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The Forest of Hands & Teeth

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I really hope there are more books in the world of "Hands and Teeth" - "Hare Moon", a novella just released online (which I haven't had a chance to read yet), apparently also takes place in the same universe. But I'd like a prequel, maybe something to answer what happened to cause the Return, or a sequel/separate trilogy of what happened after this last book. I won't take no for an answer. Mary was growing out to be a little bit more selfless, but it wasn't sufficient to make me continue reading the book. If you like cold calculated revenge involving hidden identities and lots of secrets: Daughter of Deep Silence.

The thing I think a lot of people won't like about this book is that there is a love square (Mary likes Travis, who is engaged to Cass, who is in love with Harry, who is engaged to Mary) and the heroine really comes off as selfish in a lot of the book. Also, it's depressing as hell. Our Zombies Are Different: They are basically the classic B-Movie zombies, only they spread via virus. So why did it get 3 stars? Well, it was more than 'ok' and I did like it, but there were just enough elements that annoyed me to not reach the 'really liked it' marker, especially when I compare it to other books that I've said to have 'really liked'.More like 3.9 stars but I went ahead and rounded it up because it is the series finale and it ended well. The protagonist is the strongest Ryan has written to-date, though a little too much When that finally happened, then things got rather tragic. I realize that it wasn't Mary's fault, and she showed true heroism, but part of me wanted to blame her for how things unfolded. Probably not fair, but kind of how I felt. The story starts off in a small town that Mary lives in. It's ruled by the Guardians and the Sisterhood.

If you or your kids like multi-author, multi-platform series like 39 Clues and Spirit Animals, try Infinity Ring: Divide and Conquer -- it's produced by the same publisher (and has vikings and true history!) The Dark and Hollow Places starts out with a new character - Annah, the twin sister of Gabry from book two. Annah lives in the Dark City and is patiently awaiting the return of Elias, who went off to find Annah's sister, Abigail. Annah and Elias left Abigail behind in the Forest of Hands and Teeth ten years ago while fleeing the Unconsecrated. Since then Annah has regretted the decision every day. Her guilt is visibly represented on her flesh by severe scars, an accident caused by barbed wire. Annah thinks of her sister and knows that she herself is ugly. 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 in so much death? I didn't really like any of the characters. I kept thinking I would. Nah. Jacob and the dog about the only two that showed sense enough to get out of a paper bag. And was this book ever scary. Ryan wasn't going to shy away from the blood, guts, and gore; which I was definitely happy about. She was kind of like her own character, in a way. If you didn't like the content that was in the book, then screw you and don't read it.Capital Letters Are Magic: Well not magic, but people are Infected by the Unconsecrated and the Guardians protect them. It was like the author lost a bet over how minimal a vocabulary she could use to write a book. Ocean. Ocean. OCEAN. OCEAN OCEAN OCEAN I swear to god stop saying ocean talk about something else anything else. Seriously. Do not hit your readers over the head with a hammer we GET IT. WE GET IT DON'T REMIND US EVERY CHAPTER I AM DROWNING IN YOUR SEA OF OCEANS. Honestly, I lowkey hated the first two thirds of this. It was dreadful. Dreadful isn't even the right word for it. It was like a soap opera set in a middle school being relayed to you on the cringest tumblr account imaginable. It was a time capsule from 2009. #10yearchallenge to the extreme. There was no personality. The atmosphere was minimal. Not a single character had a personality. The passing of time as imperceptible -- months passed and I hadn't even known it was a new day. The "love story" is almost nonsensical. Their attraction is explained through exposition and the tension consists of the two of them sitting next to each other. How riveting. Just like the 6th grade. It was just a little bit mind-numbing.

