The Forest of Hands And Teeth by Carrie Ryan

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

Published: London : Gollancz, 2009

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?

I had a lot of mixed feelings about The Forest of Hands and Teeth while I was reading it.  At the very start I found it to be slightly boring but it soon picked up pace and I really loved the suspense of it and I kept reading it because I wanted to know more and more about what happened.

Unfortunately my interest in it tapered off slightly towards the end, where I found it to be quite slow moving.

I did really like some of the descriptions in the book and there are quite a number of memorable scenes that I thoroughly enjoyed.  I did feel like i was a part of the story, like I was there in the village with Mary.

The characters were all very good, I really liked most of them.  The only one I didn't particularly like was Jed but I did warm to him later on.

Overall, I felt that The Forest of Hands and Teeth was a well-written, and descriptive novel.  I did however think there were a couple of unanswered questions hovering in the air and the end was slightly lacking.

I would recommend this one to anyone who is a fan of the post-apocalyptic novels, also to anyone who just wants to read something different.

My Rating:  φφφφ