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.
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