Carrie Ryan

The Forest of Hands and Teeth

Monicap

I first read this series, like, three or four years ago, in sophomore year. And I remember REALLY liking it.
But you should know, three years ago, I was way newer to YA. In fact, three years ago, I didn’t even know what the term YA meant. (I didn’t actually figure out what it meant until senior year.)
What I’m trying to say is, this book was really good. Back then.
This time, I didn’t like it as much. 
I guess that maybe I’m more of a cynic when it comes to YA plotlines now? I don’t know.

Also, I’ve seen that other people’s reviews aren’t so much based on opinion as mine are and I will try to do something similar to those less biased reviews.

Characters
Mary: Mary is the main character. I have to say that she has got to be one of my favorite main characters in all of YA, even though I don’t necessarily like her.
She’s one of my favorite because she’s real. As a character, she’s real. She has flaws. She continually points them out. She’s small and petty and selfish and focused on herself. 
She’s not real likable. But she’s real.
(My friend, who I made read this series after I first read them said she hated Mary because she was whiny and annoying. She can be perceived that way)
But she’s also strong. ish. She’s brave. She’s not afraid to question what she’s always been told. When her world crumbles down and crashes in on her, she takes it upon herself to survive and realize her dream of going to the ocean.

Travis: Travis is Mary’s main love interest. I don’t like him. At the beginning of the book, when Mary announces tat she loves him, I was like: “So what? I don’t.” IF YOU ARE THE MAIN CHARACTERS LOVE INTEREST AND I HAVE THIS REACTION, IT IS NOT A GOOD SIGN. It’s just not. At the beginning, I guess I thought he was kind of player, getting engaged to Cass when he was ‘in love’ with Mary, but later on, we realize that happened out of loyalty to his brother. Which brings me to…

Harry: Harry is Travis brothers and also happens to be engaged to Mary. And in love with her. The catch being that… you know what, I can’t really explain it.

Long story short: there is a love square in this book.

Also, this really annoyed me: Mary and Harry. I really cannot believe the author did that.

Plot
This is a zombie story. It’s very zombie-licious. If you like zombies, you’ll like this.
The very first thing that happens is Mary’s mother dies and becomes a zombie. And Mary’s life spirals out of control from there.
I can’t really explain much about that without giving stuff away.

So, this book is good, but it's really not the best. which is why it gets three stars.

Annika Arguemore

I'm really sorry but not sorry that I didn't stand this book. I had to put it down. It was getting too annoying. The 'heroine' (if you could even call her that. Seriously. All she did was pine for her betrothed's brother and mope around and dream) was too caught up on love that by just reading her stream of thought made me feel like puking. It really got in the way of telling a great plot. The idea of this whole book was put into the wrong hands, I have to admit. It really was. It could have been something entirely different. It could have been an unforgettable adventure but no. I am truly disappointed in this book.

Review to be continued.

i’ve read this book countless times. the first time i read it i was in high school, and i remember crying so hard i couldn’t breathe. the entire series gets me so emotional, but the scene in this one….. you know…. makes me sob into my pillows even as i approach 25. 

i just. this series is stunning. i love the worldbuilding and how fresh it feels even as an avid zombie lover. mary’s village and the structure, the origin, etc, never fails to amaze me. the characters all are imo so easy to love, to root for. definitely one of my most favorite books of all time and 10/10 rec any day.

Michael Springer

Can we talk about zombies? 

I mean, let's really think about these guys for a minute, because the whole idea of zombies is where my problems with this book begins. I for one am not concerned about the zombie apocalypse. And, if it happens, I have complete faith we can kick the asses out of some stupid, slow versions of ourselves. 

