The Girl with All the Gifts

Didn't know this was a zombie book going into it. My biggest gripe with it is that it seems like it would be easy to clear out hungries in an area. The book already talks about how they'd dump the hungries into a lye pit to get rid of them. Why not dig a big lye pit, hang something loud and moving over the middle of it to attract the hungries, and they'd fall into it.

Jon billed this to me as a combination of Matilda, a zombie film and Never Let Me Go. Honestly, that's pretty spot on: there's a first part that is basically a zombie in the Matilda-genre, followed by a longer second part of Matilda in the zombie genre.

The whole idea is a really unique take on the zombie genre, and Carey does a great job using a lot of the old standbys of survival horror to set the scene where he can, allowing most of the prose to really focus in on the protagonists. Using an ensemble cast really allows the idea of zombie sentience to sign – without the point-of-view of Melanie, a lot of what happens in the book would lose its ethical greyness, but without the point-of-view of the humans, the survival drive would not be felt as well, either. The five characters and their relationships between each other really complement each other nicely. By using zombies, rather than a brand new concept of some sort, Carey frees up a lot of time to focus on the existential (or as he calls them, ontological) ideas of the novel: what makes a being a person, what is free will, what people owe to humanity.

Finally, the science, as far as I could tell (not being a mycologist) was very nicely done. It's rare to find science fiction that actually hits science and is simultaneously interesting. I don't think that using Ophiocordyceps isn't a unique idea (I assume – given that Ophiocordyceps species that actually exist are already called “Zombie Fungus”; I don't actually do zombie usually) but the details that Carey adds, were interesting, plausible, and added to the plot. My one nitpick is regarding the final piece: that vertical transmission of Ophiocordyceps results in children who are neurologically intact was something I'd guessed from about 25% of the way in, if not sooner, so I don't really think discovering it justifies dissecting children. Caldwell was depicted as a brilliant scientist, who only did the necessary harm, but that really fell flat for me at the end. Yes, it was just a hypothesis, but her dissection didn't really expand beyond the hypothesis in any way, and an MRI of Melanie's brain would have been just as good.

Very well written, character-driven book. The plot is somewhat meaningless and it does gets less less interesting about 3/4 of the way.

The setting is that of a post-apocalyptic zombie infested world. It starts in an isolated military base a few days away from what is perhaps the only known disease-free human settlement.

The army is in charge of protecting the scientists who are conducting experiments in order to find a cure for the “zombie” disease. A group of children are the subjects of their research, and some teachers were brought in to the base in order to give some psychological insight into the minds of those children.

For what I can tell of the main characters:

Miss Justineau is the heart of the team. She is one of the teachers in the military base, Melanie's favorite teacher.

She is the kind of person who would rather see everybody die rather then kill a single human being. Her answer to logical reasoning that contradicts her morals is to “punch them in the face”. It might sound like the sort of character I hate, but she was very well represented for what she is. I found her affection for Melanie hearth warming.

Sergeant Parks is the brute. He is a stoic soldier charged with the security of the base. At first he is presented as somewhat obnoxious, because he feels some animosity towards Melanie. But his personality is developed into a very pragmatic individual who reacts as best as he can no matter what the situation.

Dr. Caldwell is the brain. She is portrayed as the stereotypical cold and calculating scientist who cares for nothing but her work. Which is to save the world, by the way. She displays much detachment from her “subjects”, who she sees at nothing but biological specimens. She is very pragmatic as well, the kind of person who looses and arm, puts on a tourniquet, and goes on to what she was doing.

Private Gallagher is the young innocent one. He the other soldier in this group of main characters, although he is the less importance of them all.

Melanie is a combination of all the other characters traits. She is one of the subjects of Dr Caldwell's research. As a child, her personality is being developed throughout the story. She observes the other characters and “gets” something from each one of them I believe. A very interesting character.

I actually managed to read the short story this is based on (Iphegenia In Aulis) before reading this. The base concept here is massively intriguing - vampiric children being experimented on in a lab based setting. Vampires can come across as a bit tired, so doing it in this way, from the perspective of one of these child vampires, is a brilliant way to subvert the genre. The dynamic is instantly shifted from the good vs evil dynamic to a much more sympathetic one. These children are damaged through no fault of their own, are being experimented on in a terrifying way. It allows the ‘who is really the monster?' question to be asked in a very clever way.

The short story had set up the basis for this, and this novel expands on it by taking the child out of the laboratory and back into the real world. The relationships develop, the characters motivations are all explored.

This really was a refreshing take on the post apocalyptic vampire genre. Strong shades of 28 days later pervade through the imagery presented (not a bad thing) and the basic set up allows a good deal more pathos to be developed towards the ‘monsters'. An intelligent and clever take on what can be quite a tired genre.

I went into this not knowing it was a you-know-what novel, because it had been mentioned often on file770.com. Despite it being basically a horror novel I found the gross-out factor to be tolerable, with interesting characters and much to ponder once I had finished, especially the actions of the title character at the end. Very gripping and recommended for fans of dystopias, especially if you can stand a bit of gruesomeness.

Spoiler-free review, copied from my Audible account.

Where does The Girl with All the Gifts rank among all the audiobooks you've listened to so far?
Near the top. The narration isn't perfect, but the story is so fabulous, this is in my top five.

