The Forest of Hands of and Teeth (2009) spliced classic zombie mythos into a world that was one part postapocalypse and one part colonial America and drove the plot with a healthy surge of teen hormones. This companion piece, which features some returning characters in minor roles, involves another discontented young woman, Gabry. Life within her walled town is shattered when a group of her friends step past the border and are attacked by the Mudo (that's zombies to you and me). A series of calamities results in a third act much like the one in Forest: Gabry flees through an unknown wilderness with companions including potential new paramour Elias and former crush Catcher, who may be immune to the Mudo's bite. Though her reliance on sentence fragments is a bit irksome, Ryan knows how to put together an action scene; the final pages are especially thrilling. Savvy readers may scoff at the constant lusting going on amid the carnage, but fans of Forest will be happy to find a familiar flesh-eating formula.

The zombielike Mudo have been reduced to a minor danger a generation after events in The Forest of Hands and Teeth. On a night of rule-breaking, Gabry and her friends inadvertently cause an outbreak of the monster infection. Gabry, desperate to help, leaves the safety of the Barrier to seek answers. The skillful world-building and suspense of Forest continue in this sequel.

Ryan returns with a companion to her critically acclaimed debut, <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">The Forest of Hands and Teeth, which functions as something of a retelling of that story, albeit with a different protagonist. Gabry lives in the seaside town of Vista, the same place that Mary landed at the end of the previous book. Like Mary's former village, Vista is carefully protected from the Mudo (the Unconsecrated), zombielike humans constantly seeking people to infect. After a reckless nighttime adventure with her friends turns tragic, Gabry avoids punishment, but can't escape the changes to and revelations about her life that quickly mount. Like its predecessor, this book features a breach of the town, an escape into the Forest, a love triangle, the ever-present and inexhaustible Mudo, and an extraordinarily bleak mood. But it also offers an expansion of postapocalyptic detail (including the Recruiters, a militant, policelike organization that hunts and brutalizes as much as it tries to protect) and a few inspired surprises. Despite the books' similarities, readers are sure to be hooked, as this novel also retains Ryan's gripping storytelling style and engaging prose. Ages 14–up. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Mar.)

Gr 9 Up-Timid, thoughtful Gabry has grown up safely in the city of Vista. She lives in a lighthouse with her mother, Mary, the daring heroine of The Forest of Hands and Teeth (Delacorte, 2009), whose job it is to kill Mudozombiesas they wash ashore. Then one night, Cira, Gabry's best friend, and Catcher, Cira's brother, convince her to sneak outside Vista's walls. With the attack of one Breakera fast zombieeverything changes: a friend is killed, Catcher is infected, and Cira is imprisoned and destined for the Recruiters, the army that protects the loose federation of cities left after the Return. Feeling both guilty for having escaped punishment and self-destructive after the revelation that Mary in fact adopted her, Gabry pushes herself to cross the city's Barrier again. Some pieces of the narrative are well constructed: the constant, looming threat of the Mudo, Gabry's quiet determination and daring in the face of fear, and villainous soldier Daniel's palpably frightening power-grabbing sexual advances. Other details are less believable, like Mary's suddenly abandoning her daughter and her duties to seek her past in the Forest. Though flawed, this volume has enough action, romance, and depth of character to satisfy, and the cliff-hanger ending will leave fans hungry for the third book. Megan Honig, New York Public Library

The best and worst night of GabryÆs life starts with the promise of romance. Lured by the possibility of a kiss from her long-time crush, Catcher, Gabry goes against all better instincts and climbs over the Barrier that shelters her town. Outside the Barrier, Gabry and her friends enjoy a heady sense of freedom until they are attacked by a Mudo, a former human infected with a virus that transforms the person into a blood-ravenous, zombie-like monster. By the end of the evening, most of GabryÆs friends have been arrested, two have been killed, and Catcher has been bitten, almost certainly infected with the Mudo virus. Readers of the companion novel, The Forest of Hands and Teeth (Delacorte, 2009), will recognize this horrific world where people live in constant terror of the Mudos, or Unconsecrated. As in that other story, Gabry discovers that her ôsafeö life is built on lies. She also finds herself fleeing along the paths of the forest, torn between loving two very different men. Despite these parallels, the books have their own distinctive narrative and setting, which makes them very much like interlocking puzzle pieces. Readers can start with either book, but certainly fans of the first book will be delighted by the way Ryan weaves the stories together. Some fantastic coincidences help tie up loose ends from the companion piece. Judging by the way this book ends, readers can anticipate more adventures set in this ruined landscape. Recommend it to fans of apocalyptic fiction or zombie lore.ùDiane Colson.