The only other reason why I didn't like it was the prose and style. Sometimes, I just couldn't follow as well as I wanted to, and, trust me, I wanted to. Desperately. I had to re-read several parts just to understand what happened sometimes, and at first I didn't mind, but it just really started to wear down on me as I continued. Again, that might just be me; I read it a while ago and I could have read it in the middle of the night or something so that could have caused my re-reads, but it happened enough that I don't believe that it was a coincidence. I don't think this book was in any way original. It read mostly like kind of Village/Dawn of the Dead/I Am Legend combo, just worse than either of those stories. I hated the book from the outset when we were launched right into a long stretch of her living in the nunnery and I was just like please attempt to find less ways of boring me and it didn't seem to be getting better. In fact it got worse, with the whole ridiculous two girls that are engaged to the wrong brother and in love with each other's finace thing. Then they finally leave the village and things started to get better, but only barely. As I mentioned I thought there was one part that was kind of scary that I enjoyed being creeped out by. However! The last third was actually pretty darn good. It actually got just a little bit meta and started criticizing its own faults, analyzing its own characters and asking them, "what even are your motivations?" It's a little bad that it even had to do that, but at least I got some substance out of this.

Did we miss something on diversity?

Writing aside though, I think the plot is also very commendable and I think very original. The utopian world is literally juxtaposed with the dystopian world and I was very impressed with the idea. The main characters live safely in a “Pleasantville-ish��� village and believe they are the last humans on earth while outside the fence where lies the Forest of Hands and Teeth, the “Unconsecrated” surround them keeping the people inside and leaving them no choice but be content with how they live. But Mary, our main character is a curious (sometimes too curious it’s annoying) girl and couldn’t accept that all there is to life is their sorry one in the village. This is where all the conflicts in the story shall arise. Annah can not take a break in this novel. Ryan puts her through some pretty hellish situations that left me doing something like this: Or this: I was on the edge of my seat for most of the book. Nowhere was safe, not from the Zombies or the recruiters. Many times they all just wanted to give up. But really, who could blame them? Ryan brought up a very good question in this book: What is the difference from surviving and simply existing? What do you do when you only have a short time to live? Well, you LIVE. You continuing fighting, feeling, believing.

The setting in which the story takes place really helps set the tone and feel of the book. Dark City is overrun and falling apart and it's the last strong hold survivors have. The darkened subway tunnels are beyond creepy! My adrenaline started running while reading these scenes they're that creepy, but so fitting for the story. While the setting makes the world and the story feel helpless, the characters give it hope, which was so appealing to me. Annah for me is the essence of survival. Her passion for living really brought the story to life. She often questions the way in which she was changing and how could she not? She's had to deal with some pretty horrific things both from what she's seen and experienced. She won't give up, even when all seems lost. But apart from that, it honestly felt pretty fresh and enjoyable to me, and I think if you like The Village and zombie movies, you'll really like this book. It's like a teen soap opera version of The Walking Dead, and if that makes you want to read this book, you're probably well within the target audience. I own the whole "trilogy" but I must note that the two subsequent books are "companion" books. Mary's story ends with this one and the other two books each feature different narrators. That disappointed me a little bit because if I really like a story and am invested in a character enough to read further into the series, I generally like it to be about that character, but I'm still interested in seeing what Ryan does with this world. Sometime in the future, the world is overrun by zombies--people infected by an unknown virus that causes them to return as the undead and feed on human flesh--called the "Unconsecrated". Mary lives in a village surrounded by the Forest of Hands and Teeth, where the Unconsecrated are kept out by a chain-link fence, and to the villagers' knowledge, they may be the last bastion of uninfected humanity. Mary's little world is ruled by fear and the people have turned to a Medieval-like religious fervor to give them hope. Mary grew up with stories of Outside the Forest and fences and her latent desire to uncover the truth eclipses everything when Mary finds out a dangerous secret. However, a blooming romance further complicates matters, and Mary will have to make a choice... This novel was at times frustrating, heartbreaking, and horrifying, but it's one of those books that you just have to read that next chapter to find out what happens.

These Hands Have Killed / It's All My Fault: Mary continually blames herself throughout the story for her mother's death, Gabrielle being infected at the hands of the Sisterhood and Jed's implied death. Also, Jacob begging forgiveness for starting the fire that forced our protagonists to leave the treetop village months early which he thought was the reason for Travis' death. It wasn't. Near the beginning of The Dark and Hollow Places Annah makes the decision to move on--Elias has been gone three years when he only signed up for two. She knows that there is a good chance he's dead or worse. She knows it's foolish to continue living in the same building they lived in together as it's been declared unsafe and the city is getting more dangerous every day.

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