Author: Carrie Ryan
Publisher: Random House Children’s Books, March 9, 2010
Series: #2, The Forest of Hands and Teeth
Book Synopsis (from Goodreads): Gabry lives a quiet life. As safe a life as is possible in a town trapped between a forest and the ocean, in a world teeming with the dead, who constantly hunger for those still living. She’s content on her side of the Barrier, happy to let her friends dream of the Dark City up the coast while she watches from the top of her lighthouse. But there are threats the Barrier cannot hold back. Threats like the secrets Gabry’s mother thought she left behind when she escaped from the Sisterhood and the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Like the cult of religious zealots who worship the dead. Like the stranger from the forest who seems to know Gabry. And suddenly, everything is changing. One reckless moment, and half of Gabry’s generation is dead, the other half imprisoned. Now Gabry only knows one thing: she must face the forest of her mother’s past in order to save herself and the one she loves.
Book Review
I was a little disappointed to find that Carrie Ryan’s follow-up to The Forest of Hands and Teeth didn’t pick up where the last one left off, but instead the story skips to a new generation. Perhaps because of this, I felt it was hard for me to care about Gabry because she didn’t have much of a personality. Or rather, she didn’t have the passion and fire in her like her mother, Mary did in the first book. Granted, as the story goes along she does find her voice, but I actually found myself liking the other characters more than her.
One of the best parts of this book is the love triangle between Gabry, Elias and Catcher. I must say, Carrie Ryan knows how to create drama! Catcher is the boy-next-door all around good guy and Elias is the mysterious, tortured soul. Who to pick? I really liked both of them for a lot of different reasons. Catcher really changes throughout the book so I felt like he was the most developed character.
The zombies are still here and just as bad as ever. We do find out a little bit of information about them, however so that’s appreciated. One thing that I didn’t like about this book is that the characters are forced to go through the forest by way of the narrow fenced-in paths and I thought that was a little redundant since a lot of the first book is spent there as well.
Overall, I liked this book almost as much as the first, there were just a few things lacking for me.
(On a side note I just want to say I think the covers in this series are beautiful!)