Title/Author: The Girl With All the Gifts by M.R. Carey
Publication Date/Publisher: June 10, 2014/Orbit
Series: No
Source and Format: Received advanced copy from publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review
Rating: 4.5 stars
From Goodreads:
Melanie is a very special girl. Dr Caldwell calls her ‘our little genius’. Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don’t like her. She jokes that she won’t bite, but they don’t laugh. Melanie loves school. She loves learning about spelling and sums and the world outside the classroom and the children’s cells. She tells her favourite teacher all the things she’ll do when she grows up. Melanie doesn’t know why this makes Miss Justineau look sad.
So…this book was spoiled for me via twitter. Kind of. Between the tags on Goodreads and reading the first 30 pages, it doesn’t stay a secret for long. But I would recommend avoiding these things so the story can blossom like the disgusting spores it contains.
Horror is a strange genre for me to read. I don’t typically get scared while reading, but if this was a movie I would probably not see it. I want to say that it’s because I know in my brain that these things aren’t real, but The Girl With All the Gifts is based on some real stuff. The science-y bits explain it very science-y, but not in a way that loses you.
Melanie is fantastic. She’s so smart and self-aware and her “jokes” are right up my humor alley. All of the characters are superb – exactly as heroic or villainous as they need to be – but Melanie and Miss Justineau are sure to be favorites for a long time.
The third person narrative is not always my favorite, but it’s put to good use here. With so many characters making up the main cast, we need to see all of their reactions to things, as well as what drives them to do what they do. It moves things along quicker than a multi-POV book that changes each chapter – we need to see what everyone thinks about (x) right as it happens. Some chapters are dedicated to a single character, typically if they’re on their own or if something is about to go down.
I got to around 95% of The Girl With All the Gifts, realized it was about to end, and freaked out a little. How was this going to get wrapped up? AND THEN! So much. It’s a tiiiiny but rushed, but I love what happens. This is definitely a story that will stick with me for a long time.
So, this isn’t really a humorous book, but some parts are SO FUNNY, just because we see so much through Melanie’s eyes and she really is just a child and has limited understanding of things, despite being so smart.
And one day, as she was walking in a forest, she was attacked by a monster. It was a frigging abortion and it wanted to kill her and eat her.
Paperback Heart 