Genre: Horror, Science Fiction
Series: Stand Alone
Publisher: Orbit (June 10, 2014)
Author Information: Website | Twitter
Mogsy's Rating: 5 of 5 stars
I confess, I’m not very good when it comes to pulling information out of book descriptions. But all I know is, when I first heard about The Girl with All The Gifts, it piqued my interest right away. Here you have a story about a bright young girl named Melanie, who for some reason everyone seems deathly afraid of. Being held at gun-point while being strapped into a wheelchair just to go to class? Judging by level of paranoia with which she’s treated, you’d think little Melanie was Hannibal Lecter. The book jacket may be a little scarce on details, but there’s definitely something strange going on.
So it really shouldn’t have surprised me when this book turned out to be Horror, and yet it did. Finding out about the genre, however, just made me even more excited to read it. And just when I thought things couldn’t get any better, OH HELLO, THEY DO!
By now, I gather it’s pretty safe to explain why I had myself a personal little freak-out when it hit me just what I was in for with this story. After all, the revelation comes very early on in the novel and is hardly a spoiler, not to mention the book has been out in the UK for months now and the cat is out of the bag. But avert your eyes now if you would prefer to know absolutely ZIP about the book going in. Anyway, my excitement levels exploded when I realized that The Girl with All The Gifts…has zombies.
And I haven’t even gotten to the best part yet. What makes this a great zombie book – a great book, PERIOD – is the science. Ah, gotta love science. Like I always say, if you want to see some scary stuff, look no further than Mother Nature. Heck, some of the most frightening, bone-chilling things I’ve ever seen in film aren’t in horror movies, but are in those dang Planet Earth documentaries. Who could forget the “Jungles” episode and the importance of fungi as illustrated by the life cycle of Ophiocordyceps unilatertalis? Oh, the sheer horror of watching the parasite take over an ant’s brain before the fruiting body explodes out of the back of its victim’s head, all while Sir David Attenborough goes on calmly narrating in those smooth, dulcet tones. That sequence was beyond traumatizing – but also fascinating. I remember being obsessed with the idea, thinking to myself, holy crap, someone pleeeeease write a zombie book based around this!
Well, even though the video game The Last of Us might have done it first, M.R. Carey ended up granting me my wish. And he does it in such a spectacular way, wrapping this fantastic idea around a story filled with mystery, action, and lots of gut-wrenching heartbreak. The Girl with All The Gifts is everything I look for in a zombie book – tight, energetic pacing with all the savagery, suspense and tension – but it’s also so much more. For me, this book is the next step in zombie fiction, delivering on the survival and post-apocalyptic elements we all know and love, while pushing the envelope with new ideas and deep characterization.
Due to its nature, it’s not surprising that the zombie-apocalypse survival subgenre tends to feature ruthlessness and characters with hard hearts who show no pity. But seeing the themes of mercy and compassion enter into the equation here is a nice change of pace. A lot of this is due to Melanie. If you also guessed from the description that there’s something different about her character, you’d be correct. Melanie is definitely a special little girl, and she’s part of what makes this book such an exceptional, atypical zombie novel and such a joy for me to read.
Even though I can probably go on for another couple pages about why I loved this book, I really don’t want to give too much away. There are lots of surprises, including an unpredictable ending that truly stunned me. I loved this book to pieces. Haunting, powerful and poignant, The Girl with All The Gifts is a novel I would recommend highly and without reservation.
A review copy of this book was provided to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to Orbit Books!
Really? A horror book? I wouldn't have suspected that. You know I usually don't read a synopsis when I pick a book or I do it but forget as soon as I did it, it's terrible so well everything is new. I'm glad you had such a great time with it one. Now I'm quite intrigued mainly with such a good rating.
ReplyDeleteYes, the cover doesn't really show it and the description actually makes it sound like a paranormal!
DeleteOhh I saw that ep too! And was all holy f! That is some scary shit nature! I am glad someone wrote about it
ReplyDeleteI LOVE the Planet Earth series! One of the most gorgeous and well made docs ever. Nature is crazy ;-)
DeleteI admit to being intrigued by 'you’d think little Melanie was Hannibal Lecter.' Hehe I'm not big on horror, but I do love a good zombie story.
