Thriller
The Girl With All The Gifts
by M.R. Carey
Outside of Sunday night’s The Walking Dead, I’m not a traditional zombie fan. I would normally say ‘no’ to a zombie novel but…this one was free. So I read. And enjoyed!
This is NOT the typical ‘run from zombies and stay alive’ book.
Melanie, one of the main characters, is a child zombie, or ‘hungry’. But she’s different from the hungries that run around solely looking for food/people to eat. Melanie is an emotional and intelligent 10 year old young girl who is curious and loving and compassionate. She is able to form emotional relationships with other children like her and some of the adults around her.
The story is told mostly from the view of Melanie and the other children that are being kept for testing on a military base, after a plague has ‘changed’ most of the world’s population into hungries. Dr. Caldwell is using the children to test for a cure. They are moved from their cells strapped in wheelchairs, so not to get so close to a human to smell them and want to eat them. Born of first generation hungries, they are different. They’re able to retain knowledge and feel emotion.
At the heart of the story is Melanie’s relationship with her teacher Miss Justineau. Learning through Helen Justineau’s stories (particularly the story of Pandora), Melanie yearns for love and acceptance as she tries to figure out who she is. There are characters in this book you will love and those you will not like at all. Carey even takes time to develop a deeper understanding of those characters we will never like.
If you are looking for horror and traditional zombies, The Girl With All the Gifts might not be the book for you. If you’re looking for something refreshing and more character-driven, this might be just what you’re looking for.
Carey was born in Liverpool, England. He was a teacher for 15 years before settling into writing comics. After 15 years of teaching, he began his career writing for DC Comics and Marvel Comics. He is the acclaimed writer of the comic book series, The Sandman, which was turned into the spin-off comic books series, Lucifer. That comic book series was turned into a television series. His comic book series, Hellblazer was also made into the film Constantine.
“And then like Pandora, opening the great big box of the world and not being afraid, not even caring whether what’s inside is good or bad. Because it’s both. Everything is always both. But you have to open it to find that out.”
M.R. Carey from The Girl With All The Gifts
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I give this book a
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