The Forest of Hands & Teeth review

Mary has lived her whole life inside the fences of her village. She can't go outside; in the forest there dwell the Unconsecrated who will stop at nothing to devour, to satisfy their hunger. Still, she dreams of a world beyond the forest, of the ocean she has been told stories about by her mother, even though the Sisterhood has always taught them that there is no one else left in the world but this one village. Their life is filled with constant fear and wariness.

This is the world generations after a zombie apocalypse.

When I initially picked up this book and started reading the back cover, my first thought was that of Shyamalan's The Village. I bought it anyway and was fairly soon proven wrong. There is nothing of the illusion here, although there are plenty of secrets and lies.

The story is told in present tense and by a first-person narrator - Mary - who finds her life thrown into tumult and is forced to make a decision after another. Nothing is certain any longer. Survival even less so than before.

I quite liked the novel and would recommend it, especially to those who like zombie tales.
/ [Linderel]

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