Wednesday, April 23, 2014

The Forest of Hands & Teeth #1 - Carrie Ryan

"I want to sleep, I want dreams to pull me from this world and make me forget. To stop the memories from swirling around me. To put an end to this ache that consumes me."


I've finished!

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 hadn't researched the book at all before I picked it up and decided to buy it. All I knew was that I was hooked and intrigued by the title. So when I realised that The Forest of Hands & Teeth was about a zombie apocalypse, you could say I was quite surprised. 

The 'Unconsecrated' are the zombies which are trapped in the 'Forest of Hands & Teeth'. There is a small village which the forest encircles which everyone had been told they can't go through. Mary has ended up temporarily being in the Sisterhood which is basically like nuns. In the cathedral she finds out that there is a way to get into the forest and that she, along with everyone else has been lied to, and so the journey of Mary begins...

This book was very powerful with a steady, consistent pace and even though this may be because I was trying to stay up and not fall asleep, it had me gripped and wanting more. The book was very action-packed and had several turns which were pretty predictable but hey ho. You could really capture Mary's loneliness and longing to see the ocean; she was a curious character. There were always questions that you'd be asking yourself and wanting to know straight away. Her longing to see the oceans that her deceased mother told her about gets extremely overwhelming. In fact, she lets a few people die for it...

...which leads to reasons why I did not like this book.

I think this book was mostly focused on a breakdown and I honestly thought she was crazy. The negatives were mostly because of the main character. 

-She was selfish as hell. 
-The character lacked excitement. Sure, she got excited about things but I didn't think she, herself was an exciting character. 
-She is more than happy to steal her bestfriend's guy, even though the guy has a brother who is really into her.
-The characters seemed to bland, especially her love interests. You didn't really get a full background to their relationship.

All in all, this book was a good kind of different and even though I thoroughly enjoyed it, there were also a few bits here and there that made me want to stick a knife in my eye. (Though I will probably read the second book just because of curiosity).

★★

-C E L I N E

No comments:

Post a Comment