Book #11: The Forest of Hands and Teeth
Feb. 9th, 2012 08:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grav_ityI read an ENTIRE ZOMBIE book, you guys! And it wasn't gross and it didn't freak me out, but I'm sure once my subconscious gets done with me, I'll be a wreck.
(Or not: after "The Way We Fall" I had a very involved dream about being interviewed for a job at the White House by Dolores Landingham. I think I did well. MY BRAIN, YOU GUYS!)
Anyway, SPOILERS!
Funny story: fake blood and gore grosses me out. Oh yes. I am FINE with actual bodies and actual blood. I excavated a skeleton with a pig's liver so that it would be covered in maggots and I was FINE. I excavated a dummy with cottage cheese-fake adipocere? ALL THE PUKING. My forensics profs made fun of me for weeks. So with zombies, it's not the infection or the biting or the part where they just keep coming. It's the fake blood and gore.
But can I just talk about how much I love the title of this book? It's so delightfully creepy. And it manages to be both zombie-ish and tree-like at the same time. It's magnificent.
I also really liked the idea of the village, and how the world was just closed in with the Unconsecrated constantly shaking the fence. I forgot, occasionally, that for the bulk of the story, the Unconsecrated were quite literally within arm's reach of Our Heroes, but every time I got complacent, Ryan would find a new and terrifying way to remind me they were there.
I am so, so not used to all the tropes inherent to a zombie story. (Seriously: zombies gross me out so badly that I often don't watch the commercials for movies on TV. I mute or change the channel. I know NOTHING.) But I really enjoyed watching Mary's progress through the story. She was so isolated and so goal driven (in weird ways), and then forced to spend so much time sitting still and thinking.
I couldn't help but wonder how much control the Sisterhood actually had. I mean, I got the feeling they were keeping secrets, but I was never sure how much they knew as opposed to how much the just enforced by rote. Obviously they knew about the Path, that the ocean was real, that there were other people and that the Fast Ones were a problem, but I wondered how much history they actually knew. Hopefully, we'll find that out in Ryan's other books.
As with most books about horrible things, The Forest of Hands and Teeth was the story of a girl growing up, and the choices she has to make. One of the things I loved about Mary the most is that even though sometimes she was a bit wishy-washy, when the chips were down and the Unconsecrated were breaking down the door, she was an absolute fighter. She picked her moments, stuck to her guns, and somehow managed to have a dream in a world that was otherwise a nightmare.
8/10 for the title, for the spin on the zombie story, for not scarring me for life, and for making me wonder if it was going to have a Planet of the Apes style ending. ;)
(Or not: after "The Way We Fall" I had a very involved dream about being interviewed for a job at the White House by Dolores Landingham. I think I did well. MY BRAIN, YOU GUYS!)
Anyway, SPOILERS!
Funny story: fake blood and gore grosses me out. Oh yes. I am FINE with actual bodies and actual blood. I excavated a skeleton with a pig's liver so that it would be covered in maggots and I was FINE. I excavated a dummy with cottage cheese-fake adipocere? ALL THE PUKING. My forensics profs made fun of me for weeks. So with zombies, it's not the infection or the biting or the part where they just keep coming. It's the fake blood and gore.
But can I just talk about how much I love the title of this book? It's so delightfully creepy. And it manages to be both zombie-ish and tree-like at the same time. It's magnificent.
I also really liked the idea of the village, and how the world was just closed in with the Unconsecrated constantly shaking the fence. I forgot, occasionally, that for the bulk of the story, the Unconsecrated were quite literally within arm's reach of Our Heroes, but every time I got complacent, Ryan would find a new and terrifying way to remind me they were there.
I am so, so not used to all the tropes inherent to a zombie story. (Seriously: zombies gross me out so badly that I often don't watch the commercials for movies on TV. I mute or change the channel. I know NOTHING.) But I really enjoyed watching Mary's progress through the story. She was so isolated and so goal driven (in weird ways), and then forced to spend so much time sitting still and thinking.
I couldn't help but wonder how much control the Sisterhood actually had. I mean, I got the feeling they were keeping secrets, but I was never sure how much they knew as opposed to how much the just enforced by rote. Obviously they knew about the Path, that the ocean was real, that there were other people and that the Fast Ones were a problem, but I wondered how much history they actually knew. Hopefully, we'll find that out in Ryan's other books.
As with most books about horrible things, The Forest of Hands and Teeth was the story of a girl growing up, and the choices she has to make. One of the things I loved about Mary the most is that even though sometimes she was a bit wishy-washy, when the chips were down and the Unconsecrated were breaking down the door, she was an absolute fighter. She picked her moments, stuck to her guns, and somehow managed to have a dream in a world that was otherwise a nightmare.
8/10 for the title, for the spin on the zombie story, for not scarring me for life, and for making me wonder if it was going to have a Planet of the Apes style ending. ;)
