In Mary’s world, there are simple truths. The Sisterhood always knows best. The Guardians will protect and serve. The Unconcsecrated 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, when the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness.
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?
Zombies. I felt compelled to read this book because I constantly have students in my library ask me if I have any good zombie books. Although I am happy to see a shift from vampires, I must admit I am not up to par on my zombie lore.
Furthermore, I wasn’t excited about this book; I’ll be honest, the jacket notes didn’t really inspire me to pick it up. Out of the ten books that I took with me on vacation, it was my second read, however.
Quick synopsis that is hopefully more interesting than the italized one above: Mary lives in a post-apocalyptic village surrounded by attacking zombies (the Unconsecrated). The rules of the village are made by a group of nun-like women called the Sisterhood. Their army of warriors/repairmen are the Guardians (they repair the fence and decapitate zombies). Long story short, Mary’s family all become zombies except her brother, who kicks her out of his house, leaving her to be taken in by the Sisterhood in a stone monastary. Once there, she learns that there are many secrets and the Sisterhood isn’t as nice as everyone thinks. Then the town is attacked and zombies start eating everyone.
The plot itself isn’t necessarily original, it takes elements of popular YA literature and combines them into an interesting mix. We have a dystopian setting where Mary learns that the Sisterhood isn’t all it’s cracked up to be (Down with the Capital, anyone?), a love triangle with two brothers (as well as the “I’ve never thought about marriage” female protagonist), family strife, zombies, and the normal adolescent flip-flopping and bickering.
Here’s what I liked: the characterization is solid. Mary is a believable protagonist and unlike so many authors that first jump into YA lit, Ryan has a grasp on teen emotions and intelligence. She doesn’t make the characters too naive, but also doesn’t make them brilliant and capable of solving all of the world’s problems (whether or not they will do that in later books of the trilogy I do not know but at this point they do not even know who the zombie virus started and therefore have not conjured up a cure from the wild mushrooms that they found while escaping their burning village). Also, the love triangle doesn’t attack the reader; Mary discusses her feelings about the boys before we ever know the boys’ feelings about her.
Then the annoying part: there is a point in a trilogy where too much mystery and too many open ends are bothersome and compel you to stop reading after the first book. The reader is left not knowing what happens to many of the characters, what caused the zombie infection, if Mary has plans past where she ends up (and how she feels about them), how the Sisterhood formed, what it was up to, and does it secretly continue… So many open ends and honestly, not many answers in the first book.
On a side note, all of the good characters keep getting decapitated or falling apart. I guess that is to be expected from a zombie novel, but it became tiresome to get attached to characters when foreshadowing and experience told me that they were doomed.
The second books is on its way from Amazon. I’m not sure where it will go now that so many of the characters are dead. Mary will lead the way (somewhere) and the reader will follow for two more books; I hope she develops more as we journey. As a first book in the trilogy I’m leaning toward 4 Bards; it’s well written, BUT because of the vagueness of its continuality, I’m going to go with 3.
Moving! 
