Booktalk
Mary lives in a simple world. It is a village ruled and ordered by The Sisterhood. Women who, like Nuns, have devoted their lives to God. But in Mary’s world The Sisterhood are so much more…They are the law. The Sisterhood sanctions every marriage and every birth, they heal the sick and can send you out into the Forest of Hands and Teeth.
You see, Mary’s world is not small simply because she’s grown up isolated in the middle of the forest. Not small because she’s never left her home, because she’ll have to choose a husband from two brothers she loves in different ways. It’s a small world because it exists only within the boundaries of the chain-link fence. The fence being the only defense between herself and the Unconsecrated. The only thing standing between Mary and certain death.
Mary has already lost a father to the Forest, her mother gets closer and closer to its wild call every day. In a world surviving upon strict rules and locked gates Mary’s curiosity won’t just kill the cat…It’ll decimate everything she’s ever known. Because, it only takes one bite from an Unconsecrated to turn you into a zombie as well…
Review
One of the best apocalyptic books I’ve ever done. This is a book about zombies yes, but it’s not really a zombie book. It’s so much more about survival. This is a society that is clinging to religion as much as it is clinging to the chain link fences that keep the zombies or as they call them in this world the “Unconsecrated” out. It’s a study in a post apocalyptic world…generations after the zombie virus attacks. I think that’s the magic of this zombie book. It’s probably also why I wasn’t so scared. Zombie books usually freak me out. I Am Legend. Couldn’t even finish the movie. I would so die in the first generation of the zombie apocalypse…scratch that…I’d probably become a zombie myself.
I liked that this society was farther away from the original spread of infection. There were more rules, more logic. Though we don’t learn much about the start of the apocalypse in this book. The reader, and Mary sees bits and pieces of a society trying to ward off an overwhelming virus. Seeing each piece of the puzzle only makes you crave information more. Perhaps in the following two books we’ll receive more answers about the beginning.
Later in the book you can actually place a time to the people in this society…how far out they are from the world as we know it today. Mary finds a clipping from before the return (or before the zombies) from U.S.A. Today and while she can still read and see the picture the paper itself crumbles in her hands. This is a society that didn’t handle curiosity well. It’s almost as if you can’t help but want to dig for answers…but you also see that a girl like Mary could kill whole villages of people with her curious nature.
Which brings up the Sisterhood. The nuns that control Mary’s village. They have all the power, all the medicine, and all the religion that keeps the town intact and alive. You also have a sneaking suspicion that they know more than they let on… You’re dying to learn more about them by the end of this novel. And yet, at the same time you’ve realized how much bigger this situation is. How massive the extent of damage this virus has caused.
And a teaser: The scene with Travis and the rope *gasp*. Literally read it hand to mouth on the edge of my seat! As if I could do something about the ending to the story. The entire time in that town was the best part of the novel for me. Emotional, thrilling, simply amazing.
And now, because I couldn’t resist…
Spoilers (Highlight to See)
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God, Travis’s death!! To learn after the rope scene that he was infected the whole time. To see Mary kill him. You ache for all they lost. You ache that he wasn’t enough for her.
Also, the death of Jed…was it necessary for him to follow Mary? To have to save Mary’s life? In a way did it make Mary seem a little foolish. This was the one death not caused by an outside need to flee for their lives. This one falls squarely on Mary’s shoulders. I wonder if it makes her quest for the ocean seem more childish? More of a fancy than an actual strive for humanity…
But when she finally sees the ocean…the way that was handled. Just perfect that there was no joy. That there were Unconsecrated, but not in the way we were expecting. That this ocean could be Mary’s religion, her true goal and continue to direct her in life. Reaching the ocean was not an end. It was a sigh, a realization that it’s not even the beginning…The life Mary is leading is the only life to be found in this world. Amazing, and oh so tempting to start the next book right away.
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Spoiler’s End
Rating: 5/5 One of the best apocalyptic books I’ve ever done.
Sara O
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