The Forest of Hands and Teeth

I had a hard time rating this book. The author writes well, I felt the prose was graceful and the pace worked. But I am tired, sick and tired as a matter of fact, of reading young adult fiction where the main character is a selfish, obnoxious girl. The concept of this story is intriguing. A town isolated after the Return surrounding by a forest and the Unconsecrated (which are zombie like flesh eating monsters that humans become if they are infected) is the setting for a young girl with an inquisitive mind wanting to know if the stories her mother told her about the ocean are true. I loved the Sisterhood, very interesting group, but the author fails to let the reader in on any secrets. They leave without discovering anything. I could live with the secrets of the Sisterhood if Mary was not such a selfish girl. She desperately wants Travis but when she gets him it is not enough. She discovers there is more than just her village but that is not enough. Nothing is ever enough for her and even in the end she does not seem satisfied. I am giving this two stars not because of the writing but because I did not like the characters or their development or more precisely the lack thereof.