Sunday 11 January 2015

Review: The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

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Title: The Forest of Hands and Teeth

Author: Carrie Ryan

Series: The Forest of Hands and Teeth #1

Publisher: Orion

Publication date: 01 Mar 2010

Format: Paperback | 336 pages

Genre: YA | Horror | Zombies

Goodreads


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 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 of Teeth. Could there be life outside a world surrounded by so much death?



My thoughts:


The Forest of Hands and Teeth follows Mary as she dreams a way to escape living like cattle in a fenced in village to avoid being eaten alive by the 'Unconsecrated'. Mary is one of the only residents who dares to dream about whether or not there's a life outside the fences and if it could possibly be any worse than the way she's living trapped on the inside.


I might as well come out with it straight off and say I really didn't get on with this read. Actually, I regret finishing it. The biggest problem I had was the characters. All of them. I hated every single one. I thought Mary was a brat that couldn't focus on anything but herself and that the rest of the characters were completely spineless. It made it so hard to carry on reading even just a couple of chapters in, there wasn't much action in the beginning which didn't help, but my hate for the characters was always at the forefront of my mind which made the read a chore. 


The one aspect of this book that kept me going was the action. When it got going, this read has tons of suspense. It really was its saving grace - after the halfway point of the read I actually couldn't put it down just to find out what direction the author was going to take things.


Aside from that, everything seemed to frustrate me. Not just the characters, but the plot seemed incredibly all over the place and the love interest completely over dramatic and unrealistic. I thought there were a lot of loose ends that weren't cleared up, especially from the beginning of the book, I carried on thinking eventually it would be brought back up and explained but it never was. 


Overall I wouldn't recommend this book. There wasn't enough action or suspense that could make up for all of the characters I didn't like and all of the inconsistencies in the plot. 


My rating: 3/10



Carrie Ryan:

Goodreads | Website | Twitter


The Forest of Hands and Teeth:


  1. The Forest of Hands and Teeth
  2. The Dead-Tossed Waves
  3. The Dark and Hollow Places

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