We'll start with the basic idea of a zombie. Theoretically, these are corpses that get up, walk around, bite people and infect them. Great! Those will be really scary for a little bit. But what is causing them to rise? Is it a disease that only affects humans? Okay, lets assume it is. IF THIS IS THE CASE, all of the dead bodies that are ALREADY dead will NOT be attacking anyone. Thus, we have to contend with people who are infected and dying in the present, and who will decompose. After all, there's no logic to the assumption that zombies just don't decompose. Do maggots not want to eat them? Are they impervious to the elements of rain, wind, dust storms, cold, heat, and everything else that makes living people uncomfortable? NOBODY who is arguing FOR zombies can use logic and argue that any of these things could be the case. It makes no sense at all. These motherfuckers would be falling apart left and right, and after about two weeks, the original batch would be non-existent.

Okay, maybe a month.

On the other hand, perhaps the already-dead humans will raise up. As I've ranted about before, this makes no sense, because dead humans are simply decomposing matter, just like dead dogs and dead trees and the non-silicone parts of Michael Jackson. If dead humans start walking around because dead matter is getting reborn, we're also going to have dirt golems and sentient dead trees, and shit is gonna get really ugly. We'll be fighting against our own dead cells that are trying to eat our living cells, and we will simply be screwed. Thus, zombies won't even matter in this scenario. Thus, as my very scientifically grounded argument illustrates, dead bodies will not all start digging their ways out of the ground as zombies. 

So we'll stick to the disease hypothesis. The idea of zombies getting up and walking around and actually being a long-term threat doesn't make sense. In fact, I think it's a stretch to say zombies are a global threat on even a short-term basis. . . zombies taking over the world requires faith in what is basically a pyramid scheme: one zombie bites three people, each of those people bites three people before they get decapitated, and eventually the hordes of zombies overwhelm the normal people. We all know pyramid schemes are bullshit because eventually some people just don't follow through with it. One group of marines or ultimate fighters kills off 90 of them. A bomb blows up hundreds. We can't say exactly what factor will keep the scheme from working, but we know from experience dealing with people--ALIVE ONES with functioning brains--that pyramid schemes don't work.

So, I have a lot of trouble buying this idea that zombies will become some huge threat if they are (a) only raised after an infected person comes back from the dead; (b) relying on a pyramid scheme to take over the world; and (c) slower, stupider versions of humans. As we have seen in many wars in the past, numbers matter less than strategery. And if there's one thing we humans have figured out how to do in our many years of living on this planet, it's kill other humans. I mean, c'mon! With weaponry from five hundred years ago we could handle any zombie uprising we come across, unless we ignore the zombies until they have swept through more than half of the human population. Since this is highly unlikely in the age of blogging and ratings-governed news coverage, I again would like to point out zombies will NOT be a problem.

When it comes to this book, though, these problems get even more accentuated. We're starting the story many, many years after the zombies first started attacking people. They're on the other side of a frickin' chain link fence, moaning and lumbering, as zombies are wont to do. Why have we not simply started stabbing them all through the head with sharp sticks through the holes in the fence? Why don't we fight their pyramid scheme with one of our own? If everyone goes out to the fence every day and stabs two zombies in the head, eventually none of them will be moaning and groaning around our village. It doesn't totally end the problem, but that's where protective body armor, helmets, and artillery comes into play. Zombies don't know how to engage in guerilla warfare, but we do. These zombies--in case you've forgotten--are trying to kill people with their teeth. Their fucking TEETH. If some random-ass dude comes at me with his teeth, I'm gonna come at him with something OTHER THAN MY TEETH. . . basically any weapon wins against teeth. . . and I'm going to win. If this person also doesn't have a functioning brain, I'm guessing that will bump my chances up even further. 

So, there's THAT logical hole. Even if zombies have a heyday because of a ridiculously successful beginning--for instance, the disease starts simultaneously in several places that don't have oil, and every zombie is very diligent about biting three people before getting decapitated--they're gonna be less of a long-term threat than the Spice Girls. We're going to suddenly recognize that we ought to be killing these slow, stupid humans, and we will develop strategies for doing so. 

