The Forest of Hands and Teeth
[openbook booknumber=”9780385736817″][rating:4/5]
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, when the fence is breached and her world is thrown in to chaos, about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness.
Now 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 by so much death?
I think that The Forest of Hands and Teeth works out as a fantastic and well written introduction to post-apocalyptic zombie fiction. It was realistic, engaging, horrifying and managed to both keep that realistic and well done horror and be accessible to a young age group. I absolutely loved it.
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Fullmetal Alchemist Volume 12
[openbook booknumber=”1421508397″][rating:5/5]
In an alchemical ritual gone wrong, Edward Elric lost his arm and his leg, and his brother Alphonse became nothing but a soul in a suit of armor. Equipped with mechanical “auto-mail” limbs, Edward becomes a state alchemist, seeking the one thing that can restore his and his brother’s bodies… the legendary Philosopher’s Stone.
The hunters become the hunted when the Elric brothers and Prince Lin set a trap for the homunculus with the insatiable appetite – Gluttony! On another front, state politics are shaken up when a horrifying truth about Fuhrer President King Bradley is revealed – and Colonel Roy Mustang is right there to capitalize on the situation.
New truths are learned about the power of the homunculuses, both in strength and in just how far their reach goes. It turns out things are even more sinister than originally thought. And who would have thought that? The power and strength of alchemy as a result also is being re-evaluated. How much is the alchemy and how much is just the people that wield it?
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Fullmetal Alchemist Volume 11
[openbook booknumber=”1421508389″][rating:5/5]
In an alchemical ritual gone wrong, Edward Elric lost his arm and his leg, and his brother Alphonse became nothing but a soul in a suit of armor. Equipped with mechanical “auto-mail” limbs, Edward becomes a state alchemist, seeking the one thing that can restore his and his brother’s bodies… the legendary Philosopher’s Stone.
Ed returns to Resembool and meets his father Hohenheim for the first time in many years. Although his father is happy to see him, Ed harbors intense feelings of resentment for being all but abandoned many years ago. However, anger gives way to intrigue as Ed and Al discover an important fact about the human transmutation ritual they attempted years before. What they thought was a partial resurrection of their mother was something else entirely – a revelation that could change their destiny forever.
Confrontation! If volume 11 was going to have a one word title that would be it. This entire volume in the Fullmetal Alchemist series deals with various characters finally confronting some demons whether real, imagined, imminent or distant. Edward confronts his father on abandoning him, his mother and his younger brother ten years ago. His father confronts Edward about the human transmutation he attempted and Ed and Al’s decision to burn down the house. Colonel Mustang and his officers confront the reality of Havoc’s paralysis from the waist down. Al confronts the possible loss of his metal body once it eventually rejects his soul and the brothers both confront the reality of what they really brought back from the other side when they attempted to transmute their mother back to life. Finally the brothers prepare to confront Scar, determined that no one else will be hurt in their quest to get their original bodies back.
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