The Forest of Hands and Teeth

By: Carrie Ryan

Narrated by: Vane Millon

Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

In Mary's world there are simple truths. The Sisterhood always knows best. The Guardians will 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 from the Forest of Hands and Teeth.

But, slowly, Mary's truths are failing her. She's learning things she never wanted to know about the Sisterhood and its secrets, and the Guardians and their power. And, when the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness. Now, she must choose between her village and her future, between the one she loves and the one who loves her. And she must face the truth about the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Could there be life outside a world surrounded in so much death?

"A bleak but gripping story.... Poignant and powerful." (Publishers Weekly, starred)

"A postapocalyptic romance of the first order, elegantly written from title to last line." (Scott Westerfeld, author of the Uglies series and Leviathan)

"Intelligent, dark, and bewitching, The Forest of Hands and Teeth transitions effortlessly between horror and beauty. Mary's world is one that readers will not soon forget." (Cassandra Clare, best-selling author of City of Bones)

"Opening The Forest of Hands and Teeth is like cracking Pandora's box: a blur of darkness and a precious bit of hope pour out. This is a beautifully crafted, page-turning, powerful novel. I thoroughly enjoyed it." (Melissa Marr, best-selling author of Wicked Lovely and Ink Exchange)

"Dark and sexy and scary. Only one of the Unconsecrated could put this book down." (Justine Larbalestier, author of How to Ditch Your Fairy)

©2009 Carrie Ryan (P)2009 Listening Library

Critic reviews

"Mary's observant, careful narration pulls readers into a bleak but gripping story of survival and the endless capacity of humanity to persevere.... Fresh and riveting." (Publishers Weekly)

"The suspense that Ryan has created from the very first page on entices and tempts readers so that putting the book down is not an option." (School Library Journal)

Quick, compelling listen although poor narration

I really enjoyed this story, it moved quickly and kept my interest the whole time. It's one of those post-apocolyptic tales, in the line of Hunger Games and others. Although it's geared towards young adults, it's appropriate for anyone. Unfortunately it's very poorly narrated, the inflections are in all the wrong places and she can't seem to capture any other accents or characters other than her own. In the hands of a skilled narrator, this story would be one of my favorites.

Reminds me of the movie The Village

This book was good. It reminds me of the movie The Village by M. Shalaman Knight. The outcome was different. I am not so sure that I enjoyed it as much because of the ending. I wish we could also find out how her life changed and what happened to her.

Interesting

Love the story idea but really didn't like the narrator's way of telling the story, it made it hard to get into.

Fun

it's what you would expect from a good YA. recycled story with a twist. she lost me a couple of times during the unnecessary wanton angst but overall it was fun

it has great

I loved the book start to Finnish her voice amazing and a great story plott

Similar vibe to Enclave by Ann Aguirre

Narrator was ok, I’m not sure why the adults would have an accent different from the teens/younger crowd. I think the narrator didn’t know how to distinguish between an older and a younger person. That threw me off plus a few times when the MC seemed to have a slight accent out of nowhere- better editing would have improved the performance immensely as at times it jarred me out of the story.

The story overall is interesting, I downloaded it because it had a similar vibe to Enclave by Ann Aguirre and I loved those stories. The same vibe is felt throughout this story line where she is constantly put into scenarios that make her question her leadership.

The majority of the story lacks some urgency which is usual for first books in a series. I’ll definitely be continuing on to the next and recommend this series to those who like YA- not hugely spicy but still some horror.

The love triangle confused me a bit as I never saw much about the MC that would have attracted anyone plus there are quite a few plot holes where I was either confused or shaking my head.

Agreed, it’s meh

Le sigh. What a disappointment. I will not be purchasing any additional Tik Tok recommendations for the most disturbing books EVAH!

Perhaps this will resonate more with the “young adults”, just not my cup of tea. I found the narrators voice to be grating, so it was a struggle to finish. Again, this is all imo, and could elicit rave reviews by others.

I can't believe I actually finished this

I got this Because it had good reviews and I guess if you like twilight series but thought they weren't mushy enough then ya get this book, but if you actually are not a 13 year old girl, then you may want to skip it! I kept listening hoping it would get better and it most certainly didn't. It's been more then a year since I listened to this and I am still bitter about wasting hours of my life and truthfully embarrassed that I actually didn't just quit after The first 5 minutes like my wife did (and she liked the twilight series...

Interesting Idea, Blah Execution

This novel started well. I liked the premise and looked forward to learning more about the village and its people and history. But that never came. In fact, we meet maybe a dozen of the village's inhabitants and learn little about them. And then, halfway through, I became bored of Mary, the unconvincing and bland heroine. The toneless narration did nothing to help.

Meh

Not a fan of the reader. She gives everything the same amount of dramatic emphasis no matter what's happening, and reads every character the same way. I stopped listening halfway through and read the actual book myself because it bothered me too much. I did feel like the pitch of her voice fit with the main character, though. The book itself isn't good either. Very badly edited, there are consistent grammar and spelling errors. The characters had no personality's and non of them were likeable. The story was decent enough that it kept me reading almost until the end, but I stopped a few chapters short because I was bored through the whole thing and felt like I was wasting my time. Wouldn't recommend.