The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

From Goodreads:

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?

(I'm going to do a little spoiling here, so if you don't want to know, don't keep reading)

I was terrified to read this book.

Once upon a time I could handle scary stuff. I watched X-Files alone in the dark at night. I read some legitimately freaky ghost stories. I was my mom's scary movie watching partner. I reveled in scary stuff. Sure, sometimes I had to sleep with the closet light on, but mostly I could handle it.

Then came The Grudge. I don't know what it was about that movie but it. scared. me. Scared me silly. And then I didn't handle scary stuff very well anymore. It's like the part of my brain that compartmentalized the scary stuff so that I didn't see things in corners or have nightmares switched off. And suddenly being scared wasn't fun anymore.

So, ya, a zombie book where I knew most of the characters died? Scary.

And then...it wasn't that bad. I mean, I wouldn't want to watch it in movie form (though, the picture of Mary on the cover looks a lot like Summer Glau to me and I'm pretty sure she'd do nicely in the role, especially since she has a history of zombie butt kicking) and ya, pretty much everyone dies, but I wasn't freaking out while reading it or anything. And it was beautifully written, as promised.

I had some issues with unanswered questions (mostly about the Sisterhood) but put it down feeling like I maybe enjoyed the book and I really liked the main character and the writing was lovely and hey...not so bad!

And then I had zombie nightmares all night. So...ya. Won't be reading this one again.