I’ve been on a reading tear lately, and the latest series that I zipped through was The Forest of Hands and Teeth series by Carrie Ryan. I have to say, I’m pretty sad that I have to put those books down now and continue on to another series; it really captivated me.
If you’re not familiar with The Forest of Hands and Teeth series, it’s about characters in a post-apocalyptic world in which people live within villages and towns fenced in from the Unconsecrated. The Unconsecrated are essentially zombie-like creatures whose only purpose is to bite a living being and infect them, turning them into an Unconsecrated within a few minutes, hours, or days, depending on the severity of the bite(s).
I’m sorry, but every time there was an Unconsecrated in the books, I couldn’t help picturing Redeads from Ocarina of Time.
In the first book, The Forest of Hands and Teeth, the teenage protagonist, Mary, is trying to find complacency within the bounds of her village in the middle of the Forest. In a matter of days, her mother is bitten through the fences by an Unconsecrated, turns and is launched into the Forest, and Mary is forsaken by her married brother, Jed, given over to the Sisterhood, and given the choice of either joining the Sisterhood forever or marrying Harry, her lifelong friend and older brother to Travis. Unfortunately for her, Travis is the one Mary loves, and he is betrothed to Mary’s best friend Cass.
The group is forced to find shelter when the fences are breached by the Unconsecrated (long story), and to make a long story short, they go into the fenced off portions of the Forest to try to find a new home. All the while, Mary wants to find the ocean, which her mother would describe to her all the time when she was alive, but everyone thinks it doesn’t exist. You’ll have to find out if she does find it or not! I don’t want to spoil the ending. 😉
The second book, The Dead-Tossed Waves, is set in Vista, a town by the ocean, and is focused on another protagonist, Gabrielle (Gabry), who turns out to be Mary’s “daughter.” At first I was a bit dismayed to have a new protagonist, but I quickly began to like Gabry. She’s similar to me, scared to face her fears but will do it for her loved ones. The story begins with her friends coercing her to jump over the barrier wall with them into an abandoned amusement park, and well… there were some scary Unconsecrated in there, and needless to say, some of the kids get bitten. As punishment, the town leaders demand that the bitten ones be quarantined or banished and the ones who were caught in the park to be sent to the Recruiters. The thing is, Gabry escaped before she was caught and feels 10 ways to guilty.
To make things worse, the guy she really likes, Catcher, was infected right after they shared a first kiss, and he disappeared before she could find him back that night. She tries to get back into the abandoned amusement park when another character, Elias, comes to her rescue and fights off a horde of Unconsecrated for her. Anyway, eventually, Gabry’s mom tells her that she isn’t her daughter and that she was born in the Forest and has a twin sister, Annah. Gabry’s mother then disappears into the Forest, and after several turns of events, Gabry and Elias free the kids and some other characters, including Catcher and his sister, Cira, and they run into the Forest to get away from the pursuing Recruiters. Without giving everything away, Gabry’s heart wars in choosing between Catcher, the blonde boy who grew up with her and who is now immune but still infected, and Elias, the mysterious guy who saves her and watches out for her (and eventually falls in love with her). She winds up falling for Elias after fighting it for a good majority of the book, but she is forced to go into the Dark City beyond the Forest only with Catcher as Elias broke his leg on a nasty fall in the Forest.
Finally, the third book, The Dark and Hollow Places, is set in the Dark City and is focused on another new character, Annah, twin sister of Gabry. Unlike Gabry, Annah is a fighter and is fierce and brave… and also loves (or at least loved) Elias, who protected her in the Dark City for years (it’s a long story!). Eventually, as she tries to leave the city in search of a new life, she spots her twin sister and Catcher trying to enter the city, but the dogs sense that Catcher has the disease. Gabry is taken to the sanctuary on the island, and Catcher, who manages to get away from the Recruiters, finds Annah and together they try to get to Gabry as a horde of Unconsecrated quickly begins taking over the city. Eventually, the foursome are reunited at last; there are a lot of warring emotions, and the crew has to try to escape from the once-protective, now-horribly cruel Recruiters. Will they make it out alive? Find out! 🙂
I really loved reading these books. I mean, it’s probably 1,000 pages combined or more, and I burned through it in a week. My favorite characters were definitely Gabry and Elias, and I especially love them as a couple. They’re very good together! ^_^ I was rooting for them the whole time (sorry, Catcher!). There’s part of me that hopes there will be more books, but I’m not sure. Apparently the author hasn’t specified if she will write more books or not, but the 3rd one does have a very open-ended ending, so who knows? 🙂
If you have read these books, let me know what you think! If not, I highly recommend these books! They’re super good! 🙂
iggynapster 