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The Forest of Hands and Teeth Carrie Ryan 9780575090859 Books

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The Forest of Hands and Teeth Carrie Ryan 9780575090859 Books

(Note: this review comes from an adult who occasionally likes to indulge in Young Adult fiction. Perhaps my mistake was trying to read this right after The Hunger Games.)

The Forest of Hands and Teeth takes place in a futuristic world where most humans have somehow turned into zombies. There are isolated enclaves of surviving humans, living in villages surrounded by fences that keep the flesh-eating zombies out. One bite and you're toast. Our main character, Mary, lives in a religiously-oriented village run by The Sisters, and everyone's been told this is the last living village. Well, it's no spoiler to say that this turns out to be a lie. Mary and her inevitable teenage love triangle (which seems to be a requirement in any popular teenage novel these days, just look at Twilight and Hunger Games) and some of her family end up on an adventure to find other living humans, and the fabled ocean that Mary has heard about since childhood and most people don't believe exists.

The biggest problems with this book occur once the protagonists leave their village. (Note - *potential spoiler* - but not really, it's typical zombie plot line.) Once that occurs, we learn that Mary and her boyfriend are two of the most idiotic people ever to have somehow survived zombieland for 16 years. They find themselves holed up in a house in an abandoned village, while the rest of their friends and family got stranded in a nearby treehouse, with zombies in between. So there they sit.... for weeks.... doing absolutely NOTHING to learn more about this new village, how to get out of there, nothing to shore up the house against the zombies who are constantly scratching at the front door, nothing to even try to get across the street to their friends.... NOTHING. FOR WEEKS. Until the zombies inevitably break down the door (five minutes after the boy notes casually, "I think that door is going to give.") This book is the zombie literature version of "Scary Movie." These two are a Darwin Award waiting to happen.

At this point I couldn't stand it anymore and just skimmed the rest of the book to find out what happens at the end. End conclusion: Carrie Ryan is no Suzanne Collins. The writing is often stilted, with overdramatized emotional reactions and unclear motivations, and I don't think I'll be reading Carrie Ryan again.

Note: I listened to the audio book version. I can't recommend it - the narrator is, interestingly, a Colombian born actress, and her accent comes thru sometimes. For some reason, she gives all the older people a thick Colombian accent. Very odd and distracting, since there's no indication this book takes place in Central America...


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The Forest of Hands and Teeth Carrie Ryan 9780575090859 Books Reviews

I wanted to like this book. The setting was unique compared to many of the zombie books out today. There were moments in the book that seemed to display great potential for intrigue and mystery. I thought the book would live up to the promise laid out in the first portion of the book. Unfortunately, it didn't. It failed spectacularly.

The main character is very flat, with the only explored aspect of her personality being completely unlikeable. I mean, Mary is one of the most selfish characters I've ever read. She's not even the kind of character you "love to hate". I just hated her. She plays with everyone's emotions and then stomps on them without mercy. She sacrifices all around her for her own selfish desires. Even her brief act of heroism came across as somehow selfish.
The supporting cast is also utterly flat, but needless to say they're all umpteen times more likeable than Mary. Why they didn't feed her to the zombies, I'll never know.

Pros
Intriguing setting
Potential for a deep and exciting plot

Cons
Utterly unlikeable main character
Flat characters overall
Interesting plot paths were bypassed completely in favour of a dull, monotonous plot with no payoff.
Being a fan of zombie stories, I surprised myself and many of my fellow zombie fanatics by waiting so long to read this book. I have heard so many great things about it over the years and eventually even purchased a copy, but never got around to reading it–until I saw a copy at my local library a few weeks ago. I took that as a sign and snatched it up immediately.

After finishing it, I feel torn. Maybe my expectations were too high, but I didn’t love it like I’d hoped. I normally read a book this size in a day, two at most. This one took me about 10 days. I was easily distracted. A few pages in I realized it closely resembles M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village. I wasn’t a fan of that movie, but with actual zombies in the forest (I say that like they’re real. Ha!) I was intrigued. I liked the book enough to finish it, regardless of the length of time it took me. There was something about it – something I still can’t put my finger on – that kept me interested and wouldn’t let me give up.

The story is hopeless and hopeful all at the same time. Mary is the main character and her will never falters when it comes to fulfilling her dreams, no matter the cost. All she’s ever known is her village, her people, and the forest of hands and teeth that surrounds them. She has always known that the Guardians will protect the fence and the Sisterhood will keep their lives in order. Yet she longs to know if the stories her mother raised her on, about the vastness of the ocean and building so tall they reach the sky, are true. Is there more to the world that just the people inside her village? Did the Return destroy the rest of the world or are there other villages out there somewhere?

There is a bit of romance intertwined in the story, but it’s a strange sort of romance. I wasn’t rooting for love in this story, which is unlike me. Not that I believe that love is a must-have element in the books I read, but if there is romance I expect more of it. I demand that it makes me feel something, and I really didn’t care about it here. Sadly, I didn’t ever connect with any of the characters.

I will say that the last 60 or 70 pages were my favorite. The pace was fast, the danger was imminent, and the action was satisfying. Those pages convinced me to give the book 3 stars instead of 2.5. I may even read the next book. Let me clarify–it’s not a cliffhanger ending. I could easily walk away from the series and never look back. Maybe I will. I already know from skimming some reviews that the second book does not follow Mary any further–which actually piques my interest. I’m curious about what the next book offers.

Overall I can say The Forest of Hands and Teeth is an OK zombie story. Some people love it, some hate it. I’m wandering around somewhere close to the middle.
(Note this review comes from an adult who occasionally likes to indulge in Young Adult fiction. Perhaps my mistake was trying to read this right after The Hunger Games.)

The Forest of Hands and Teeth takes place in a futuristic world where most humans have somehow turned into zombies. There are isolated enclaves of surviving humans, living in villages surrounded by fences that keep the flesh-eating zombies out. One bite and you're toast. Our main character, Mary, lives in a religiously-oriented village run by The Sisters, and everyone's been told this is the last living village. Well, it's no spoiler to say that this turns out to be a lie. Mary and her inevitable teenage love triangle (which seems to be a requirement in any popular teenage novel these days, just look at Twilight and Hunger Games) and some of her family end up on an adventure to find other living humans, and the fabled ocean that Mary has heard about since childhood and most people don't believe exists.

The biggest problems with this book occur once the protagonists leave their village. (Note - *potential spoiler* - but not really, it's typical zombie plot line.) Once that occurs, we learn that Mary and her boyfriend are two of the most idiotic people ever to have somehow survived zombieland for 16 years. They find themselves holed up in a house in an abandoned village, while the rest of their friends and family got stranded in a nearby treehouse, with zombies in between. So there they sit.... for weeks.... doing absolutely NOTHING to learn more about this new village, how to get out of there, nothing to shore up the house against the zombies who are constantly scratching at the front door, nothing to even try to get across the street to their friends.... NOTHING. FOR WEEKS. Until the zombies inevitably break down the door (five minutes after the boy notes casually, "I think that door is going to give.") This book is the zombie literature version of "Scary Movie." These two are a Darwin Award waiting to happen.

At this point I couldn't stand it anymore and just skimmed the rest of the book to find out what happens at the end. End conclusion Carrie Ryan is no Suzanne Collins. The writing is often stilted, with overdramatized emotional reactions and unclear motivations, and I don't think I'll be reading Carrie Ryan again.

Note I listened to the audio book version. I can't recommend it - the narrator is, interestingly, a Colombian born actress, and her accent comes thru sometimes. For some reason, she gives all the older people a thick Colombian accent. Very odd and distracting, since there's no indication this book takes place in Central America...