Mine was The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan, a 2010 Best Book for Young Adults.
No one enters Mary’s village and no one leaves. To do that, one would have to face the Forest of Hands and Teeth, the forest where the Unconsecrated lurk in the darkness, ready to bite and tear and kill. If you get bitten by one of the Unconsecrated you become Infected and have nothing before you but your death and Return.
Mary lives in fear day after day, waiting for the inevitable breach of the fences that protect the village. But one day, an Outsider stumbles upon the village, proof that life still exists beyond the Forest. The existence of the Outsider brings Mary hope. She becomes determined to escape the village and the Sisterhood by finding life outside. With her friends, she embarks on a journey through the forest, a journey that will end in either her salvation or her demise.
The Forest of Hands and Teeth puts a new spin on the idea of a zombie apocalypse. Ryan’s novel is intense and thought-provoking, while being unlike any other piece of young adult literature today. It possesses everything a reader would want in a book: danger, romance, adventure, and of course, zombies. Anyone who is sick of reading the same basic rehashed plot over and over again, and anyone who is tired of reading books filled with bland characters and cheesy clichés, will not be disappointed by The Forest of Hands and Teeth. I recommend this book to any teen who is looking for a good book to pick up. Also, if you like the novel, you can look forward to its companion, The Dead-Tossed Waves, which comes out today.
–Tara Olivero
Allen County Public Library Teen Advisory Board