ReplyDeleteIf you like zombies, then you HAVE to read this!
DeleteI know a lot of people think they're played out, but I still have a weakness for zombies. And zombies that are explained with actual science? Hell yes! Hopefully this one's narrated in third person so you could just imagine Attenborough's voice the whole time.
ReplyDeleteYeah, zombies are played out, but from the success of shows like Walking Dead they are clearly still very popular. These days I love seeing authors and creators do new things with zombies, I still love the genre for that :)
DeleteHaha, what a great review - you managed to get Hanibal and Attenborough in here and I was literally thinking of both of them when I read this book - it's like you're some sort of bloody witch!! You HAVE to love Attenborough - thought I'd just get that in!
ReplyDeleteThis is a great book - the cat is out of the bag and the spoiler is given away fairly early days anyway. (spoiler alert) I love the way the bodies have been turned into a forest of sorts! Plus - Melanie - what a great character.
Lynn :D
Haha, yep I managed to get Hannibal and Attenborough into the same review, that's gotta be something. And heck yeah, that scene with the forest was INSANE!
DeleteYou definitely turned me on to this! I had marked it as to read but I may buy it next! It was pretty vague in the description, I kind of expected a paranormal sort of read. But zombies!? I didn't see that coming. I loved The Last of Us (OMG that ending) and the whole parasite zombie idea. I was hoping to see that somewhere else. You've got me all excited!
ReplyDeleteYeah, the description made it sound like a paranormal novel. I expected some sort of ghost or possession book involving kids and stuff, because that sort of fits the theme, right? But yes, ZOMBIES! And I actually have not played The Last of Us yet, and I don't know if I will, when I first saw the reveal of it at a past E3 I was like, this looks too intense for me, I think it might give me nightmares!
DeleteOh great review! You touched on absolutely everything I loved about this book. The science aspect of this was superb! And Melanie's character? Amazing.Those two things set this book far above most others. There is one I always want to compare it to, but am afraid the comparison is spoilery.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to have to hit you up on twitter or goodreads one of these days and find out the comparison, because now I'm curious. I'm wondering if we're thinking the same thing, because there was one book I was comparing this to as well the whole time I was reading ;P
DeleteI...got nothing. Still just not interested in this book, despite the glowing review.
ReplyDeleteDamn, dirty zombies.
Man, I had no idea there was so much zombie hate!
DeleteCan't wait to start this one. And I always love reading your 5 star reviews, since you don't seem to give them out very frequently.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'm pretty stingy with those 5 stars, lol...but this year has been pretty good with them!
DeleteZOMG. See here's the thing . . . I know that you know that zombies . . . not my favorite. What I don't think you know is why . . . and the why is . . . all of the reasons you loved this, LOL. You can call me ridiculous, and trust me, I agree, but in my head, out of all the creatures in horror/sci-fi/UF, zombies are the most-likely thing to happen/be real. That's the same reason I love aliens, incidentally. AND why I cannot read mystery/thrillers either. I start seeing serial killers EVERYWHERE. So. Now you know my ridiculous secret. I hope we can still be friends ;) Glad you loved this one, Mogsy.
ReplyDeleteHaha! I had no idea "zombie phobia" was a thing! It's interesting, I was talking to someone yesterday who pretty much said the exact same thing. And if you feel zombies are the most likely thing to be real then yeah you probably need to stay away from this book. The science behind the cordyceps is going to freak you the hell out, because a parasite/fungus that takes over brains actually exists in ants - they even nickname it the "ant zombie fungus" XD
DeleteSince the day I changed my mind about zombie books - thanks to Mira Grant's excellent "Newsflesh" trilogy - I've been looking for works on the same level of quality: this might indeed be the one I was waiting for. I read a mention of it somewhere else, but it seems to have slipped my mind, so thank you very much for this great review and the reminder!
ReplyDeleteShit I had to stop at the third paragraph when you said it has zombies - now ...I MUST READ NOW!! Oh thank my stars I have a copy of this on hand.
ReplyDelete