The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

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 about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness. When the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, 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?

I had such high hopes for this book.  Everyone said it was gonna be a good read and I wouldn't be wasting my time.  I was lied to.

I mean zombies really aren't my thing, but I thought hey, why not?  I learned my lesson.

Mary is the main character and she is a few fries short of a Happy Meal, if you know what I mean.  But you don't know this from the beginning.  You think she's normal and dealing with living in a caged-in village.  So her whining is understandable...for a while.

The village she lives in is completely surrounded by chain-linked fencing which apparently is enough to keep out the Unconsecrated (zombies).  I don't understand how that's possible, but that's not really the part that bugs me.

Anyway, Mary's mom gets too close to the fence one day while pining for her husband, who was infected (bitten) a while ago and gets herself infected.  She elects to be released into the Forest of Hands and Teeth  to hopefully find her lost love and create a new spin on Twilight.

Mary and her older brother Jed are sad, but Jed has his own wife to tend to so Mary is left an orphan.  The Sisterhood (group of nuns that run the village) agree to take her in as long as she becomes one of them (because no man wants to marry her).  While living with the Sisters in the Cathedral she falls in love with a childhood friend, Travis, and meets an outsider, Gabrielle.  To Mary this is proof of life somewhere else and she has a sudden quest to find the ocean her mom used to tell her stories about.

This is where she starts to lose me and the book took a turn for the worst.  Because up until this point, I was good with the village people and their crazy antics and the world building; it was all really interesting. The minute Mary wanted to find the ocean I should have stopped reading.

So to keep the book moving the zombies break through and everyone freaks out.  

Okay so I did kind of like this part but only because the villagers didn't even try to fight the zombies.  They're all apparently trained in weaponry but how do they fight back?  They make tall platforms and climb onto them so the zombies won't eat them.  REALLY?  That's the best solution you could come up with?  Make really tall platforms and hope the zombies go away?  The thought of so many people on giant wooden decks really entertains me for some reason :)

Anyway...

The only ones that make it past the fences alive are the characters we know:  Mary, Travis, Cass (Mary's best friend and Travis's fiance), Harry (Travis's brother and Mary's fiance), Jed and his wife, but she dies after being infected.  Oh! Jacob and a puppy make it out okay also.  Jacob is a random little boy that we meet during the breach.

And if you didn't already notice the love triangle happening I'm taking this moment to point it out.  Harry and Travis both love Mary.  Mary only loves Travis, but since he has already promised to marry Cass she can't have him (and in my opinion that's the only reason she likes him).  Because as soon as she has him...later on...she only wants the ocean and misses Harry.  WTF Mary!?!?!  Make up your mind girl!

So this nonsense goes on and on until they find an abandoned village and make it to safety.  This doesn't last long and soon they are back on the other side of the fences.  By this point Mary is full-on crazy and thinks she found a code of numbers to follow.  She then finds a gate to the forest (coincidentally) and goes to find the ocean.  Jed runs after her and I assume dies because he's never heard from again.

Mary finds the ocean and another little village.  She cries because she's so happy.  I cried because there's a sequel.

I'm mad because the author could have really went somewhere with the beginning of this book but didn't and made Mary crazier than I thought anyone could be.  If she didn't HAVE to find the ocean she could have saved Travis, Jed, Jed's wife, her mother, Sister Tabitha (but I'm glad she died, she was getting on my nerves) and countless other no-named people.  But no, she had to find the stupid ocean and risk everyone's lives for nothing.  NOTHING!!!

This book doesn't have a reward at the end.  She finds the ocean then that's it.  End of story.  No answers about the zombies or anything about anything.  She doesn't even try to find her friends she left to die in the forest.  Mary says she loves her friends and family so much and doesn't even try to save them?  She didn't deserve to see the ocean.

Overall, 3 stars.  This book wasn't terrible but I didn't like it either.  I will NOT be reading the rest of the series because I can't take any more of this madness.

The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

A young FBI cadet must confide in an incarcerated and manipulative killer to receive his help on catching another serial killer who skins his victims.

This movie was awesome!  After I watched it for my Soc. class I decided I should review it here.

So although Hannibal Lecter is totally fictional he is still freakishly scary. That actor was truly amazing and I believed for every minute of the 118 I was watching him that he really was a serial killer.  Buffalo Bill not so much, but then again, he was a little too crazy for my taste.  I'm guessing that's the way the director wanted to portray Bill so the actor was probably just doing what he was told...fair enough.  At least he was consistent.

Clarice was very relatable and I don't even like Jodie Foster.  When she was scared so was I, when she figured something out I realized what it was.  The way the movie was paced was also really good.  I could keep up with what was happening.  It wasn't too procedural, like a bad episode of Law & Order.

I could also personally relate to Clarice because I am female and you could really see how she struggled to fit into the FBI, which was mostly dominated by men.

I'm not going to give a synopsis of the film because I know I'll give too much away.  Every moment is either interesting, thrilling or earth shattering and everyone should have the opportunity to feel that themselves.  I don't want to ruin anything!