What other book might you compare The Girl with All the Gifts to and why?
I don't want to give too much away. I would say if you like science fiction or horror with really excellent characterization, relationships, and well-earned emotion, you will love this. People who like John Scalzi, or Let Me [the Right One] In will probably love this.

Also, this story is chock full of female characters who are fully realized and not valued primarily for their sex appeal. I don't feel like Carey set out to write a feminist novel by any means, but he seems to respect and like women and realize that we are people too, and can carry a story that will appeal to both sexes. It was a delight to read a gripping story that passed the Bechdel test effortlessly, without feeling strained or political about it.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
YES! I looked forward to waiting in line or doing menial chores, so I would have more opportunities to listen.

Any additional comments?
Finty Williams does a very good job overall. She gives the correct emotional tone to each passage, and the characters are easy to differentiate. The one thing that bugged me to no end was her pronunciation of Justineau (which is one of the most common words in the novel, unfortunately). I don't know if it was a bad attempt at a really authentic French accent, or ignorance of how “eau” is pronounced, but it comes out “Justinoo” and it annoyed me throughout.

Ahah, great book ! Although it is not my genre, i loved it.. From the initial suspense of what is happening (if you have no idea what kind of book it is) up until when the characters start to build themselves and the relationships between them start becoming solid :) i did love it, it is entertaining and it gives that kind of feeling of wanting to know what is happening next :) the main character is just great and the ending is quite unexpected (for me, at least) :)

I'm a sucker for dystopian environments, and this one hit the sweet spot of optimism coupled with grit and a high level look at why the world is the way it is. The star of the story is the relationship between Melanie, a 10 year old genius girl, and her teacher. Melanie doesn't know it, but a fungal infection has taken over the worlds, and taken over her. It has turned the worlds population into “hungries” – zombies. The story unfolds as Melanie learns how she is different, and how she can fit into this new world.

I've watched a lot of zombie movies, TV shows and post-apocalyptic tales, and this one holds up. I'm excited to see a movie is in the works set to release in 2016!

I think I should've read my friend Rain's review first, because it was accurate: this starts out as a really intriguing and original concept but then quickly turns into just another story about zombies. It was pretty well-written, but I was almost never surprised by any of it after the initial setup. I'm very glad I chose the audiobook for it, since the narration by Finty Williams was excellent, and she was a surprisingly perfect choice for the material. Her voice is similar enough to Dame Judi Dench's that it felt like several hours riding through Spaceship Earth, if Spaceship Earth were about zombies.

Boy, am I bored of zombies. And the Apocalypse. And zombie apocalypses.

The Girl with All the Gifts could be the book to change my mind about that. Carey focuses on a bright little girl called Melanie and immediately incites your curiosity about her situation. (Why is a little girl locked in a cell, etc.?) It just keeps getting better from there as Melanie and a few others, who are hostile or frightened of her to varying degrees, are forced to take a road trip together.

This is a Horror story of nature taking back the planet from humanity and how the few uninfected humans left try to carry on or fight against it. It's a unique take on the usual zombie-virus thingy that really fed my imagination.

What I appreciated the most was seeing the story from the view of each character in the small cadre. They've all been forced out of their reasonably (under the circumstances) stable existence and each has different goals and perspectives as they hope to get to a safer place.

First there's Melanie, child genius. She's been kept in a cell so long that she knows little about the world, where it's been or what it's like now but she learns quickly. All her knowledge comes from the limited education she received in her childhood confinement.

Helen Justineau is Melanie's teacher and mentor and the object of her affection. Her relationship with Melanie gives the heart and soul to the book. She's also a kickass heroine.

Leading the troop is Sergeant Parks, who along with Justineau is old enough to remember the world before the zombie virus hit. He's the usual tough-guy type, there to get the job done. He goes through the greatest character arc especially in terms of seeing Melanie as first monster and then ally.

Gallagher is the soldier under Park's command. Like Melanie he was born post-apocalypse and can't remember the world any other way. Probably the true innocent of the bunch, he is also the least judgmental of Melanie.

Last in the travel party is Doctor Caldwell, the antagonist to Justineau and especially Melanie. She's even less capable than Parks of viewing Melanie as human. Everything is about intellectual vanity and ego as well as knowledge and information for its own sake. She changes less than anyone through the story but she's also the catalyst for most of the action and the answers that come to light. As you're reading, you're not sure if she's going to be the salvation or destruction of all that's left of humanity. She's so crazy it could go either way.

The story has many unexpected twists that are exactly right: surprising and yet they feel inevitable. Melanie's destiny was clearly always to be the road between humans and the new merged beings but it's still interesting to see how we get there. Wonderful horror and suspense with good characters and conflicts.

was a nice book, felt really immersive

a lot of morally grey situations that made me ponder a lot about what i would do so j'étais à leur place

basically a good general fiction/sf(ig) book, haven't read one of these in a while & it was a nice experience. you know these books that just make you feel like you're watching a movie ? yeah

liked the way the narration was written too, & how the tone seemed to change selon les personnages

Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com.

I think this is the sort of book where it is better going into it not knowing what it is about. My sister told me what the book was about as she has no concept of spoilers and I was surprised. Because just from the cover and the title you wouldn't think it was this sort of book. But its good, its really good. Its one of the best books I have read in this genre.