Hare Moon

The Forest of Hands and Teeth #0.1

by Carrie Ryan

Tabitha can’t shake the feeling that something exists beyond the fences of her village. And when she sneaks out, past the gates and down the path into the Forest of Hands and Teeth, she meets a boy who teaches her heart things she never knew. But love in a world surrounded by so much death doesn’t come without its sacrifices, and Tabitha gradually realizes just how much she’ll have to give up to live among the Unconsecrated. From New York Times bestselling author Carrie Ryan comes an original story of love after the Return.

Genres: Zombies, Young Adult, Horror, Dystopia, Short Stories, Fiction, Fantasy

40 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 5, 2011

About the author

Carrie Ryan is the New York Times bestselling author of a lot of books. She use to be a lawyer. Happily, she is not anymore. You can keep it that way by reading her books:

Latest release (out Aug 2, 2022), perfects for fans of thrillers, serial killers, missing girls, mysteries, unputdownable books: Trapper Road

If you like zombies, try the Forest of Hands and Teeth series.

If you like clever, fun adventure fantasy for 8-12 year olds, definitely read the Map To Everywhere series (co-written with her husband, John Parke Davis).

If you like cold calculated revenge involving hidden identities and lots of secrets: Daughter of Deep Silence.

If you or your kids like multi-author, multi-platform series like 39 Clues and Spirit Animals, try Infinity Ring: Divide and Conquer -- it's produced by the same publisher (and has vikings and true history!)

If you like true-crime stuff (both fiction and podcasts), check out her upcoming release, Dead Air, a serialized thriller co-written with Gwenda Bond and Rachel Caine.

If you're pretty sure you won't survive the zombie apocalypse, you're in good company. She won't either.

instagram: @CarrieRyanWrites
twitter: @CarrieRyan
website: www.CarrieRyan.com

Reviews

[Megan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm wavering between 2 and 3 stars here, but because Carrie Ryan has written this story quite a few times already... 2 stars it is.

Don't get me wrong, I am a huge fan of Ryan's work. But this short story, based in the original The Forest of Hands and Teeth world, doesn't feel complete. This short introduces us to teenage Tabitha and her desire to leave the confines of her zombie surrounded village. Our view of Tabitha, her village and her feelings are told, rather than shown. Furthermore, we are not privy to Tabitha's relationships with her parents, her peers, the authorities in her town. All the while I was so drawn in to Ryan's intense, moody writing... I was never able to actually feel the angst she intended the reader to feel.

The ending of this story was amazing. Hare Moon is all about the ending. Horror is something Ryan does so very, very well. But unfortunately the lackluster beginning still managed to taint the end of this story. Had Tabitha been a better rounded character, her friends, her love interest, the Sisters, guardians and townspeople been more than a brief passing mention this story could have been marvelous. Even Tabitha herself needed to be more fleshed out. Is she strong? Unstable? As flighty as the Sisters say she is? All we know are her base desires, what she wants and needs right now....meh.

For a better Ryan short, seek out Bougainvillea in Zombies Vs. Unicorns. Her talent as a horror and a YA writer truly stand out in that one.

[usagi ☆ミ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can I just say how much I love Carrie Ryan’s zombie-filled world? I LOVE IT. And she finally granted my wish of having some backstory to the Forest Village before the first book! YAY!

So here with have Sister Tabitha (who makes her appearance in the first book) and her own little backstory – and surprise! One of the reasons she’s so hard on Mary is because she herself was like Mary in that she wanted out of the Village and wanted to go out in the Forest to find freedom, and when she meets the boy on the other side, love. Only to be betrayed by his little Infected brother, of course.

Now, at least, we know where the last entry in the Village Records came from.

Anyway, at 27 pages, this was a delicious bite of what would be a wonderful prequel, if there’s one scheduled or being written. I really hope there is, because I just love this world far too much to give it up for one trilogy and a novella. Ryan’s really sharpened things up in this novella – you can almost smell the dead flesh that’s haunting the forest, hear the wind in the leaves, and feel the rattle of the fence in your bones. The sensory input is stunning, and Ryan’s at her best in this novella (and in the final novel in the trilogy – I have the feeling that both were written at or around the same time due to how well the sensory language has been sharpened from the previous two novels. It’s lush, horrifying, and gorgeous all at the same time. We become Tabitha like we become Mary in the first book, longing for the wild Forest beyond the fence – so surreal that I had to shake myself back to this reality after reading it.

