The first time I’d heard of The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan, I added it to my never-ending To Read list on GoodReads. Shortly after, I read a short story in Kiss Me Deadly: 13 Tales of Paranormal Love, which just happened to be a prequel to The Forest of Hands and Teeth.

The prequel seemed interesting enough. As with most short stories like this, the author gave enough information for the small subplot to make sense—there is a village, outside of the village is the Forest of Hands and Teeth, and in the forest live the Unconsecrated. And as it turned out, the Unconsecrated are—shock, gasp, what!—zombies! But they don’t call them zombies, they call them Unconsecrated. I had never read a zombie book before, but from what I’ve been told zombies are the new vampires. I found myself wanting to know more, so when I needed a new audiobook, this was the one I chose.

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 about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness. When the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, 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?

The story had really great potential, but for me it fell flat in a multitude of places. For starters, the audiobook narration was difficult to listen to. The narrator’s voice was beautiful, but she spoke with an unusual cadence and placed odd pauses in the middle of sentences. Sometimes words were over annunciated, while other times I struggled to decifer what she had said.

Another thing that bothered me about the book was the prose in general. Nothing about it sucked me in and made me forget I was reading a book.

For me, the biggest disappointment with this book was the characters. I did not connect with, feel for, empathize with, or particularly like any of them. It made it very hard to get into the story because I couldn’t bring myself to care what happened to them. I think this was due in part to the main characters having established relationships prior to the beginning of the book. Although the author explained their history, I didn’t feel the connection between them while reading.

I think the biggest area where this shows is in Mary and Travis’s relationship. I felt absolutely nothing for Travis, which says a lot because the story is written from Mary’s point of view and she was head over heels in love with him. For the life of me I couldn’t understand why. Everything about their relationship felt so one-sided, like Mary was harboring a school girl crush on a boy who was completely indifferent to her. Even when their circumstances isolated the two of them together and we found out that Travis had wanted her all along, I never felt any spark between them.

I liked the book enough to want to know how it ended, so I saw it through. It probably would have taken me longer had I actually been reading it, but the ease of listening to the audiobook, despite the narration, kept me going. I liked the ending. I thought it fit the circumstances well, although there were some questions I had that went unanswered. There are currently two more books in this series, which focus on different characters in different cities, and while I think that is a really fantastic concept, at this point I have no plans to continue the series.

My most recent Audible read was Life of Pi by Yann Martel. In the simplest summary, this book is about a boy who becomes trapped on a lifeboat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with a 450-pound Bengal tiger. But of course, it’s so much more than that.

The beginning of the book focuses on two main themes: animals and religion.

As the son of a zookeeper, Pi has learned much about animal behavior. I was fascinated by many of the things discussed through the first person narrative. At the time, I wasn’t aware that his father’s teachings and the things Pi observed growing up would play a larger role than reader entertainment, but the author did a great job of bringing everything full circle.

Pi practices Christianity. And Hinduism. And Islam. Not being a religious person myself, I found his outlook on faith and religion interesting. Shoot, I don’t even practice one and he does three.

In classic Jill style, I completely forgot the entire premise and reason for wanting to read this book (A boy trapped in a lifeboat with a tiger? That sounds awesome! *buys*), so I was completely taken by surprise when the boat sank. Also, with a name like Richard Parker, I didn’t realize until the very obvious was stated that Pi had helped the tiger into the lifeboat. However, I am happy to say that when Pi thought Richard Parker had jumped ship, I knew all along that he was hiding under the tarpaulin. Because, well, I wasn’t about to be fooled three times in a row.

The remainder of the book focuses on Pi’s voyage across the sea and how he manages to survive. The author spares no details; everything from killing animals to pooping is covered. Some things I found fascinating, others churned my stomach. It made me wonder just how dire my situation would be before my pure survival instincts kicked in, before it didn’t matter what I was eating as long as I was eating something. I’m going to be completely honest right now. Even without the tiger, I probably would have died. I would have curled up in a little ball and ceased to exist. If you’re ever in a life and death situation, pray that you don’t get stuck with me.

Overall, I loved this book. Listening to it was the only thing that held me back from finishing it sooner, as I typically only listen in my car. There were a few occasions in which I listened outside of the vehicle because I just couldn’t stop without knowing what happened next. The only time I found my attention waning was during the religious section. Other than that, it held my attention completely. Also, the narrator read it in an Indian accent (as Pi is from Pondicherry, India), which was a really refreshing change.

Read this book. You will love it.