Hare Moon (The Forest of Hands and Teeth, # 0.7)
By: Carrie Ryan
Published: April 5th 2011
40 pages
Genre: Young Adult, Horror, Zombie, Science Fiction, Post-Apocalyptic
Source: Personal Kindle Library
( Goodreads | Amazon
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Goodreads description--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.
Hare Moon gets 3 Stars.
Hare Moon is a 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 chose.
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.
Have you read Hare Moon? What did you think? Let me know!
Updated: January 30, 2015
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