It's Book Review Time! (6) The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

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, 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?


This was my first zombie book and it was certainly a unique spin on the tale. The Zombie Apocalypse happened forever ago. The village is isolated in the middle of the forest and they think they're the only ones alive in the entire world. Their society has harked back to medieval times, with simple pleasures, simple lives, set on obeying religion, working the land and marrying and producing offspring and continuing the species. Yet with such old-fashioned values, it's set in the future. The zombies, or "unconsecrated" as Carrie Ryan calls them are an ever-present threat in the book. If the characters can keep on opposite sides of the fence to them, then they will be okay.


But then a girl NOT from the village arrives. There's life out there somewhere. So when the unconsecrated breach the fence, there might just be a reason to flee. To get out of the forest. But can they survive, and is there anything out there?


I really enjoyed this book, it's thoughtful, has romantic elements and heroism, has just the right amount of gore and even better - it was the first in a trilogy!