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The Forest of Hands and Teeth

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The Forest of Hands and Teeth

By: Carrie Ryan
Narrated by: Vane Millon
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About this listen

 When a teen girl’s world is thrown into chaos, she must venture into the deadly Forest of Hands and Teeth in this post-apocalyptic New York Times bestseller perfect for fans of The Last of Us.

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. And when the fence is breached, her world is thrown into chaos.

Now 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 by so much death?


"Intelligent, dark, and bewitching, The Forest of Hands and Teeth transitions effortlessly between horror and beauty. Mary's world is one that readers will not soon forget." —Cassandra Clare, bestselling author of City of Bones

"A postapocalyptic romance of the first order, elegantly written from title to last line." —Scott Westerfeld, author of the Uglies series and Leviathan

★ "A bleak but gripping story...Poignant and powerful." —Publishers Weekly, Starred©2009 Carrie Ryan; (P)2009 Listening Library Death & Dying Difficult Situations Fantasy Fiction Literature & Fiction Science Fiction Science Fiction & Fantasy Emotionally Gripping Scary Sisterhood Village

Critic Reviews

★ "[T]he suspense that Ryan has created from the very first page on entices and tempts readers so that putting the book down is not an option." —School Library Journal, starred review

"Opening The Forest of Hands and Teeth is like cracking Pandora's box: a blur of darkness and a precious bit of hope pour out. This is a beautifully crafted, page-turning, powerful novel. I thoroughly enjoyed it." —Melissa Marr, bestselling author of Wicked Lovely and Ink Exchange

"Dark and sexy and scary. Only one of the Unconsecrated could put this book down." —Justine Larbalestier, author of How to Ditch Your Fairy
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I thought this story was overall okay, but you grow to want to slap the protagonist in the face. My god does she talk a load of rubbish!! I honestly don’t think there is a single character I actually like now that I think about it. I don’t want to give anything away obviously, but let’s just say Mary wants to sell sea shells by the seashore A LOT.

A story dragged on by fantasy.

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I loved the ideas in this story however characters with poorly written motivations and choices ruined it. Plot points are brought up and then not resolved and the main character does not drive the story - as they are too busy fantasising in excessive detail. If you like tacky teen romance only trying to overdramatise young love, then this is your book.

Great idea with poor characters and execution

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So downloaded this book because it kept coming up in my "recommend for you" list. I read some reviews all pretty positive. I read the blurb and it sounded like an interesting concept. I didn't listen to a sample though. It was a mistake. I honestly found the narration boring. Because the narrator sounded like she was bored. There was basically no emotion in this narration and some of the phasing was downright strange like a primary schooler trying very hard to observe all the grammatical inflections. It was so hard to keep engaged with the story. I was waiting for something to happen that wasn't just happenstance. Nothing happens as a result of the main character making strong choices. The main character came off as selfish and uninteresting. I also thought the all characters responses were unrealistic. If you like zombies and teen love stories and don't mind the style of the narration give it I go. I shall be returning this one.

I'm not sure what others have seen in this book.

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The narrator is unusual but this book is really good. It takes a while to get used to her but by the end I liked her and loved the story.

Stay with it

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