Anyway, I’m not one for novellas, usually – but this one takes the cake. I still demand more, though!

(crossposted to shelfari, librarything, and witchoftheatregoing.wordpress.com)

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

In Ryan's first book The Forest of Hands and Teeth we meet Sister Tabitha. Now in Hare Moon we finally see the story behind the egnimatic sister. It is story of love loss and impossible choices.

I love Carrie Ryan's books. In my opinion they are some of the best teen horror out there. I never pictured myself as a person who would enjoy zombie books, but Ryan's writing is brilliant. Her stories elicit the inherent fear that the image of the zombie is supposed to evoke.

While I love her novels, I found myself wishing for more from this short story. I wanted to know Tabitha's family, her relationships in the village, and all the details of her life that would lead her to her ultimate choice. I think knowing that would have helped me better understand this character. Unlike her novels I felt that I was told the story rather than experiencing it the way you do in her other work.

Overall this was an interesting foray into one of the side stories of this series. I did like seeing how similar Mary and Tabitha actually were. Definitely worth reading, but it left me wishing for more.

Cautions for sensitive readers: violence.

[Sandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hare Moon is the prequel to The Forest of Hands and Teeth and it tells Sister Tabitha’s story. Some of this makes The Forest of Hands and Teeth make a little more sense because it is just another piece of the puzzle. Sister Tabitha, when she was younger, it turns out was very much like Mary (or should I say, turns out Mary was very much like a young Sister Tabitha). Tabitha feels a call to the forest, to see if there’s more to the outside world than what she’s always been told. She feels a call to anything that remains hidden or forbidden from her. Sound familiar? It makes her being so hard on Mary make more sense because she sees herself in Mary, but Tabitha made a very different choice than Mary will make. And I believe Sister Tabitha can see that coming.

Tabitha meets a boy and falls in love. And this shows us that the Sister Tabitha we thought we knew from The Forest of Hands and Teeth wasn’t always cold and uncaring. She wasn’t always without feeling or ambition. She didn’t always know which course she was going to take. You get the impression from The Forest of Hands and Teeth that Sister Tabitha views Mary as this horrible person, that Sister Tabitha believes Mary will bring about the downfall of their village, the village she gave up everything to protect, but Mary didn’t even push the limits as much as Tabitha did when she was younger. Mary never ventured outside the gates until the breech occurred first. Tabitha did. Mary didn’t choose to pursue the ocean until no other option presented itself. Tabitha did. Mary didn’t let infection inside the village. Tabitha did. And even though Sister Tabitha could undoubtedly see herself in Mary, it wasn’t Mary who brought about the downfall of their village like Sister Tabitha feared.

Tabitha is faced with the decision to flee and pursue love or to stay and sacrifice it all for the protection of her village. We all know what she choose.

That’s the story. Now to how I felt about the story. Tabitha’s story so closely follows Mary’s own story that it frustrated me. I felt like I was re-reading parts of The Forest of Hands and Teeth. I understand why they needed to be similar in some ways and almost exactly the same in others, but that doesn’t mean that experiencing it again under a different name made it feel any different (or any better). The best parts weren’t fully explored and the things that frustrated me about Mary I just got to relive through Tabitha. So while I felt this was an addition to The Forest of Hands and Teeth and it did make me understand Sister Tabitha more and why she behaves the way she does in The Forest of Hands and Teeth, this was only worth 3 Stars for me.

