The Forest of Hands and Teeth
Mary lives in an isolated village ruled by a religious order called the Sisterhood, surrounded by chain-link fences that hold back the Unconsecrated, the shambling dead. Mary has been told her whole life that the village is the last human settlement on earth, but her mother once told her stories of an ocean past the forest, and Mary cannot let them go. When the fences fail and the Unconsecrated overrun the village, Mary, her brother, her best friend, and the boy she loves run along a hidden path through the forest, hunting for the truth her village has been built to hide.
What you might want to know about The Forest of Hands and Teeth
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
In a village fenced against the shambling dead, a girl whose mother told her stories of an ocean runs along a hidden forest path when the fences finally fail.
Carrie Ryan's series has three main books: The Forest of Hands and Teeth, The Dead-Tossed Waves, and The Dark and Hollow Places. Each follows different protagonists in the same post-zombie world.
Yes. The Forest of Hands and Teeth is YA dystopian zombie fiction, suitable for readers 14 and up. The violence is significant for YA but not gratuitous.
The Forest of Hands and Teeth was written by Carrie Ryan, published in 2009 by Random House Children's Books.
The Forest of Hands and Teeth is 310 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Forest of Hands and Teeth takes most readers 5 to 7 hours to finish.
The Forest of Hands and Teeth is a standalone novel by Carrie Ryan, not part of a series.
The Forest of Hands and Teeth is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.