Is this the new "Twilight"?

Finally, someone put a non-vampire related young adult Sci-Fi novel on the shelves of book stores. Author Carrie Ryan, who recently made her debut with "The Forest of Hands and Teeth," hopes that gory zombies will rise from their graves and take over the sexy, glittery vampires. Ryan’s new and much darker world is original, fresh, and suspenseful, but lacks to fulfill the readers expectations of a new plot and story, thus creating an original idea, but an unoriginal storyline. 

Sixteen-year old Mary lives in a village ran by the strict, orderly and mysterious Sisterhood. The village is surrounded by a fence that protects it from the Unconsecrated living in the Forest of Hands and Teeth. But Mary longs to know the world that lies beyond all that, and to find out if an Ocean really does exist. Or if there really was a different world before the Return, a time when cities existed. 

Ryan’s emphasis on details sets the eerie mood of the book. The zombies are not glorified like the vampires in "Twilight." They are full-on bony, hollow, flesh-hanging zombies. However, Ryan fails to make the actual human characters of the book as unique and developed. They are the typical teenage characters—a curious girl who gets herself into trouble, the boy who is the love of her life, a best friend who has that boy, and of course, another boy who loves the curious girl. 

Mary is predictable and whiny. It is hard to sympathize with a character who complains about the life she has set for herself, but Ryan is able to compensate for the unoriginal characters with their emotions. The characters’ surroundings put them under extreme pressure revealing their real and strong, yet scared, voices. The book focuses on the lives of Mary, her four friends and loved ones, and Sister Tabitha. With only a few characters in the book, Ryan is able to give each one of them a developed personality. During the times when Zombies attacked, each character reacted differently, but you can also see that they were all feeling the same fear. Every little action a character does defines a small part of who they are. A small laugh is all it takes to get the feeling that the character is easy-going.

The novel is a real page-turner that will keep toes curled and readers going through the night—or until they are too creeped out. The beginning of the novel is nicely paced, slowing down only because of the lack of zombie action. Though the turning point of the novel, when Mary’s world changes, can be easily foreseen a chapter or two beforehand, it is completely thrilling and different. It’s one of those books where you know what’s going to happen, but you still keep on reading just to find out if you were right or if there is an unexpected twist in the story.

The biggest downfall of the novel is in the lack of answers and zombie scenes. The mysteries Mary begins to solve are left behind one after another. And after all the thrill and suspense built up, the story line falls flat. Instead of action-packed suspense, the rest of the 320 pages are just filled with small doses of zombies. All the zombie action in the beginning half gets your adrenaline pumping and then those scenes are gone when you’re expecting them the most. Without the zombies, it’s like being stuck in the same room with the same people for hours with nothing to do. That doesn’t mean that the book loses its integrity. It remains suspenseful, just without the scare factor. You still want to know what happens at the end of the book.

For a debut author, Ryan earned the book three and a half stars out of five. "The Forest of Hands and Teeth" is a great read for those who loved "The Hunger Games" and somewhat realistic characters. The zombies are moving in fast, and soon their tale might even become the new “Twilight”.

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