LitPick Review
The Forest of Hands and Teeth is a book set in the future with some clear rules. One of them is to avoid the half dead, called the Unconsecrated, that haunt the edge of her village. The fence that divides the living from the dead also keeps the village safe from the surrounding Forest of Hands and Teeth. When an uncrossable line is crossed, a girl named Mary starts to discover things she didnt want to know about her world. She begins to wonder about the world outside her community and whether or not she could have a future there. A break in the fence forces her to decide whether to stay knowing these things, or venture out into the unknown and face its possible dangers.
Opinion:
While I often enjoy sort of disturbing science fiction books, I found this one difficult to get through. It was extremely well written and descriptive, but the whole story was very dark. Especially at the beginning, the main character/narrator seemed very hopeless and miserable in her life. As the book progressed, Mary becomes a little more optimistic, but the events continued to worsen and I found it hard to read when so many bad things had happened. Even so, the writing is strong and the author made it a memorable story. I would only recommend this to people who like hauntingly beautiful books and don't mind lots of death and sadness.
