a past that no one holds in their own memories, but the promise of the ocean, of a place totally different from Mary's world holds its own power over her.

I' ...more

Like · see review

Feb 02, 2011 Charlotte (Buried in Books) rated it really liked it

Shelves: young-adult

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I don't do Zombies, really don't do them. They frighten me, that whole eating brains thing, blughhhhh. I couldn't even sit through Shaun Of The Dead for crying out loud.

So I thought that if was going to go Zombie, it was probably best to go the Young Adult route - and boy was that the right decision. I'd read some of the reviews but still didn't really know what to expect.

Mary lives in a village in the forest, it's a forest surrounded by fences - you don't go too near to the fences, because the I don't do Zombies, really don't do them. They frighten me, that whole eating brains thing, blughhhhh. I couldn't even sit through Shaun Of The Dead for crying out loud.

So I thought that if was going to go Zombie, it was probably best to go the Young Adult route - and boy was that the right decision. I'd read some of the reviews but still didn't really know what to expect.

Mary lives in a village in the forest, it's a forest surrounded by fences - you don't go too near to the fences, because the Unconsecrated are always there. Pulling at the fences, trying to get to you, to bite, to spread the infection.

Mary is too young to remember life before the Return. She only knows the stories told to her by her mother - that were passed down through the family. She's never seen the ocean, but the stories of it are what drives her to believe in a world beyond the forest and the fences. A life without the Sisterhood, who govern the village. Left to their care after her Mother joins their Father in the forest - abandoned by her brother, and by the one person she loves - Travis, who's bethrothed to her best friend.

But Mary soon realises that the Sisterhood knows much more, that there is life beyond the fences, which Mary has to face when the fences fail and it becomes clear that the only way to survive is to go to the paths that lead out into the forest.

I will admit that the first third of this book dragged for me. Until the breach in the fences it was slow going, but it did set up the rest of the book. I thought Mary was rather selfish at times, but in the end I understood that the only way she clung to life was to believe that there had to be more than the fences, that the Ocean had to be real. That the stories her Mother had told her weren't lies. How Travis tried to protect her, to ensure that she surived.

Why the 4 stars if I'm not a Zombie fan? There was just something about this book. A terrible sadness, of people clinging together - the feeling that love wasn't enough to protect them. That in end you had to kill those you loved. So much sacrifice.

So the 4 stars are for Mary and Travis - for realising too late that love was enough.

Did I cry? Of course I did. Will I read the next one? Of course I will. ...more

Like · see review

May 09, 2012 Marla rated it really liked it

Shelves: zz-2012, with-reservations, challenged, horror, dystopia, series, paranormal, zombies, young-adult, romance

3.75 stars. Best zombie story I've read so far. This is NOT a romance for a die hard romantic.

I think I just liked the thrill and scare of this book, and it was unpredictable. It's a creepy and gory and emotional thrill. I usually cannot like a book if I don't like the characters, but this is an exception, because I like the book in spite of Mary.

Reminds me of Walking Dead and I am Legend on an annoying quest and Mary sort of reminds me of a less skilled and more indecisive Katnis.

(view spoiler) 3.75 stars. Best zombie story I've read so far. This is NOT a romance for a die hard romantic.

I think I just liked the thrill and scare of this book, and it was unpredictable. It's a creepy and gory and emotional thrill. I usually cannot like a book if I don't like the characters, but this is an exception, because I like the book in spite of Mary.

Reminds me of Walking Dead and I am Legend on an annoying quest and Mary sort of reminds me of a less skilled and more indecisive Katnis.

(view spoiler)

With-reservations:
unsettling violence, infidelity, cruel and fanatical religious figures, fantastically horrific scenes ...more

Like · see review

May 01, 2011 Netanella rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: zombies, young-adult

4 1/2 stars rounded to 5 for the amazing writing style of Carrie Ryan and the simple fact that many images from this book will remain in my mind's eye for weeks to come!

I loved this book - the village cut off from civilization, surrounded by the Unconsecrated, self-absorbed Mary who dreams of a distant ocean, the intense emotions of first love and seemingly unrequited love and all the angsty, whiny, John Cusack-y, navel gazing that comes from teenage love. I loved the present tense writing styl ...more

Like · see review