My vote in the contest between smart, fast humans and slow, stupid ones has always been on the former. This is why I'm not a Cardinals fan. Zombies are a fun kind of mob for characters in horror movies to fight, and it's fun to watch these people get torn apart in hilarious ways. But when the idea of zombies is converted into a book that tries for more than just slasher goofiness, the holes in the whole theory start to pop open like holes in a maggot-ridden corpse. 

Thus, I must admit I was much more critical while reading TFHT than I have been when watching Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, Night of the Living Dead, High Noon of the Dead, Tea Time of the Dead, and a variety of other influential zombie flicks. However, I feel Ryan's attempt to place the events in this series quite a bit after the actual zombie apocalypse begs her audience to ask these questions about how possible this whole scenario really is. 

And, following my usual pattern of ranting for a long time and then briefly mentioning the book in question, here are a couple other thoughts on The Forest of Hands and Teeth: it's appropriately eerie, and an entertaining read. However, the secondary characters are only occasionally likeable, and this is a problem that carries over into the second book of the trilogy. Although you don't necessarily want these people to get eaten by zombies, you do kind of wish many of them would abruptly depart from the storyline so you didn't have to read about the annoying things they're saying/doing any longer. And the series suffers from a thematic issue that most zombie literature is likely to struggle with: in a world where humanity has been bested by stupid, dead versions of ourselves, how can you give your reader a genuine sense of hope?

Courtney

Sarah S

I really hate not finishing a book, no matter how bad it is, but this was just boringly written and full of wasted potential. And let's not talk about that ridiculous love rectangle.

Through twists and turns of fate, orphaned Mary seeks knowledge of life, love, and what lies beyond her walled village and the surrounding forest, where dwell the Unconsecrated, aggressive flesh-eating people who were once dead.

Callie Anna

What a beautiful take on the zombie apocalypse! I never would have guessed that it could hold so many interesting characters and motifs! The setting is wonderful and I can't wait to read the others.

kezzie

I just gave it ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Bc one main character is annoying, and the ending! I need more closure,
but I still really liked! I binged it for Pete sakes, the writing just sucked me in and the zombies weren't to scary but I was reading a lot of it at night so it kinda was then

Cassidy C

The book overall was decent. The characters were well written and the plot line wasn't slow. It was kinda creepy in a way(which I'm not a fan of creepy so I'm kinda phased by it). Overall though it was good and it is definitely a great book to recommend.

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, 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 and Teeth. Could there be life outside a world surrounded in so much death?

The Forest of Hands & Teeth

Morgana

** spoiler alert **
           Prima cosa fastidiosa di questo libro: Il titolo. Come al solito i titoli tradotti in italiano sono titoli inventati. Il titolo originale "La foresta delle mani e dei denti " sa molto più di "horror" che è appunto il genere del libro. Seconda cosa fastidiosa: La copertina. Visto così il libro sembra uno di quei libri romantici per ragazzine, niente di più sbagliato.
L'idea poteva anche essere interessante, ma la storia si sviluppa malissimo e ha un finale frettoloso e per niente inetressante. Mary poi come protagonista è fastidiosa, vive la sua vita da anima ribelle, senza credere in nient'altro che l'Oceano, solo perché la madre le ha raccontato di quanto era bello e quanto avrebbe voluto andarci, ed è pronta a sacrificare tutto e tutti per questo. Harry e Travis, i due ragazzi della storia, sono entrambi innamorati di lei, Cass, la sua migliore amica, è terribilmente gelosa e Jed, il fratello, la tratta male per cinquanta pagine ma poi fa tutto e anche troppo per lei. Il finale soprattutto lascia l'amaro in bocca. Capisco che si tratta di una trilogia, quindi ci sarà un seguito, ma quando tutti i personaggi iniziano via via a morire inizia ad essere difficile trovare un finale decente. Il fatto che lei trovi l'oceano, da cui poi escono orde di Zombie alla Resident Evil, non è un finale decente contando che il fratello probabilmente è morto e Travis pure.

Kristen

I'm only a third of the way through right now, and I'll finish this review when I'm done (if I decide to finish it) but it's already no higher than 3 stars for me. 

