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 […]
I loved the first third of this so much that the rest doesn’t even really matter.
I’ve read an awful lot of zombie stories over the past 10 years. I’m really not sure why, as zombies aren’t really my thing. I don’t watch The Walking Dead and I’m not an aficionado of George Romero movies. I think its just ended up that a lot of authors that I like have tried a zombie story, so I’ve gone along with it. Some have been great, like World War Z or This Year’s Class Picture. Some have been less wonderful…like Pride and Prejudice […]
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. […]
Pandora Didn’t Ask for the Box
Malin’s review of The Girl with all the Gifts inspired me to read it (as with many of the books from my CBR this year, because you all write such intriguing reviews). I was not disappointed by the suggestion of this book, it was such a fresh and inventive book that I think will stick with me for a bit. It was horror in the lightest sense of the word, most of the horror has already occurred…and then again, much of the horror is only […]
The story of a very special little girl and her journey of self discovery
I’m actually going to use the Goodreads summary of this, because it’s what made me want to read the book in the first place: 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 […]