Disclaimer-I don't own The Forest of Hands and Teeth, Carrie Ryan does, I only own this story based off of it...
Full Summary: Mary exists in a world filled to the brim with despair. Just when she feels like she is one with the Unconsecrated, something happens that changes everything- for better or worse, she can't tell. So what happens when the Unconsecrated do not breach the fences and overrun the village? What if Mary's mother was never Infected? Let's find out.
Have you ever wondered if there is anything beyond death? If that's it, or if you are reborn? Or if there is truly heaven and hell and that you will go to one of them? What if I told you that hell is not a place that exists in death, but in the world of the living? Or if I told you that there is life beyond death, but you are nothing like you were before and you become a part of the hell that surrounds us all?
I wonder all the time. I wonder what happened to my father and everyone else who exists as one of the hellish beings of this world. I try to imagine what it must feel like to live like one of them. To wander in the Forest, to sleep until I sense a human nearby, and to sink my teeth into the flesh of someone I could've known before I died. Do the hellish creatures, the Unconsecrated, have some sort of memory of their past life? Do they kill only so that they can feel alive again?
The Sisterhood sometimes tells us that they don't know why the Return happened, yet other times they tell us that the Unconsecrated exist because our ancestors were terrible people who tried to cheat death and God's will. But I can't help but wonder if the Sisters are lying. If the truth would be too much for us to handle. I can't help but feel that we have all been brainwashed by the Sisters.
I wonder about God sometimes too. I wonder if God still exists now that the Unconsecrated exists, and if he existed before. Did God really punish us with the Unconsecrated? Or did he make his final judgement long ago, as it said he would in the Bible, and deemed nobody worthy of salvation?
Sometimes when my head is full of questions and I have no answers, I walk near the fence that surrounds the village. Whether to keep the living in or the dead out, I can't tell. I look past the fence, into the Forest. If I squint hard enough I can see the Unconsecrated rising from the ground and wandering closer to the fence. As soon as they are close enough to stick their arms through the fence I take a step backward. I scan the faces of the dead pulling at the fence, trying to find a way through so they can devour me. None of them are my father and I sigh with relief. I don't know if I could take seeing my father as one of the Unconsecrated.
I always feel like I'm carrying the weight of my world on my shoulders. I always feel like I'm the only one who sees the truth in the world. Sometimes the mental weight is too much and I walk around as if I actually am carrying something heavy. My shoulders sag. I walk slowly. I don't even notice what's going on around me. Just like the Unconsecrated.
Sometimes I wonder if there is any difference between me and them.