The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan
I picked this book up thanks to the recommendation in the Goodreads newsletter and I wasn’t disappointed. I actually didn’t realize it was a zombie/dystopian fascist story from the description. Spoilers follow!
There aren’t a lot of “answers” in this book. There’s no detailed explanations of how the zombie infection got started, who built the isolated villages, how the Sisterhood was founded, or even the mystery of the fast zombies. But none of that is really necessary, because this book is about telling the story of the zombie apocalypse from a first-person, visceral perspective; I think it succeeds.
…this book is about telling the story…from a first-person, visceral perspective…
Ms. Ryan does an excellent job detailing the fear of the unknown and constant threat of being overrun, as well as the pain of being forced to kill loved ones after they turn. The weakest points of the book center around the main character and her tendency to raise questions only to drop them. Belief in God separate from the religious orders of the community and her love interests are perhaps the two themes least well-developed.
Ms. Ryan does an excellent job detailing the fear of the unknown…
The main theme I got from this was the main character’s struggle to maintain a belief in something better even as she fought (literally and emotionally) against the destruction hemming her in from every side. There’s no deus ex machina at the end either…just a small validation that her faith may not have been misplaced.
This review can also be found on Goodreads. View all my reviews on Goodreads.