With BEA a mere two weeks away, I’m finding it hard to focus on every day tasks. I mean, come on. What could be better that 4 days in New York, books, authors, friends, etc?! The one stressful part is just how to get around to see all of the amazing authors.
My first year, I met Melissa Marr. I actually stood in line for 2 hours just to make sure to get an ARC of Carnival of Souls. Last year, I was thrilled to finally meet Holly Black–The Darkest Part of the Forest. I mean, come on…Holly and I had matching hair! How much cooler can you get? Talk about two awesome authors who write the hell out of fantasy, paranormal, and horror.
This year, Carrie Ryan will be signing at BEA. I have wanted to meet Carrie ever since I read her series, The Forest of Hands and Teeth. I mean, we’re talking about zombies and the terror of living in a gated world. If you’ve never heard of Carrie, you really need to check these books out. And for those who’ve read either of these, I’d love to hear your thoughts about Carrie’s writing.
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, 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 in so much death?
Gabry lives a quiet life. As safe a life as is possible in a town trapped between a forest and the ocean, in a world teeming with the dead, who constantly hunger for those still living. She’s content on her side of the Barrier, happy to let her friends dream of the Dark City up the coast while she watches from the top of her lighthouse. But there are threats the Barrier cannot hold back. Threats like the secrets Gabry’s mother thought she left behind when she escaped from the Sisterhood and the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Like the cult of religious zealots who worship the dead. Like the stranger from the forest who seems to know Gabry. And suddenly, everything is changing. One reckless moment, and half of Gabry’s generation is dead, the other half imprisoned. Now Gabry only knows one thing: she must face the forest of her mother’s past in order to save herself and the one she loves.
There are many things that Annah would like to forget: the look on her sister’s face before Annah left her behind in the Forest of Hands and Teeth, her first glimpse of the Horde as they swarmed the Dark City, the sear of the barbed wire that would scar her for life. But most of all, Annah would like to forget the morning Elias left her for the Recruiters.
Annah’s world stopped that day, and she’s been waiting for Elias to come home ever since. Somehow, without him, her life doesn’t feel much different than the dead that roam the wasted city around her. Until she meets Catcher, and everything feels alive again.
But Catcher has his own secrets. Dark, terrifying truths that link him to a past Annah has longed to forget, and to a future too deadly to consider. And now it’s up to Annah: can she continue to live in a world covered in the blood of the living? Or is death the only escape from the Return’s destruction?
Suzy G
The Forest of Hands and Teeth was my first taste of YA horror. That’s when I first discovered it was a THING. I was completely in love. I wanted to read it and write it.