So in summary...SEE THIS MOVIE!!!

Overall 4 stars.  It's not worth 5 because once you know the ending the rest is ruined.  You can never watch it again.

Wreck-It Ralph (2012)

A video game villain wants to be a hero and sets out to fulfill his dream, but his quest brings havoc to the whole arcade where he lives.

So this was obviously a kids movie, but it was still cute and witty enough for me to enjoy.  Since finals week is quickly approaching I needed to get some fun into my system and this was exactly the movie to see.

Ralph is the cute and lovable bad guy and is underappreciated in his video game, Fix It Felix.  He leaves to prove himself (by earning a medal) and so when he returns his fellow game characters will finally accept him and he won't have to live alone at the dump anymore.

Ralph getting the medal was actually the easy part.  This kind of threw me for a loop.  In these kinds of movies the hero always spends more than half of the movie searching for whatever and then the rest of the way he is just trying to return home.

Ralph did it backwards.  He got the medal in about 5 minutes.  Impressive right?  But then he accidentally gets sucked into another game similar to Mario Kart on crack and loses his medal.  He makes friends with another outcast and they help to save the game from evil cyber-bugs.

Ralph goes home and everyone appreciates him.  The end.

Not an impressive plot, but I'll give Disney the thumbs up for twisting it around a little.  Going into this movie I didn't have high hopes.  Honestly I was hoping to get a 90 minute nap out of it.  But because of voices like Sarah Silverman and Jane Lynch I actually found myself laughing pretty hard.

All in all the graphics were really good.  It was cool to see how they mimicked other older games, like Pac Man and Mario Bros., you could really see the change in animation and technique.

Also the colors in Sugar Rush (the made up game that most of the movie takes place in) made me want to eat candy.  So now I'm eating gummy bears as I write this review :)

Overall I'm not sure if I would see it again, but I would give Wreck-It Ralph 3 stars.  I was entertained and I don't have too much criticism for the movie at all.  I don't want to give it more stars because I feel like once you know what happens that's the end of it.  The wonder of new worlds is lost and you don't have the same curiosity you did as the first time you saw it.  You know all the characters and how they will react.

But if my little cousins REALLY wanna see it I might reconsider.

Sherlock (2010-present)

A modern update finds the famous sleuth and his doctor partner solving crime in 21st century London.

This is officially the best show in existence.  I cannot rave about this show enough.  The actors are so committed and the script is just so amazing!  THIS IS WHY I LOVE BRITISH PEOPLE!!

So everyone knows the famous story/character Sherlock Holmes and his 'bromantic' partner, Dr. John Watson.  This reincarnation of the old stories is so true to the original and is like no other remake out there.  Arthur Conan Doyle would be proud.

Except for when things have to be brought into this century, like using cell phones or the incorporation of genetic testing, most everything else is extremely accurate.  (Take this with a grain of salt because I have not yet read the book series, but a close friend of mine has and I am trusting her opinion.)

I don't really have any major problems with the show except that there are NOT enough episodes.  BBC only provides us with 3 episodes per season and each episode is about 90 minutes...which of course is just enough to leave me wanting more.

The man who plays Sherlock however does bother me from time to time.  Not because he doesn't play the part right (he actually fits it to a 'T') but his face reminds me of a dog.  Or a deer in headlights.  But that's nothing against him, it's not like he can do anything to make me feel less OCD about it.  He is still a great actor and I see why he was cast in the show.  AND he and Watson have great chemistry.  Lots of eye sex ;)

I just started watching this series yesterday and now I'm already done with it.  But after watching all the available episodes I would have to say that the first episode, A Study In Pink, would have to be my favorite.  It's when you first meet Sherlock and Watson and find out how they get to be roomies.  You are also introduced to Anderson, who doesn't have much of a role in the series except getting chastised repeatedly by Holmes.  This kept me the most entertained.

I'll admit, the pilot needed the humor.  The characters didn't have the likability yet and I couldn't connect with them on an emotional level...yet.  Also it's very hard to sit down for 90 minutes without being tempted to do or watch something else.  So the only two things that kept me watching were the facts that I loved Sherlock Holmes and every line of dialogue for the first 30 minutes was sarcastic and HILARIOUS.  I'm a sucker for sarcasm.

I don't want to give away any plot lines or any spoilers because this show really is amazing.  It was classic Sherlock Holmes:  he was always one step ahead of the villain and two steps ahead of the audience.  Now I watch a lot of crime shows and read a lot of mysteries but I couldn't figure out who did it 5 out of 6 times.  (I did manage to guess the villain one time but I'm not sure that it counts because it was a repeat offense...nevermind, I still give myself props.)

Overall, 5 stars.  If I could give more I would.

*Side note:  if any of this post sounds too formal or strange it's probably because everything I've said recently has been in a British accent...apologies :)  It should fade in a couple days, if I'm lucky.