[Jaqueline Miguel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Há algum tempo atrás (ou deveria dizer, há uns quantos anos atrás) li o primeiro livro desta série, denominado A Floresta de Mãos e Dentes. Foi-me emprestado por uma amiga minha e eu não sabia que era o primeiro de uma série porque não andava muito informada em termos livrólicos. As coisas mudaram e, quando soube da existência da série, decidi que queria lê-la toda e arranjei os e-books.
Este conto é então o primeiro de uma série de contos extra que a autora escreveu e vem contar-nos o passado de uma personagem, diria quase uma vilã, que nos é familiar do A Floresta de Mãos e Dentes: a irmã Tabitha.
Adoro a escrita da autora e, claro, o tema que ela escolheu abordar nesta série: apocalipse zombie.
Para vos contextualizar, começo por dizer que a história se passa numa aldeia que se encontra rodeada por vedações, que separam os seus habitantes dos zombies que se encontram na floresta que a rodeia. Nessa aldeia os zombies chamam-se Excomungados e a floresta é chamada de Floresta de Mãos e Dentes (sendo bastante óbvio o motivo da escolha do nome). Existe, no entanto, um portão que leva a algum lado (embora ninguém saiba para onde) e que está sempre fechado.
A Tabitha, sendo uma rapariga muito curiosa, quer saber o que há para lá do portão. Apesar de correr o risco de ir dar de caras com um bando de Excomungados, ela decide escapulir-se durante a noite para explorar. Até que encontra vários outros portões e num deles um rapaz. Passam imenso tempo juntos e acabam, inevitavelmente, por se apaixonar. Só que, na aldeia da Tabitha, as mulheres têm de ser escolhidas como futuras esposas por alguém ou vão para o convento. Sem ninguém da aldeia para a escolher, o destino dela está selado. No convento, contudo, há muito mais segredos do que aquilo que ela esperava encontrar.
Adorei saber o passado desta personagem e adorei tudo o que a levou a tornar-se aquilo em que se tornou. Foi realmente uma leitura muito interessante.
Para mim, um dos pontos negativos deste conto foi não trazer respostas ao que eu queria saber realmente: de onde surgiram os zombies e como começou o apocalipse.
Seja como for recomendo que leiam a série e este conto.

[Becs · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're looking at this novella you probably have already devoured the entire series of "The Forest of Hands and Teeth" and are wondering where this all fits in. This short novella takes us through the life of Sister Tabitha, who you'll remember is pretty uptight and very rule-focused. Now, we find out why!

Tabitha knows about the hidden paths leading into the forest. She knows that it is forbidden to walk them. But she also knows that she is compelled to do it anyway! In this way, she's not so different from our usual heroine which gives us an invaluable insight into how she behaves in the first book. Tabitha just can't help herself, she opens the gates and walks along the still-fenced-off path barely separated from the Unconsecrated poking their fingers through the wires of the fence to get to her. And then she meets a boy. A boy who is definitely not from her village, who isn't Unconsecrated and who soon, will need her help.

Hare Moon surprised me. I expected it to be about choices, which it was. The choices that Tabitha would have to make and the things she would have to have seen in order to become who she does in the other books. The brutality of some of her actions though was really shocking for me and I had a whole new understanding of her character - so much so that I want to re-read the entire series to try and understand that more and see little hints of young-Tabitha in Sister-Tabitha.

We still get to see a bit more of the infection which I especially liked but what was really nice was to try and relate this book to the others we've already read. For example, there's one particular cameo I picked up on that made me smile.

I whole-heartedly recommend this novella to you. It is, of course, quite short but it will entice to you read the entire collection all over again to piece it all together. Ryan describes Tabitha as having "a new energy that ebbs too fast so that she immediately craves it again". That's how I feel about these books - so good that you just HAVE to read them again.

[Justine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a short story by Carrie Ryan the author of The Forest of Hands and Teeth.

*SPOILER ALERT*

It's a love story. It's about Tabitha as a teenager and how she  becomes a nun when the town leaders decide that she is a dreamer so no man would want to marry her. She leaves the town out through one of the gates into the fenced paths. The unconsecrated always surround her. She ventures all the way to one of the gates. Here she meets Patrick, a boy from another village. They sit, chat and fall in love. Patrick stops coming, Tabitha doesn't know why. Then he leaves a note saying he loves her but his father is sick. 

Tabitha goes back to the gate all the time to see if Patrick has returned, he hasn't. Then during the hare moon he shows up with his little brother stating their village is infected but that they are not. Tabitha welcomes them in and hides them. Then in the middle of the night Patricks brother turns and bites two other nuns. So Tabitha has to kill him. Then she turns Patrick out to the unconsecrated.

Well the love story started off good units Tabitha basically killed her lover. But I guess if she kept him and they lived happily ever after she just would not be the same in The Forest of Hands and Teeth. She might actually be nice. I enjoyed this short story because it shows us why Tabitha becomes so hard in the end. 

[Bern · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not usually big on short stories because they always feel like good ideas wasted on thirty-pages long literary frolics through the Cliche Jungle, but I guess I shouldn't have expected that to happen when it comes to Carrie Ryan - the woman is awesome, after all.

Tabitha's story (or should I say Sister Tabitha? I don't want to, though, because she grows into a bitter bitch by the time the events on Forest of Hands and Teeth take place and although I was still intrigued by her character when I read the story then, I much rather her younger self portrayed in Hare Moon) does feel like something that could've been extended into a book, maybe not a 400 pages long book, but a book nonetheless - but that doesn't mean it wasn't amazing.

