The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

First love - check. Straining against society's rules and mores - check. Zombie apocalypse - check! In framing a classic coming-of-age tale in a small village literally surrounded by hordes of mindless, flesh-devouring undead, Ryan takes the timeless adolescent struggle to define oneself in a tight-knit town and ramps up the stakes with certain death as the result of attempts to escape the constraints of community and organized religion. Mary (in her middle teens) is on the verge of being married to a man she does not love, but the Sisters who make the rules in Mary's village place the importance of matrimony on reproduction and the continuance of the tiny community in the huge forest. It is the only human settlement to have survived the Return, an event in the distant past in which all of the dead rose as one to seek out the flesh of the living and pass on the Infection, which quickly swells their ranks with all of humanity save the residents of the fenced-in village (or so the Sisterhood says). In short order, Mary's mother is bitten and turned, her brother abandons her for letting their mother be taken, and she is forced to join the Sisterhood, where the brief hope of love kindled by time spent with a sick patient is dashed by the decimation of the village by rampaging zombies. From here on out, the story is one narrow escape after another as Mary and a few friends attempt to make their way out of the forest to the safety of a civilization they aren't sure exists, having only heard stories about the time before the Return from Mary's mother before she died. The Forest of Hands and Teeth is a clever twist on the growing-up tale that doesn't skimp on the zombie action, but rather blends the two elements in a satisfying horror/survival thriller. Moderately graphic violence (mostly describing zombie decay and decapitation), a mildly suggestive love scene, and multiple character deaths. Ages 13+.