The Forest of Hands and Teeth is a popular dystopia set in a post zombie apocalypse world. The book started out interesting and I found myself almost caring for the characters, but about a quarter through it suddenly went flat. I lost interest and had to force myself to read further.
I ended up skimming through the last half or so. I was curious how it ended but not engaged enough to waste more time reading. The main character, Mary, didn’t make a lot of sense to me. She didn’t seem to know what she wanted; true, many people never learn that. But in a book we expect the characters to somehow deal with this. Mary did not.
The other thing that was just plain stupid was that the world outside the small community was overrun with zombies. Yet the Sisterhood claimed that no one else existed beyond their small group. That makes no sense. If the only source for new zombies was the small contingent inside the community, then how did the zombies outside continue or even increase in number so many years after the apocalypse?
The Forest of Hands and Teeth is being made into a movie and there are sequels. I did not care for the book, but many readers love it. It may appeal to girls in the 15-20 age group.
1 Star.
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