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juushikaTitle: The Forest of Hands and Teeth
Author: Carrie Ryan
Published: New York: Delacorte Press, 2009
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 310
Total Page Count: 74,580
Text Number: 220
Read For: mentioned by Melissa Marr (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
melissa_writing), borrowed from the library
Short Review: Mary is part of a small fenced village that has built safety within a forest filled with Unconsecrated (zombies). But the village is not the utopia that Mary once thought, and she longs to know what lies outside its walls and beyond the forest. The Forest of Hands and Teeth is a very well-intentioned failure. It has a strong premise, lots of potential for a good story, and Ryan tries to convey a number of themes—but plot goes unexplored while themes are hammered home, and all of it is crippled by a boring and unconvincing voice. I wanted to like this book, but I found it a slog and a disappointment. I don't recommend it.
The Forest of Hands and Teeth could have been a good book. It has a promising premise: not a zombie apocalypse but a zombie dystopia, where survivors live their lives in the midst of relentless undead. It's a dark, claustrophobic setting, and there are plenty of directions for growth: the true nature of the village's would-be utopia, Mary's dreams of the world outside, and the struggle to build life (and love) while surrounded by death. Unfortunately, Ryan makes vague gropes in all of these directions and never reaches far enough in any one of them. The secrets of the village are comically exaggerated conspiracies which ultimately go unexplored. Mary's desire to leave the village is often fulfilled in twists of fate rather than self-direction, which saps the protagonist's autonomy and makes the plot feel chaotic. And Mary's struggle to build life within death becomes an clichéd love triangle between wooden characters. There's too much plot and none of it explored to satisfaction.
The writing style is also a hopeful failure. First person present tense could convey the frantic events and claustrophobic environment, even the hopefulness of love, but instead Ryan too often tells rather than shows and Mary's experiences and emotions are so simply laid out that they are stripped of any subtlety and veracity. The narrative becomes a monotony of "I saw, I did, I felt"—simply said, it's boring. Ryan tries to infuse her concept, her plot, and her protagonist with greater meaning, and these themes of hope and knowledge are all very promising, but they too lack subtly. Like Mary's emotions, the themes reappear so often and so blatantly that they quickly become frustrating, redundant, empty words. If Ryan had narrowed the scope of the plot, had toned down the themes, had a more realistic voice and characters, this book could have been good. It certainly has a lovely title. Unfortunately, Ryan did none of these things, and despite its potential The Forest of Hands and Teeth is a disappointment. I don't recommend it.
Review posted here on Amazon.com.
Author: Carrie Ryan
Published: New York: Delacorte Press, 2009
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 310
Total Page Count: 74,580
Text Number: 220
Read For: mentioned by Melissa Marr (
melissa_writing), borrowed from the libraryShort Review: Mary is part of a small fenced village that has built safety within a forest filled with Unconsecrated (zombies). But the village is not the utopia that Mary once thought, and she longs to know what lies outside its walls and beyond the forest. The Forest of Hands and Teeth is a very well-intentioned failure. It has a strong premise, lots of potential for a good story, and Ryan tries to convey a number of themes—but plot goes unexplored while themes are hammered home, and all of it is crippled by a boring and unconvincing voice. I wanted to like this book, but I found it a slog and a disappointment. I don't recommend it.
The Forest of Hands and Teeth could have been a good book. It has a promising premise: not a zombie apocalypse but a zombie dystopia, where survivors live their lives in the midst of relentless undead. It's a dark, claustrophobic setting, and there are plenty of directions for growth: the true nature of the village's would-be utopia, Mary's dreams of the world outside, and the struggle to build life (and love) while surrounded by death. Unfortunately, Ryan makes vague gropes in all of these directions and never reaches far enough in any one of them. The secrets of the village are comically exaggerated conspiracies which ultimately go unexplored. Mary's desire to leave the village is often fulfilled in twists of fate rather than self-direction, which saps the protagonist's autonomy and makes the plot feel chaotic. And Mary's struggle to build life within death becomes an clichéd love triangle between wooden characters. There's too much plot and none of it explored to satisfaction.
The writing style is also a hopeful failure. First person present tense could convey the frantic events and claustrophobic environment, even the hopefulness of love, but instead Ryan too often tells rather than shows and Mary's experiences and emotions are so simply laid out that they are stripped of any subtlety and veracity. The narrative becomes a monotony of "I saw, I did, I felt"—simply said, it's boring. Ryan tries to infuse her concept, her plot, and her protagonist with greater meaning, and these themes of hope and knowledge are all very promising, but they too lack subtly. Like Mary's emotions, the themes reappear so often and so blatantly that they quickly become frustrating, redundant, empty words. If Ryan had narrowed the scope of the plot, had toned down the themes, had a more realistic voice and characters, this book could have been good. It certainly has a lovely title. Unfortunately, Ryan did none of these things, and despite its potential The Forest of Hands and Teeth is a disappointment. I don't recommend it.
Review posted here on Amazon.com.