The journey of Tabitha from a selfish, dream-big kind of girl to a woman who puts her village and her God before her own needs and desires is a painful one but also one that will keep you reading it until the last shudder-inducing line. As with Carrie Ryan's other books, this 30-page short story speaks of love, discovery and sacrifice - with a slightly psychotic-er spin on the formula, however.

Hare Moons feels, reads and breathes originality and although some of the content in it could definitely have been expounded on, it stands as the best short story I've ever had the pleasure to read since Rachel Vincent's Binge.

[Lara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh. I'm in the minority (yet again, it seems), but I was not a fan of this. Part of the problem here, I will admit, is that I just don't really like short stories in general. I think some folks actually do know how to write them well, but sadly most people do not. This one felt much more like a basic outline for a full-length novel than it did a fully-realized short story. There's NO character development, very little in the way of plot, and several situations that just didn't really seem believable to me. I appreciated the back story of Sister Tabitha, but just found it very poorly done, and not anywhere near as compelling as the rest of this series. It's a shame, because if expanded on, I think this could make a really heart-wrenching story. I'm not sure why so many YA writers are doing these little side stories and between-books stories these days, but I kind of wish they'd stick to what they're good at. Sorry, Carrie Ryan. I'm with you all the way on the next Forest of Hands and Teeth book, but I'll skip the between bits from now on.

[Kacie Quinn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wasn't impressed with Hare Moon. I really love The Forest of Hands and Teeth books and was excited when a free short story was available on the Kindle.

It's short enough, and thank goodness for that. I felt detached throughout the entire book. It's written in third person, present tense, and I haven't read a book written in that perspective, as far as I'm aware. And maybe it's just because I wasn't used to it, but I thought the writing was stilted. It just didn't flow as well as it did for the novels in the series.

And the romance was just dry. I didn't feel any chemistry between Tabitha and Patrick (I had to think for a bit to remember what their names were, which just shoes how much of an impression they left on me).

Quite frankly, Hare Moon just didn't really need to exist.

The only reason it was two stars rather than one is the fact that I liked Mary's cameo.

[Tracy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first short story and it was really exciting to see where Sister Tabitha came from. What made her into the wonderfully, terrifying woman she is in The Forest of Hands and Teeth. This is a great companion to the trilogy. My only complaint? I would love more of this story and even farther back. I want to learn everything there is to know about this world and what occurred during the moment of the Return. This whole world that Carrie Ryan has created is so very fascinating and I just want more!

If you are fan of this series it is a great little addition. You really could start with it or even read it during the middle, as I have. I have not read the finale installment The Dark and Hollow Places yet, but plan to very soon.

[Lana · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful novella. I'm glad I read it. It gave me answers to my questions that I didn't receive in "The Forest of Hands and Teeth". Now I understand why Tabitha is the way she is. This short story presented me with heaps of different emotions. I feel like this trilogy is going to become one of my favourites.

[Carolina · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was sad :(

[Christina Goodrich-Britton · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was nice to get a tidbit of young Tabitha. This made me sad :(

[chucklesthescot · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tabitha can't accept that the village is all that life has to offer and dreams of what may be outside the fence other than the living dead. Her obsession takes her to the gate every day where she makes contact with Patrick from another village, proving that there are other survivors. Now her dreams are of a future with Patrick, and her dedication to the Sisterhood comes under question.

This was an interesting prequel to The Forest of Hands and Teeth, showing how Tabitha found it hard to accept her world, just as Mary does in the novel. Tabitha explores the compound, finding a book that tells of the history of the village and why things are kept from the survivors, which makes her decision much more difficult. Now she understands why they need to be protected from the truth, but her feelings for Patrick leave her conflicted about her own future.

The book builds towards a climax as a terrified Patrick arrives with his brother after an outbreak at his village. They seek sanctuary and Tabitha's decisions are to have consequences for herself and the compound.

It was an interesting story because it explains a bit of the history behind the zombies and the compound, shedding new light on the motivations of the Sisterhood. It explains why Tabitha became the person she was in the novel which was good. My favourite part was the last third where Patrick looks to Tabitha for help. It was exciting and entertaining.

I have read other prequels to The Forest of Hands and Teeth but this was the only one I liked.

