This was a good book. It was great. But I don’t recommend it. The reason being was because the ending sucked!

All through the book was awesome action and some pretty odd but interesting characters. But the end just didn’t satisfy me. It was awful. I’m not trying to be mean about it but it was terrible.

While I was reading the story it felt as though I was in it. I would be there at night and would forget about my surroundings. Only when someone disturbed me would I really snap out of it.

The book was more like a diary the way it was written and I would’ve liked it better if it wasn’t. But oh well.

The book was a downer the whole way through and you were more expecting a happy ending but it didn’t come.

The Forest of Hands and Teeth is an absolutely sensational debut by Carrie Ryan – touted by Hachette Australia as being the 2009 debut of the year and I can really see why.  Once you’ve been sucked into this world, you won’t be leaving in a hurry! This is better than a 5 mile run to get the heart pounding.

This is a VERY first person story where we spend a lot of time in Mary’s head, experiencing what she experiences in full technicolour. If you ever wanted to experience life as an empath, this would give you a great grounding. Wow. It’s a book that you need to just sit and think of nothing after finishing, just to give yourself a little time to unwind from the intensity of this total immersion story.

It’s almost a coming of age story – Mary’s world has been shattered and we join her with heart in mouth as one by one she discovers the truth buried in the rubble of lies that everything she has ever known has now become.

This is a teen-fantasy and has the odd teen angst moment, particularly in the world of ‘he loves me, he loves me not’, or the ‘which boy do I really love’ moments. However, this is an undertone and you can easily skim over this without being too affected.

Shamefully I have to admit – I did actually throw this book down in disgust at page two, I just couldn’t cope with what I thought was going to be another fantasy with Christian elements in it (for the good or bad), I have read a spate of them lately (must be the hunky Angel thing), and am a lot over religion in my fantasy. But, obviously, I gave it another go, and from about page 8 I was hooked. So not an instant grab, but well worth persevering for the first few pages.  Just goes to prove that I am a generation-X reviewer, be careful if you haven’t hooked me in the first paragraph!

I am quite amazed by Carrie Ryan, she’s done exceptionally well and there is a sequel coming out in 2010 which is promising to be just is good – but whether she can make it just as exciting we will have to wait and see.