Review: An awesome prequel to the "Forest of Hands & Teeth" series.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 13, 2011
Can I just say how much I love Carrie Ryan's zombie-filled world? I LOVE IT.  And she finally granted my wish of having some backstory to the Forest Village before the first book! YAY!So here with have Sister Tabitha (who makes her appearance in the first book) and her own little backstory - and surprise! One of the reasons she's so hard on Mary is because she herself was like Mary in that she wanted out of the Village and wanted to go out in the Forest to find freedom, and when she meets the boy on the other side, love. Only to be betrayed by his little Infected brother, of course.Now, at least, we know where the last entry in the Village Records came from.Anyway, at 27 pages, this was a delicious bite of what would be a wonderful prequel, if there's one scheduled or being written. I really hope there is, because I just love this world far too much to give it up for one trilogy and a novella. Ryan's really sharpened things up in this novella - you can almost smell the dead flesh that's haunting the forest, hear the wind in the leaves, and feel the rattle of the fence in your bones. The sensory input is stunning, and Ryan's at her best in this novella (and in the final novel in the trilogy - I have the feeling that both were written at or around the same time due to how well the sensory language has been sharpened from the previous two novels. It's lush, horrifying, and gorgeous all at the same time. We become Tabitha like we become Mary in the first book, longing for the wild Forest beyond the fence - so surreal that I had to shake myself back to this reality after reading it.Anyway, I'm not one for novellas, usually - but this one takes the cake. I still demand more, though!(posted to librarything, goodreads, shelfari, and witchoftheatregoing.wordpress.com)