[Rebecca · Rating 1 out of 5]

Warning: SpoilersI feel guilty writing negative reviews when I suspect the author is someone I would like in real life. I mean, we females who find zombie culture interesting need to stick together! But I would be lying if I said Hare Moon impressed or entertained me. The writing is formulaic and a rehashing of the major themes in The Forest of Hands and Teeth. I could forgive this if it brought new depth or perspective to those themes, but it does not. Once again we have a selfish heroine who is driven by lust and a desire for more. Sister Theresa was the most interesting character in The Forest of Hands and Teeth. Her backstory negates much of her potential as a complex character. I suspect Ryan's intention is for the reader to ultimately sympathize with Theresa for the difficult choices she is forced to make, but I could not. Theresa's capacity to love and sacrifice seemed false. I was told by the narrator that she loved and ultimately sacrificed her personal happiness for the survival of her village, but Theresa's reactions (such as her heartless dismay in seeing the younger brother and her feeling of betrayal when Patrick comes to her for help rather than romance) are at odds with this. Instead of creating a richly flawed character, Ryan has created an inauthentic one.

[Rhiannon Frater · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was really excited to hear about this short story that takes place before THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH and is from the viewpoint of Sister Tabitha. It is a short story and not a full-length novel, so be warned it is a quick read.

Again, Carrie Ryan is very adept at drawing us into the world where a village stands in the middle of a forest surrounded by a fence and the Unconsecrated (zombies). The world building in this series has always been top notch and once again I was enthralled by the world that Tabitha inhabits.

Tabitha starts off the story as a character you feel compassion for as she struggles to be free of the constraints of the village. She yearns for freedom in the world beyond and for a short period of time finds happiness.

Of course, since Tabitha is doomed to become one of the Sisters protecting the village and the "villain" of THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH, we know she is doomed to not find the freedom and happiness she yearns for.

Carrie Ryan does a remarkable job with the story and the ending is truly heartbreaking for not only Tabitha, but the reader.

[Tee Loves Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hmmm...I have to say this was a little odd, but for a REALLY quick read it wasn't too bad. Obviously everything was pretty rushed given the short 40 pgs., but Carrie Ryan did manage to draw me into the story more than I would have expected. I never read Forest of Hands and Teeth, so this was an entirely new world for me. I was drawn in by Tabitha's desire to see what lies beyond her sheltered life, and her fearlessness as she dares to go beyond the fences. She and Patrick had such a whirlwind romance in the fleeting times they had together, and it was hard to feel attached to the characters in such a short period. Hare Moon had a little danger, a little creepiness, a decent quick romance, and an odd, left-me-hanging ending. Overall, I don't feel like I wasted the 20 minutes it took to read it, and it was a good intro to Ryan's writing style. I may just pick up more of her books to see what else she has to offer!

[»Elisha« · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nook showed 27 pages so I was able to read it quick. Overall, it was worth the read. It's a short story about Sister Tabitha as a young girl. It helped to explain (sorta) why Tabitha is the way she is in Forest of Hands and Teeth book and how she became so devoted to the Sanctuary. I would have liked a little more explanation and a few more pages :) I think Carrie Ryan should do a prequel to Forest of Hands and Teeth about the pre-Return and how it all got started.

[Caroline · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the idea behind this of going back before the events of The Forest of Hands and Teeth to explain some of the motivations behind Tabitha, but this was a pretty weak short story. Things felt rushed and pretty haphazard, and for the most part this felt like a short retelling of the feelings and reactions that Mary went through in the first book. Happy I was able to read this for free from the library--the insight was interesting, but in the end this was unimpressive.

[Alliyah Pontiac]

This book was merely a glimpse to what the Forest of Hands and Teeth. This showed a side of on of characters and how they turned out the way they did.

[Syki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Teda tohle naopak nebylo vůbec špatné...

[Brittany Blackerby · Rating 4 out of 5]

I should have read the actual first book in the series; it might have been more meaningful reading about Tabitha's decisions and made her choices even more tragic. Dramatic backstory!

This short story is the best example of why keeping secrets "for the greater good" is not a good idea. The lure of the unknown and the label of forbidden is what drew Tabitha to the Path in the first place, ultimately leading her to repeat history, though thankfully for her village, on a much smaller scale. If the Sisterhood was more open and honest about what actually happened in the past, perhaps she wouldn't have been so drawn to the Path. Perhaps she wouldn't have brought Patrick to the church. It's important to share history in its entirety, or, like Tabitha, you'll be doomed to repeat it.

