The Forest of Hands and Teeth Books In Order

Publication Order of The Forest of Hands and Teeth Books

The Forest of Hands and Teeth (Series by Carrie Ryan)
Author Carrie Ryan writes the “Forest of Hands and Teeth” series of young adult fantasy novels. The series began publication in the year 2009, when “The Forests of Hands and Teeth”.

The books are set in a post apocalyptic world where zombie “Mudo” wander around the earth, with their sole purpose being to infect all living humans. These Mudo

The first novel stars Mary, who is a teen that wishes to learn what lies beyond the village. She is in love with Travis and is very curious about the ocean, which nobody believes is real. She returns in the second novel and is much older, with dark, graying hair. She is Gabry’s adopted mom.

“The Forest of Hands and Teeth” was a Borders Original Voices selection for April 2009 and a Borders Original Voices finalist. It was a Junior Library Guild selection and was #4 on the IndieBound Kids’ Indie Next List for Spring of 2009. The book was selected as an American Library Association “Best Book for Young Adults”.

“Bougainvillea” is a short story in the “Forests of Hands and Teeth” series released in 2010. In the wake of the zombie apocalypse, the island of Curacao is one of the last remaining pockets of safety. Iza’s dad rules the island with a militant and cruel fist, showing very little mercy to the people that come begging at his docks. Iza chafes under the man’s total control, refusing to even believe that ruthlessness is the only way to survive.

However when zombies are able to breach their compound one night and rebels take Iza hostage, she has to decide for herself what it really takes to survive in this world filled with betrayal and death.

“What We Once Feared” is a short story in the “Forests of Hands and Teeth” series released in 2013. The zombie apocalypse hits and the dead start rising, and when it started, Jonah and his buddies are on a class field trip downtown. Panicked, they make a split second choice to go looking for shelter in the Overlook, an apartment complex built like a fortress out on the edge of town.

However while they start facing some of the realities of what it’s going to take in order to survive, they realize that while making the choice of where to run was an easy one, living out the repercussions of this choice might be impossible.

“The Forest of Hands and Teeth” is the first novel in the “Forest of Hands and Teeth” series and was released in the year 2009. Mary’s world is made up of some simple truths. The Guardians will protect and serve. The Sisterhood always knows what is best. The Unconsecrated are never going to relent. And you always must mind the fence which surrounds the village: the fence which protects the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth.

However Mary’s truths are failing her, slowly. She is learning some things that she never wanted to know about the Sisterhood and its secrets, and the Guardians and their power. And about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness.

The fence gets breached and her world is thrown into chaos, she has to decide between her future and her village. Between the one that loves her and the one that she loves. And she has to face the truth about the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Could there truly be life outside a world that is surrounded by so much death?

“The Dead-Tossed Waves” is the second novel in the “Forest of Hands and Teeth” series and was released in the year 2010. Gabry just lives a quiet life. As safe a life as is possible in a town that is trapped in between a forest and the ocean, in a world that teems with the dead, that constantly hungers for those that are still living. She is content on her side of the Barrier, happy to just allow her friends dream about the Dark City up the coast as she watches from the very top of her lighthouse.

However there are some threats which the Barrier can’t hold back. Threats like the secrets Gabry’s mom believed she left behind when she escaped from the Sisterhood and the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Like the cult of religious zealots that worship the dead. Like that stranger from the forest that seems like they know Gabry.

And all of a sudden, everything is changing. A reckless moment is all it takes for half of Gabry’s generation to be dead, and the other half is imprisoned. Now Gabry knows just a single thing: she has to face the forest of her mom’s past in order to save herself and the one that she loves.

“The Dark and Hollow Places” is the third novel in the “Forest of Hands and Teeth” series and was released in the year 2011. There are so many things that Annah would just like to forget: the look on her sister’s face just before Annah left her behind back in the Forest of Hands and Teeth, her first look at the Horde while they swarmed the Dark City, and the sear of barbed wire that ended up scarring her for life. However most of all, she’d like to forget about the morning Elias left her for the Recruiters.

Annah’s world ended that day, and she has waited for Elias to come back home ever since. Somehow, without him, her life just doesn’t feel that much different than the dead that roam the wasted city surrounding her. Until she meets Catcher, and everything comes back to life for her.

However Catcher’s got secrets of his own. Horrifying and dark truths which connect him to a past that she has been longing to forget, and to a future much too lethal to even consider. Now it is up to Annah: is she going to be able to keep living in a world that is covered in the blood of the living? Or is death the only escape from the Return’s destruction?