Or, at the very least, they are the future in M.R. Carey’s book, The Girl With All the Gifts. The book is about Melanie, zombie child extraordinaire. She’s being held, along with several other (albeit less extraordinary) zombie children, at a research facility in England. At the facility, they attend classes, eat grubs and occasionally get dissected, all in the name of science. Dr. Caldwell does the dissecting, and Helen Justineau does the teaching. Below is a song I “wrote” about their adventures (please to […]
Damn it, Pandora!
Melanie is a ten-year old girl that leads a strange life. She lives in a cell, only allowed outside it strapped on a wheelchair when she is to attend class. What the world outside looks like, she can only imagine. Maybe like in the mythology books her favourite teacher, Ms Justineau, reads for them. It’s the only life Melanie knows, until something happens that turns her world upside down and liberates her from the confines of her wheelchair and her cell. But her newfound freedom […]
What a Great Sneak Preview
Wow. I had no idea how much I was missing “The Girl With All the Gifts” until I read this free extended preview of “The Boy on the Bridge.” This is not a sequel they say, but it takes place in the same post apocalyptic world that Carey wrote about in “The Girl With All The Gifts.” We seem to be following another team that is out to figure out how to combat the hungries in a changed world. We start off following the POV […]
Melanie makes you love her, even if she maybe wants to eat you
This story is about a military outpost in post-apocalyptic England. You don’t really get all the details right away, so I won’t ruin it. I can say that it’s a “zombie” story, but I put zombie in quotes because it’s not your regular zombie story. I’m listening to this audiobook in my car, and I’ve never wanted to drive places more than now! I can’t stop listening. I’ve ended up parked outside my house just finishing listening to a chapter multiple times. I’m keeping notes […]
Still alive
The Girl with All the Gifts breathes life into its genre with a fresh angle on the pathology of an outbreak and an ending that I truly did not expect. The story opens at a noticeably unconventional school/dormitory, where the pupils are carefully monitored and restrained when they are not locked in their individual cells. Our primary protagonist, Melanie, is one such pupil, a bright girl of about ten who loves learning, particularly math and stories of Greek mythology. Her favorite teacher, Miss Justineau, encourages […]
Hey look, it’s a title with the word “girl” in it that’s actually about a girl, not a woman
I’m a bit of a chicken when it comes to horror, but so many cannonballers loved The Girl With All the Gifts that I thought I should give it a try. And I’m so glad I did! What a beautifully inventive story that kept me turning pages. There were some tense parts, but nothing strong or gory enough to give me nightmares. However, this is maybe not the kind of book you want to read on your lunch hour unless you have a strong stomach. […]