The Forest of Hands and Teeth.

In my last little attempt at a book review I mentioned that I had a weird sympathy for inanimate objects. In the case of a book, this often doesn't come up as books are rarely alone, bought in bookshops as they are (bookshops selling a single book are few and far between, right ;P?) However I think I've now developed a different layer to my weird sympathy-onion: feeling sorry for books that no one seems to read, even if I wouldn't read them either.

 

The Forest of Hands and Teeth caught my eye in work one day about a year or so ago, simply because it looked really interesting. The title sounded a little disturbing, the cover was eye-catching, so I picked it up and read the blurb.

And then...I put it down and walked away.

Though I'm generally mistrustful of blurbs, this one held my attention like trying to hold a wet bar of soap. Three words were mentioned a bit too often "SECRETS...LOVE...DEATH"...er...was I holding a Twilight-esque book?!

A couple of months later, having completely forgotten about it because no one brought it up to the counter, I walked down an aisle in my workplace to see it lying on the floor, half-tucked under the shelving unit. Oh no. Poor thing!

I bought it at the end of my shift and spent the next few days reading it on my breaks at work. See? I felt sorry for the book, so naturally it had to come home with me. Naturally.

So, here follows my review! It's a doozy!



The Forest of Hands and Teeth is narrated by Mary, a young girl living in a village surrounded by a dense forest filled with the Undead. We are led to believe that it's the only civilisation in the world. Fences built by ancestors long forgotten keep the zombies out, but they are always there and wailing sirens warn of the frequent break-ins. She is a relatively strange girl in comparison to the other girls of her age who are already marrying the few boys who remain there, quietly obcessed with the stories her mother old her of the Ocean and the times before the Undead. She finds herself being pursued by a boy she doesn't want and falling in love with a boy who has proposed to her best friend, Cass. Within days of the story beginning, their world falls apart and the group is forced to venture into the Forest of Hands and Teeth, using fenced ancient trails which seemingly lead to nowhere. Slowly they discover that they have all been lied to, that they can never return to the safety of their village and that love will make you do horrible things...

*insert dramatic music here*

I will happily admit that I was really into this book at the beginning. I'm a bit of a sucker for a good old Zombie book (do we capitalize 'zombie'? I feel like I should...)and this one was so tense and genuinely scary at the beginning. Without giving anything away, things go very wrong from the second page onward, and I found myself squirming with the shock of things. Poor Mary has a hard life! I found liking her as a protagonist really easy - she was quiet and strong willed as a heroine should be...but she was also in love. And for some reason, the author apparently thinks that when a young girl is in love, she is incredibly idiotic and achingly sorrowful, even when the only males in the story are completely besotted with her. This daze apparently strengthens when disaster strikes and she must run away. It was like watching an old stabby-stabby horror film, like Scream. Why do they always go into the scary houses and act surprised when the killer attacks!?

As the book progresses, the undead are a constant, grating presence; rather than being threatening and horrifying, for some reason they just become really annoying. Each serious encounter with them had me skimming over the supposed "action" scenes (the characters were confined in long corridors, perfectly protected by the fencing) and rolling my eyes at one-emotion-Mary. She is perpetually curious about everything, as you'd expect of someone thrown into an unknown world. However, her narrative is so filled with pining that any hint of interest in something else is short-lived or eventually loops back to thoughts of Cass.

The majority of the book takes place in these protected corridors....as you can imagine, nothing exciting happens in corridors. The characters are completely one-dimensional and self-obcessed. Every tidbit of secrecy, lies and corruption fade away slowly as though the author is saying "Why would you want to know the answers when you can read about a boy and a girl being painfully awkward with one another?"

I know I seem to be really harsh on this book - that's just how frustrated it made me. I kept wanting to grab Mary and point her at a zombie or an unexplored route - the book has so many little flashes of really great world building that just simply gets pushed aside in favor of the watery romance forming behind the fences.

The Forest of Hands and Teeth is the first of three books, and I figured that things would improve as the series went along. But when I finally reached the final pages, my disappointment was so great that I won't be picking up the second - everything is anti-climatic, and you're left feeling like the journey really was not worth it, a sentiment actually shared by the main character! If the protagonist doesn't feel like their time was well spent, why would I want to continue the story into the sequels?

I would genuinely love to know if anyone has a different opinion on this book - please comment below and lets get talking! <3 p="">
Clare x