A Review of 'The Forest of Hands and Teeth' by Carrie Ryan (Audio Book)

"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, the Guardians and their power, and-- when the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos-- about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness.


Now 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 by so much death?"


When I started listening to this book, I was confused as to what kind of book I could consider this.  At first, I thought it was dystopian, but there isn't one person controlling everything.  They have two groups: the Sisterhood and the Guardians.  So I couldn't call it dystopian.  I would consider this more of a young adult survival book.  Not knowing the genre did not hinder the readability of the book.  I was intrigued and hooked from the start.

It's always interesting when there's something in a book that all of the character are told not to go near or touch or pass.  It tells us as the readers a lot about the environment they're in.  They're afraid of these things that used to be human at one point in time.  They're afraid of the virus.  They fear these things because they don't understand them, but they recognize that if everyone in the village knew more, they'd be more afraid of what's on the other side of that fence, which is why the village has secrets.  Objects like this wall always cause me to dare the characters to do what they're not supposed to do.  Of course, they do just that and that's how the story take off.  It's human nature, I guess.

This book sort of reminded me of the movie The Village from director M. Shyamalan (he's my favorite!).  In The Village, everyone is told to stay out of the forest, especially at night, because there's something in there...

What I found most interesting was as Mary was moving through the abandoned villages on her way to the ocean, she's discovering the world we are familiar with right now.  As we keep reading (or listening), we realize that the book takes place in post-Zombie Apocalypse United States.  For me, this added a level of realism and the book popped a little more (stood out) because I was familiar with the setting.  When I first started listening, I thought for sure that I was reading about some past civilization.  I thought that this was an interesting way to open up this world.

The Forest of Hands and Teeth has a sequel, which I have borrowed and will be listening to sometime.  I can't wait to see what happens next!

I give TFoHaT:

Thanks for reading!

--Jude