The book that
I picked for my independent reading was “The Forest of Hands and Teeth,” by
Carrie Ryan, which was published in 2009 by Delacorte Press. In her novel “The Forest of Hands and Teeth,”
Carrie Ryan paints a picture of where young adults have to make important
decisions to survive world full of evil. From the time the child reaches the
age to understand, they have to be ready to run from the “Return” that wonder
around outside their safety fence and the rules that the Sisterhood made. The “Return” is the dead, which for some unknown
reason have come back craving the bloody flesh of the living and will not stop
until they get it. They throw themselves
against the safety fences, clawing and breaking their body parts without
feeling the pain. The “Sisterhood” is a
group of women that live for God and protecting the village from the undead
that walk bound the fence in the forest. The Sisterhood looks for order, questions and
fighting their rules could cause the distraction of the village, which means
the children are raised to never question their life or the Sisterhood. But one girl named Mary, sees passed the fence
and know there’s something else out there and the Sisterhood had lied to the villagers.
With these thoughts it leads her to
sneak around looking for answers and hidden clues that would prove her theory
that life does exist outside the Village. This causes the Sisterhood to watch over and
make sure Mary understands that the loss of one life could save many more. Soon the Village was destroyed by the entry
of the “Return” which was caused by the Sisterhoods disposal of the people that
could destroy their way of life. Now Mary and her friends have to look for any
sign of life to survive, into a forest full of the dead unaware if there are
other breathing humans in the world. Through
their journey to find life, she finds love but the Return takes away her family
and friends. Finally she finds another living being but at the cost of her love
ones.
This
novel showed how people with fear could easily allow themselves to give up
their meaning of life and loss their dreams.
After looking through the book, I read examples of people living a one
track mind, live, marry and have children to better their village. If they to rebel or ask too many questions the
Sisterhood is quick to remind them of the monsters outside of the fence. When Mary decided that this life was not enough
for her she stared asking question, wanting to find the ocean that her mother
showed her pictures of many time. But the
head of the Sisterhood, Tabitha saw how lost Mary was “You must find your place
here... Give yourself to God and stop looking for something else….. You think
you want answers for your questions but you do not (65),” This shows how manipulation
is used to keep people’s dreams down, but fear is also included, showed in this
quote, “We have to continue to survive. And I will allow nothing jeopardize
this (64).” I feel that Ryan was trying to show a world different from all the
other zombie movies that are centered on the dead. In “The Forest of Hands and
Teeth,” image of children becoming adults in a matter of minutes and finding
the truth in the cloud of lies becomes important. Unlike other novels, there is
not a happy ending just a knowledge that the main character Mary was able to
live for another day.
The book “The Forest of
Hands and Teeth,” was a wonderful read and would recommend others to read. It’s
a horror book, but with the dramas of a young teens life.