Her insatiable curiosity led her to Patrick, but it also led her to the truth of her village and their isolation. I like to think she'll change the way that the Sisterhood operates and share some more knowledge with the village, but I'm sure she'll just continue the trend of secrets for the sake of "protecting" the village. What could possibly go wrong? It's not like the same thing could happen again, right. It couldn't, right?

Time to find out!

[Krissy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I write my reviews for myself so I can remember what I read and thought about it later. As always, it contains summaries and spoilers.

It’s been a very long time since I read The Forest of Hands and Teeth and Dead Tossed Waves. The Dark and Hollow Places hadn’t come out yet. I decided to finish the series and read this short first. It didn’t feel original because of its similarity to the other books. I think I actually read it before and forgot it.

Tabitha meets Patrick in the forest and brings him back to the village with his brother, who is infected, so she kills the younger brother and turns Patrick over to the Forest to be eaten by zombies. I wasn’t surprised. I felt the ending a few pages before it happened and it’s a short book. I didn’t enjoy it and am not sure if I really want to finish the series at this point or if I’m just too much older for it to enjoy it now.

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tabitha can’t shake the feeling that something exists beyond the fences of her village. And when she sneaks out, past the gates and down the path into the Forest of Hands and Teeth, she meets a boy who teaches her heart things she never knew. But love in a world surrounded by so much death doesn’t come without its sacrifices, and Tabitha gradually realizes just how much she’ll have to give up to live among the Unconsecrated. From New York Times bestselling author Carrie Ryan comes an original story of love after the Return.

Heather's Notes
So I read this to see if I would like the series. Needless to say I do not plan on reading more. I did not like the ending of the book. I dislike the decisions Tabitha made, and feel like they were not really in character, although you could see it coming. Still if she felt like he couldn't stay, she should have just killed him, not let the "unconsecrated" kill him. What she did was wrong on so many levels.

[Emma Valieu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ayant lu le passionnant La forêt des damnés il y a quelques années, j'ai retrouvé avec plaisir l'ambiance pesante du village clôturé des Soeurs, même si je ne doute pas que le plaisir aurait été plus grand si j'avais lu cette nouvelle peu de temps après le roman.

Hare Moon s'attarde sur la Soeur Tabitha avant l'époque de Mary du premier tome et nous permet de mieux comprendre le personnage qu'elle sera devenue par la suite.

En tout cas, même en histoire courte, Carrie Ryan sait écrire des fins coups de poing !

[Bramwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

This short story was great!

I had read the first book and a half in the "Forest of Hands and Teeth" series a few years ago.

I decided to go back finish the series and got the books out of the library. Then I saw this and it was listed as book 0.5 in the series. So I thought I would go ahead and read that first.

Don't read it first! It explains things about the series that are shown with better pacing in the series. It's more of a Side Story, then it is a standalone story. I would definitely not recommend reading it until at least after the first book.

That being said, it's great! Both romantic and heartbreaking in turns - all-in-all, a great story.

Non-spoiler disclaimers: This is a Young Adult series that involves zombies. This is all basically explicitly said at the beginning of the first book - but if it's not your cup of tea, you may not enjoy it.

[Ema · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it!
Gives you an insight into sister Tabithas life and you better understand why the village was the way it was.
Even though it was short I was tearing up at the end. (the fact that it was late and I was tired might have helped that)
If you liked The Forest of Hands and Teeth series you will like this book. If not, it's short so you won't waste too much time.

[Kristina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Damn I love the world of The Forest of Hands and Teeth. No other series gives me the same emotions this one does. I feel the loss of hope and the anxiety and also the feeling of new love and possibilities along with the characters. This story was hella sad and also made me very nostalgic for the time I read the main books for the first time.

[Γιώτα Παπαδημακοπούλου · Rating 4 out of 5]

Μια πολύ ωραία ματιά στο παρελθόν, που μας κάνει να δούμε τη σχέση των δύο αδερφών και τους χαρακτήρες αυτών μέσα από μια άλλη οπτική και να τους αναλύσουμε και σε ένα δεύτερο επίπεδο. Προσωπικά, το απόλαυσα και θεωρώ πως πρόσθεσε ένα μικρό λιθαράκι εκεί ακριβώς όπου χρειαζόταν για να ολοκληρωθεί το παζλ.