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The Girl with All the Gifts M R Carey 9780356500157 Books

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The Girl with All the Gifts M R Carey 9780356500157 Books

This book is completely worth reading--paticularly if you enjoy post-apocolyptic stories. The first half of this book is an amazing-but-brutal page-turner. The characters (even the worst of the antagonists) are fascinating--and it is a breath of fresh air to read well-written female characters. Unfortunately, second half of the bom loses momentum with too many plot devices, overly used zombie movie tropes and an ending that wrapped up too quickly and neatly. It felt like it was originally intended to be an ironic short story, but the author decided to lengthen it and devoted a lot more time to the beginning of the book than the end.


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The Girl with All the Gifts M R Carey 9780356500157 Books Reviews

There are lots of zombie stories but this is the first time I read such a developed story, in line with scientific explanations for the origin of the zombies.
The story starts at a military base where the psychological aspects, needs and conflicts of the characters are first introduced. Then as the story progress we see much more interaction and development. The characters are multi dimensional and have realistic motives for their behaviors. The ending was unexpected, not what I hoped for, but still a fine ending. It was great and compelling.
There were a couple of things that didn't make much sense in my opinion and few parts that got dull.
How did Helen open Dr cabwell buzz door?
How come they ate food 20 years expired without feeling sick?
How can a military research station not know what is going on outside their walls? They only found out about the development of the mature fungus once they were outside the base.
How can Melanie feel hunger. Hungries don't feel hungry or need food. They just eat when prompted by a stimulus. Otherwise they can stand still for years without food. On the other hand Melanie feels hunger and can control herself instead of following the pathogen orders. Probably she still had some control over her brain and hence felt hunger as a human is supposed to do. Still, I am not sure it makes full sense.
Melanie seems at times a child and sometimes a badass grown woman.
I wasn't able to finish it.
Spoilers... Zombies are already a tired concept and this book does nothing to change that. If you're looking for a classic horror concept with a twist check out "Passage" by Justin Cronin instead.
I have a confession to make. I’m done with zombie stories. Every plot has been written multiple times. Every angle has been explored. There is simply nothing new to be told. Or so I thought before reading The Girl with All the Gifts.

To say too much about the plot would be to deprive unsuspecting readers some spectacular plot twists. But, in the interest of not being entirely unhelpful, here goes. Six year old Melanie is a genius. She reads the classics, performs Calculus, and quotes Greek literature. Her favorite teacher, Miss Justineau, adores Melanie above the other students in a very unique class. For each day, Sergeant and other hardened soldiers roll Melanie and her classmates into class strapped helplessly into wheel chairs. No one ever touches the children, or gets too close to their teeth, or releases their bonds in the presence of adults. Why? Melanie doesn’t know at first, but gradually learns of the undead “hungries” that have killed the world outside of the school. That world seems so far away … until it crashes in on the school and destroys it. What follows is a frenetic journey of self-discovery and survival as Melanie, Miss Justineau, and Sergeant attempt to survive a brutal outside world. For the truth about Melanie and the danger she poses to those she loves most becomes the girl’s most difficult lesson yet.

This novel has everything – everything – I look for in a story. Compelling characters you cannot simply classify as good or bad who soldier on with hope despite a hopeless situation. Twists and turns galore – some you see coming and some you don’t. And best of all, an ending that you don’t see coming, but when it does, you know it is perfect.

Five enthusiastic stars for this novel … and I would give it six if I could. Just read it, okay. You can thank me later.
I have long been a fan of M.R. Carey - I loved his Felix Castor series (The Naming of the Beasts A Felix Castor Novel), and I was swept up in the genius storytelling of The House of War and Witness. I was similarly impressed with _The Girl With All The Gifts_.

Carey has taken a real biological organism (the parasitic fungus cordyceps which highjacks the nervous system of its host, typical ants) and imagined what would happen if this fungus jumped the species barrier and was able to infect humans. The result is a pandemic of apocalyptic proportions as most of humankind is infected, those who remain attempting to not become infected themselves while seeking a vaccine.

It is difficult to write about the plot without spoiling the story, so I will err on the side of being vague. The story is a bit confusing initially, as it is told from the perspective of Melanie (the girl with all the gifts.) Finding out what those gifts are, and how they are important to the plot is a large part of the story itself, and a large part of the fun of reading it. Besides the brilliance of the concept of the story, I particularly enjoyed the constant changes in perspectives between characters giving readers an opportunity to see and understand their motivations and world-views. Carey also does a tremendous job of creating and building tension as the plot moves forward, although (as with many of his other books), there is an element of the bitter-sweet in its resolution.

For those unfamiliar with this author, I recommend _The House of War and Witness_ first (only out of personal preference) before reading _the Girl With All the Gifts_; that said, this is a fantastic piece of dystopic science fiction.
This book is completely worth reading--paticularly if you enjoy post-apocolyptic stories. The first half of this book is an amazing-but-brutal page-turner. The characters (even the worst of the antagonists) are fascinating--and it is a breath of fresh air to read well-written female characters. Unfortunately, second half of the bom loses momentum with too many plot devices, overly used zombie movie tropes and an ending that wrapped up too quickly and neatly. It felt like it was originally intended to be an ironic short story, but the author decided to lengthen it and devoted a lot more time to the beginning of the book than the end.