The Forest of Hands and Teeth

Mary, the protagonist, is a teenage girl living in an unnamed village that struggles to survive generations after a supernatural epidemic (the “Return”) turned most humans into undead creatures called the “Unconsecrated.” Within this limited society, how the Return first occurred and why it happened are both accepted mysteries, but unlike most people around her, Mary would like to know how the Unconsecrated came to exist and whether other colonies of humans might survive beyond the strict boundaries of the village. Most of all, Mary wants to know what kind of life might be possible for her and others beyond the Forest of Hands and Teeth (the surrounding woodland where the Unconsecrated lurk).

Over a relatively short span of time, Mary experiences the loss of her parents to the Unconsecrated and is shunned by her brother, Jed, who believes that she is partly to blame for her mother’s death. She must also endure an unwanted betrothal to Harry, the brother of Travis (the one she truly loves). In the midst of these personal crises, she must deal with the constant threat to her survival from the undead who never stop trying to attack every last human they see or smell.