'The Forest of Hands and Teeth' by Carrie Ryan

Titile : The Forest of Hands and Teeth
Author : Carrie Ryan




I like to consider 'The Forest of Hands and Teeth' as a crossover work, because it is clean enough for a young reader, but at the same time, there is plenty of action and grittiness for an adult reader. It achieves the best of both worlds.

The reason I picked up the book was the title 'The Forest of Hands and teeth', which I thought was pretty catchy. It summons images of fantasy and magic worlds the same way a mention of Zelda or Final Fantasy would. Thankfully, the author Carrie Ryan does justice to the title with an equally magical writing.

The story is about a group of villagers who live in a small village in the middle of a forest, the forest of hands and teeth. The forest is breeding ground for the undead, and the villagers are protected from their undead neighbours by a fence that surronds the whole village. The fence is guarded by the Guardians, and the village is run by The Sisterhood, who enforce the rules and dictates the way of life within the village.
The world-building is complex and intriguing, and I will elaborate no more for the sake of sparing spoilers.

The main character is a little girl named Mary. She is what people would call a problem child, always out causing trouble. She is unsatisfied with the stupid rules that everyone else seems to be content with. She dreams of a life outside the fences, and hopes to visit the ocean someday. She might come across as tough and a bit selfish to some of you but you know what, I totally approve. I like my heroines to kick some serious ass!

One of the things you will find makes this book unique in the zombie genre is  that there is romance. In fact, there is more than just romance; there is a full blown Love Triangle! But Carrie Ryan totally pulls it off, unlike some *cough* vampire *cough* books.

The forest of hands and teeth is a series and four books have been released so far, with two of them being companion books, and book Three happens to be my favorite.
Which one was yours? Feel free to share in the comments.

Rating : 4/5 stars

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