Book- The Forest of Hands and Teeth

Hopefully, zombie is the next vampire. And if all of the young adult books on zombies are as good as this one, then it's going to be a great ride.
Carrie Ryan has taken a theme and a story that is well known and expanded it to a new level.
I've always loved a good zombie movie, and in the past few years I've looked everywhere for a good zombie apocalypse novel. Many in the genre follow similar patterns, not to say they aren't good- Zombie novels are ALWAYS good. IF you are a fan, you know what to expect. The infection, plague, government escaped virus, mysterious meteor, or the portal to another dimension opens and brings the dead to life. They eat the living. (Please, don't say they eat brains- that occurs in only one decent series of movies. Real zombies eat everything!) We meet our min characters, they meet cannon fodder that get eaten along the way and somehow the whole group tries to survive in an undead world.
Ryan has expanded on the best parts of the zombie survivor theme. We are several decades beyond "the Return" and society has tried to develop into some normalcy. Our young Heroine, Mary lives in a true "gated community" off of a large forest filled with the "Unconsecrated"- the zombies. Life has developed around "the scripture" and young people are devoted to procreating for the cotinuance of the human species. Matches are made based on necessity, not love. Mary is the rebel and toils over her decisions- hoping for love, and the possibility of an outside world away from the unconsecrated.
As will happen in an undead world- the village is attacked and a small party of teens escape through a labyrinth of fences and gates throughout the forest, constantly being stalked by zombies.

I will be honest- as I read the first half of this book, I grew tired of the angsty young heroine wishing hoping and dreaming that things were different. I understand the connections bein made, but it became tiresome at times. The great thing I found throughout the book was just as I was about to put the book down because of the aforementioned reasons, something exciting would happen and I would stick with th book for several more chapters, I would grow tired, almost put the book down, and another exciting part would appear. Ryan seemed to have a good grasp of when and where to put the tension, and possible showed me the slogging existence of the characters contrasted with their flights from danger.
Looking at the theme and story, I was saddened what I took from the book. How far are we willing to go...and lose, to hold on to our dreams? I ended up being concerned and moved by the whole part of young folk, and generally concerned for their safety.
To me, this is a great addition to all of the other great zombie literature out there, and it still asks the same questions- how do we survive, can we have a normal life again, and is their security anywhere.
A great book, even with he minor failings I mentioned. I'm glad I stuck with it and saw it through to the end.