First of all, the first couple chapters were promising. Like, clenching my hands together and eagerly flipping pages promising. I couldn't wait to get into the meat and potatoes of the book. What would Mary do, once everyone in her life had abandoned her?

I understand that the focus of this story is not The Unconsecrated, the author's adaptation of zombies. I also understand that this is not the story of the advancement of Mary's little village, or how they defeat said Unconsecrated. This is the story, thanks to the reviews I've finally read, about Mary's descent into madness based on those first few chapters.

Okay, that being said, the book is a bore. I fell asleep reading it last night, otherwise I'd probably be halfway through by now (it's so short, I thought I'd fly through it). Mary is a whiny, self-absorbed brat. Yes, I understand why, but she's lived in this village her whole life with only her crazy mother and her idiot brother for company, and she has no friends besides psycho, dramatic Cass and the two brothers who "vie for her heart"? I find that I'm suspending my disbelief a little too far, because so far the only characters we've seen are Mary's "family", the soon-to-be Unconsecrated, the Sisterhood (really just one member), and these three other people who are supposedly her friends. How does the village function? Who takes care of the meat and grows the fruit and sells stuff? To be the ONLY functioning village after the zombie apocalypse, these things are necessary. And the village is so small, supposedly, that surely Mary knows everyone. What about the Guardians, who are merely mentioned in passing and to identify a couple of the characters as members? Why can't Mary find a husband there?

And yes, most of what I've read so far is Mary whining and crying about being so desperately in love with a boy she was merely crushing on in the beginning, and the fact that his brother has claimed her instead. And while Mary was completely falling in love with him, he was mostly unconscious. I cannot fathom where this "desperately in love" came from. Not even close. 

Furthermore, Mary's mother was completely crazy, to the point that Mary and her brother treated her like a child. So maybe whatever was wrong with her is genetic and Mary is just following in her mother's footsteps. 

So, all of that being aired out, this is no more than a 3-star for me. It's lazy world building (my biggest pet peeve in a dystopian or fantasy), complete with a self-indulgent, self-absorbed, complaining and whiny main character and no character development in sight. Plus nothing has happened. Nothing important. And isn't step one of writing a novel to not waste readers' time? Step two is to make sure everything happens for a reason. This author failed both steps. 

I did enjoy the promising beginning, so I can't hate too much on the book. It's really just a big disappointment now, though. I'm still holding out hope, because the writing itself is sort of beautiful and poetic in a way.

EDIT

Two stars it is. While the book is a thought-provoking look at the options left when there are no more options, and how someone making herself go completely crazy deals with so much loss, there are so many things I hated. So, so many things.

Mary gets worse as the book goes on. She doesn't know what she wants, she punishes everyone else for it, and she wastes tons of time. She's basically a waste of flesh, but for some reason, everyone wants to risk their lives to protect her. That's probably cruel, considering the author obviously tried to make her brave and strong. 

The ending was so disappointing. Mary didn't deserve that at all.

How can you be in love with someone, spend months completely alone with that person, and yet ignore them entirely for the whole span of time? This entire chunk of the book ignited so much fury in me. You cannot say you're in love with someone, be teetering on the brink of possible death and dreading the end may be near, and then ignore him when the two of you have a house alone together for MONTHS. 

What exactly did the Sisterhood DO? Why did it matter so much if Mary was remembered by future generations if no one would ever find the places overtaken by the Unconsecrated, including Mary's home? Why did Mary launch into incomprehensible fits over these things, and then drop them after just a few minutes and never think of them again? There were others, I just can't be bothered to remember all of Mary's fits she had. Although the conspiracy surrounding the Sisterhood was the only interesting part of the village, and we're left with too few clues to piece together our own conclusion.

I basically skimmed the last hundred pages. I almost stopped, except I didn't want all that time I'd already spent reading to be wasted. And I feel like I wasted all that time anyway. 

