The Forest of Hands and Teeth

The Forest of Hands and Teeth
By Carrie Ryan; Delacorte Press


Summary: In Mary's world these things are known. The Sisterhood always knows best. The Guardians 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 form the Forest of Hands and Teeth.
But everything that Mary has ever known starts to fail her. She's learning things she's never wanted to know about the Sisterhood and its secrets, the Gauridans and their power, and about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness.


When the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, Mary must choose between her village and her future. She must face the truth about the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Could there really be a life outside a world surrounded in so much death?




My Review: This was such an amazing book! I seriously could not put it down. I even brought it with me to work out with. ha ha. I have never been into the zombie type books, but this one changed my views completely.The hungry unconsecrated beings tearing at the fences surrounded by the village would literally send shivers down my spine. All the mysteries of the sisterhood,village, numbered gates, and never ending paths really got me hooked and intrigued about what I was reading.


The descriptions in this book made the images and characters so clear to me, as if I was really there, witnessing the whole story first handed. Can you imagine being trapped in a world where you are told that there is nothing beyond the fences, but the unconsecrated? Or to only have your mother's story of the ocean to keep you hoping that there is a world beyond the village? I know I can't. The emotions and imagery in the this novel is incredible and definitely worth the read.


The Forest of Hands and Teeth is an intense story of hope, faith, and dreams. In this book, the character Mary has this undying faith in her mothers stories of the ocean and will stop at nothing until she sees the ocean and gets away from the village that holds her there. Her hopes and dreams of her mothers stories test her faith and courage to give up the world she's always known, and push past the gates into the unknown.


 I'm not even going to lie, I cried like a baby throughout this whole book. I would put myself in the character of Mary. I felt all her emotions through the things she faced throughout the whole story. Making the story more terrifying and thrilling. It push reading to a whole different level. We will call it "Being one with the book." ha ha. Try it sometime.


All in all,this was truly a masterpiece and well written novel. I give two thumps way up for Carrie Ryan and her excellent writing skills. I highly recommend this novel to those who aren't afraid to face the unconsecrated.


P.S. I can't wait for the next one in the series, The Dead-Tossed Waves, which I will be buying as soon as possible!!


Things to Watch Out For: Sensual acts, religious ceremonies, killings, unconsecrated beings(zombies basically), graphic detail, death, violence, and terror.


For More information: Carrie Ryan and her books: GoodReads-Carrie Ryan,
                                      The Forest of Hands and Teeth: Common Sense Review

Lock and Key

Lock and Key

By Sarah Dessen; Speak

Summary:  Ruby has always taken care of her alcoholic mother and had gotten use to her mother's usual disappearances. But after months of not returning, Ruby knows her mother isn't coming back this time. Ruby is force to live on her own for months until the landlords discovered what is going on. Child services step in and Ruby is sent to live with her sister Cora, who she hasn't seen in ten years, and is now a lawyer married to a rich entrepreneur. Ruby is throw into a different world with her own bedroom in a new house in a rich neighborhood, a private school, and an allowance of her own. But despite all her new surroundings, Ruby still wears the key to her house around her neck as a reminder of her old familiar life. Ruby slowly starts to lower her defenses and adjust to her new life. With the help of her sweet and cute neighbor Nate, Ruby discovers that in order to save yourself, you've got to reach out to someone else.

My Review: I have never been a Sarah Dessen fan until now. From the first page I was hooked and knew that this was the beginning of an excellent read for me. Sarah Dessen has always taken a troubled teen and changed them throughout the story in to a different person.The character Ruby  for instances, starts out in a roach invested house with no running water and ends up in a new house in a rich neighborhood with a pond. It  points out that there is always a way out and a way to change. In this novel especially, it shows that people from the horrible circumstances can change their lives through the help of others and themselves. Ruby discovers that its never too late to change one's self and future.
One of the big focuses in this novel is family. Ruby has to do a school project on family and  is required to ask people what their definition of a family is. Here is an excerpt from the book on  Ruby's final definition of a family:
What is family? They were the people who claimed you. In good, in bad, in parts or in whole, they were the ones who showed up, who stayed in there, regardless. It wasn't just about blood relations or shared chromosomes, but something wider, bigger...Our family of origin, the family we created, as well as the groups you moved through while all of this was happening: friends, lovers, sometimes even strangers. None of them were perfect, and we couldn't expect them to be. You couldn't make any one person your world. The trick was to take what each could give you and build a world from it.(pg 400)
I highly recommend this book for teens and up. The themes and changes in this book will hook you and take you on a journey to the depths of reality and bad circumstances that happen in this world and show you that through others and yourself change is possible.

Things to Watch Out For: Abandonment, abuse, drugs and alcohol, language, sensual acts, and mild violence.