The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

Title: The Forest of Hands and Teeth	Loved it	Graded
Author: Carrie Ryan
Genre: Dystopian
Publisher: Delacorte
Elements: Zombies
Series: Book 1 of a trilogy

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?

This is an excellent, moderately depressing dystopian world. We're thrust into a world where zombies (The Unconsecrated) roam the land like it's their own. Survivors live in a village surrounded by the aptly named Forest of Hands and Teeth, where unrelentless zombies try to push their way into the village.

Mary lives in that village. A girl with big dreams, she is constantly haunted by dreams of epic romances and freedom from the constraints of the village. Above all, she wants to find out this "ocean" her mother speaks of and she believes that there is more to the world than just the village and the forest.

Her brother is one of The Guardians, patrolling the edges of the village constantly to prevent any zombie from making its way into the village and eating the villagers. Her mother is broken, a living zombie after Mary's dead was infected and became one of The Unconsecrated.

In one short chapter, there's a preview of how life was for Mary (not unlike M Night Shayamalan's The Village) and then things immediately turn for the worse as Mary's mother chooses to sacrifice herself and become an Unconsecrated in the hopes of finding her husband and "living" with him.

Jeb, Mary's brother blames her for their mother's death, and her suitor, Harry chooses not to bind himself to her in marriage. With no more choices left, Mary goes to the Sisterhood, where she finds that her dreams might be more than that; they might be reality.

Beautifully written, it's a nonstop emotional rollercoaster ride from the first page. From Mary's mother's death to the fight for survival. There are glimpses of a time before the zombies existed, a time where people like us were living normal lives, a time that seems so far gone when I'm reading this.

Reading this type of novels make me wonder about what some scientists are doing in their laboratories, whether they're messing with nature. This, of course, is the beauty of dystopian novels. It just makes you question everything.

I loved Mary's inner strength when dealing with her mother's sacrifice and her brother's abandonment. She did not give up, she just picked herself up off the floor and realised that she had a choice, still has choices, even if it's not one she would have chosen for herself. Her love and passion for Travis was heartbreakingly endearing in its instances, and yet it was her downfall when it came to dealing with the Sisterhood.

I definitely can't wait to find out what's going to happen in the sequel, Dead Tossed Waves, but more importantly, what happened in the past to make the world the way it is in The Forest Of Hands And Teeth.