Sentence Sneak Peek - The Forest of Hands and Teeth

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

The first sentence from each chapter of The Forest of Hands and Teeth, it's a mini summary of what you can expect to read.

The blanks are left in two of the sentences to prevent spoilers.

"My mother used to tell me about the ocean."

"You will stay with us now," the Sisters tell me, "until your brother arrives."

"The first thing the Sisters do when Jed walks me back to the Cathedral is strip off my clothes and half-drown me in the sacred well."

"It is late afternoon by the time I climb down from the tower and walk back to the Cathedral."

"The next day I am called to the tend the patient, who has been silent all night."

'I have been telling Travis about the ocean."

"Sister Tabitha is correct: with my new studies there is no time to visit Travis during the day."

"Three days pass and I am desperate."

"I drum my fingers against the desk under the window in my room."

"Spring in the village means rain, baptisms and marriages."

"For the past two days since we spoke on the hill I have waited for Travis to come for me."

"The room is tiny, the ceiling low."

"I fight to keep my face passive, swallowing my gasp of shock."

"When the siren wails the next morning I am in bed."

"The pain does not come."

"The path just on the other side of the gate is wide enough for the four of us to stand in a row--me and Harry, Travis and Cass--our shoulders sometimes touching as we watch the fog lift and understand fully the chaos that's taking place in our village."

"I wake to chaos."

"I stay true to my promise: I don't tell the others about ____."

"What?"

"__________ Harry and Travis come back down the path to where Cass and I sit in silence, watching Jacob nap with Argos, his bony shoulders rising and falling hypnot-ically."

"We spend most of the day backtracking, not making any real headway on the new path we've chosen."

"There are no people."

"It appears as though the founders of this village truly under-stood the nature of the threat that existed outside the fences."

"I have taken to spending most of my time up on the porch on the third floor, a place where Travis can't reach me be-cause of his leg."

"They're starting to break through," Travis says to me when I come inside."

"I push Travis up the rest of the stairs and look down to see the Unconsecrated swarming."

"Mary."

"Not wasting a moment, Travis dashes back into the attic."

"It's dark when I wake up."

"It's difficult to find solitude in the platforms in the trees and so I walk along the rope bridges until I am as far away from Travis and the rest as possible."

"Fire!"

"My mouth opens to scream but no sound comes out."

"As the days pass by we do nothing but walk, trying to put distance between us and the fire devouring its way toward us."

"Mary, we can still go back," Jed says, rain flying from his fingers as he waves his hands."

"A hand grasps at my waist and I'm about to swing when I realize that it's Jed."

"I wake to the sound of wind rushing through the trees."