The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

TITLE: The Forest of Hands and Teeth
AUTHOR: Carrie Ryan
COPYRIGHT: 2009
TYPE: Young Adult/Fantasy
PAGES; 310
SERIES: 1st in a new series

REASON FOR READING: Katiebabs talked me into it with her review

Summary : {From Goodreads}
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?

THOUGHTS/OPINION:
At first this book was hard to get into. I couldn’t understand or sympathize with the main character. She grew up her whole life afraid of everything outside her fence. Her father was turned and now her mother was crazy with the loss. She resented the fact she had to watch her mother to prevent her from going to the fence after her father. And the worse thing that could happen did. Now Mary has to survive and learn what is really out there for her and if there was more to life then fear.

Things I enjoyed:
-Like I said at first I didn’t care for Mary I thought she was selfish and immature however, as the book continued Mary grew into a person that I could relate to a little bit. Yes she still had her selfish moments but she also had moments of understanding and realization. These are what helped her grow
-I liked seeing what the world was truly like and how one group controlled another by keeping the past from the people. It had an underlining mission to it that I thoroughly enjoyed and related too as well.
-The ending was wonderful and left just enough questions for the second book.

Things I didn’t care for:
-Again I didn’t care for the selfish moments that Mary had all the way up until a major life turning event. She was so single focused on those issues and hang-ups she couldn’t ever appreciate what she had until she lost it. It was rather depressing but still it made her into the person she needed to be by the end.

Are you keeping it or passing it on? Passing on it b/c it was a library book. After the next one comes out and if I like it I will probably buy both.

Anything Else: This was an interesting story line different that I normally read but I was glad I gave it a try