On the positive side, I think Carrie Ryan has a lot of potential as a writer. Although Mary's constant desperation for the ocean was repetitive (she did nothing else with her life besides dream of the ocean) and the abundant similes seemed silly and I skimmed over most of them, I could tell the author truly did have a way with storytelling. There were a couple scenes toward the end that really gripped me with suspense. After so long of having to hold my eyelids open while reading this book, that was a nice change. And it was an easy read overall, nothing too dense or confusing. The world building also improved throughout the book, although it still wasn't on par with what I believe it could have been. I'm sure there are tons of fans for this series. It is just not my personal cup of tea, and I won't continue the series or see the inevitable movie that will come out in a few years. Because anymore, you know that's going to happen.

Everyone's tastes are different, so I'm not writing this review in the hopes that someone else won't pick it up. I'm just airing out my thoughts for others to consider when they pick it up, or for people who have already read it. I tried not to spoil anything, and I don't think I did.

Anastaciya

I expected more, but I've outgrown this type of story and writing 🙈 hate saying this, as I'm not a writer myself, and anything I may come up with would probably be hot garbage... just felt like something was missing here, it was simplistic and (annoying) 🤦🏻‍♀️

Zoe Smolen

I mixed feelings about this book. I didn't love it, but I was compelled to read it. The story of the novel really hooks you. Especially in the second half. It's hard to stop reading because you want to know what's going to happen so badly. However, there were sometimes I found myself really disliking Mary, the main character and narrator. She is just kind of dense, and naive, but thinks she knows everything - typical YA heroine. I was also quite confused by the theme of religion throughout the novel. I wasn't sure how I was supposed to feel about them for a while, though it seemed to become a little more clear towards the end. All that being said, I'll definitely be getting the second book a try.

Laura Springall

Oh my god this was so awful! The characters were dull, the plot boring, settings not all that impressive. And the writing style! So many run-on sentences and grammatical errors! I don't know how I managed to get through 308 pages of this. 2 stars because I thought the pacing was good, and the author is good at suspense/heart pounding moments (at least for me)

Chelsea Breher

I picked up this one on a whim, overall it was a decent read. It's a post apocalyptic novel, but more than just a zombie book. It is about love, loss, friendship, and more. It follows the story of Mary and how she follows the stories of her childhood even though it means she may lose every thing.

Through twists and turns of fate, orphaned Mary seeks knowledge of life, love, and especially what lies beyond her walled village and the surrounding forest, where dwell the Unconsecrated, aggressive flesh-eating people who were once dead.

Jessica Nottingham

Close your eyes. Now think of the movie "The Village". Open. Now read this book.

You will see some pretty striking similarities between that movie and this book! I noticed this the moment I opened the pages, and I wondered if it would be a good trait or a bad trait in this story.

I warn you now, the beginning of this book is fairly slow. It is difficult to say whether or not the first few chapters were so necessary to the overall story. If they hadn't been there, you wouldn't know so much about Mary and the people around her. I suppose they also add to the overall shroud of mystery that surrounds their little village, and that is important. However you must keep trudging through those first few chapters because it is not until after this that the story gets interesting.

Unconsecrated = Zombie Apocalypse! That is probably the best part of this whole story. There was more blood and gore in this book than I expected, but it didn't overwhelm. Instead it made the world that surrounded Mary even more vivid. I could almost feel myself as part of her village, constantly afraid of the threat on the other side of the fence.

Mary was an okay protagonist. I can honestly say that sometimes I felt like jumping into the book and shaking some sense into her. She is one of those characters that is will to sacrifice so much for a dream, but on her it is not as endearing as it sounds. There were a few times that this book almost got set aside, just because I was so frustrated at the choices that she was making, not just for herself but for everyone around her. However there are also times when she is so brave and true. Again, I suppose this makes her character to true to life.

Overall I a little torn about how I really feel about this book. I didn't blindingly dislike it, but I didn't fall in love with it like some others did either. It takes it place in the "just so" pile of my books.

The Forest of Hands and Teeth

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