Customer Reviews

The Girl with All the Gifts (Unabridged)

It's difficult to know what to say about The Girl With All The Gifts without spoiling a twist that occurs early on in the novel and governs the entirety of the story from then on, but I think I'm safe to say that this story is set in an imagined dystopia, where huge population loss has decimated Britain and the few survivors hang on in military bases. On one of these bases lives ten-year-old Melanie, who spends most of her time in a cell and the rest in a classroom, where she soaks up information, especially Miss Justineau's stories of Greek mythology. But she and her fellow pupils are treated like dangerous animals, shackled to their seats and hosed down with disinfectant every Sunday. To Melanie, this is normal, but the reader realises within the first few pages that something is wrong...

This is a gripping and well-written thriller that runs along familiar lines, but manages to rise above its competitors by the sheer effectiveness of its storytelling and its careful handling of the central character, Melanie. I find that using child narrators is a very risky business, as it's so easy for the author to depict a child as twee, unrealistically naive, or sickeningly perceptive and honest. The depiction of Melanie, however, is almost entirely successful. This is partly due to her secret, which steers her depiction away from the usual cliches of childhood, partly due to the fact that she is not the only narrator, and partly because she does not narrate in first person, so MR Carey does not have to attempt the 'voice of a child'. I still had some niggles about her presentation, such as the story she writes early on in the novel, which does not read to me as the work of a ten-year-old with a 'genius-level' IQ, but as the work of a younger child with this level of ability. However, this can possibly be explained by the fact that we do not know how long Melanie has been in education. Still, I felt a little uneasy about her flawless moral code, and I could never relate to her quite as closely as I could to the other characters.

Fortunately, the rest of the cast are satisfyingly individual. Miss Justineau is the most traditionally likeable, but I found myself increasingly fascinated by the two soldiers and, especially, by the most morally suspect member of the crew, scientist Caroline Caldwell. I could never quite tell whether Caroline was meant to be the villain, fulfilling a 'mad scientist' stereotype, but I hope not, because I found her much more interesting as a 'grey' character. Although Caroline oversteps a certain moral line at least once during this novel, I found that I was still broadly sympathetic to her, and understood why she adopted the mindset she did to do the job she had to do. Her final futile discovery is a fitting end to her journey, and she performs the role of antagonist in the narrative without descending into cackling evil. This is a key addition to Carey's story, and I don't think that the novel would have worked nearly as well without her.

I would recommend this novel both to established SF fans and to those who do not usually read SF. Unlike most novels with a twist in the tale, it delivers fully upon what it promises, and does not rely on gimmicks to supply its consistently mounting tension. It should also have considerable crossover potential for young adult readers. Good stuff.

In this horror-thriller, M. R. Carey (whose previous stuff I'm not familiar with) takes a popular, over-used trope and gives it a fresh biological twist. While this does mean that a good deal of the plot follows the well-trodden road of a band of survivors trying to get somewhere while avoiding grisly deaths, there's enough difference to keep things interesting.

For starters, the main character and first viewpoint we're introduced to is a ten-year-old girl, Melanie. While her nature is made clear to the reader fairly quickly, there's still a few pages of disquiet in which you're left wondering why a little girl needs locking up and restraining. Her thought processes and language feel credible, but not to the point that you feel you're reading a children's book. This is far from that.

Most of the other characters are similarly compelling, although I did sometimes struggle to differentiate between them as the style and wording of their viewpoints didn't seem particularly distinct from one another. Credit goes to the author for slowly turning a standard army guy into someone more individual and more likeable, and for making the character who serves as Melanie's 'defender' unexpectedly conflicted.

Carey's prose is snappy and engaging, if occasionally a bit over-wrought. I definitely wanted to come back for more when I had to put the book down, although towards the end my attention began to slip a little - I started to get bored with the standard survivalist trajectory. The ending itself took an unexpected path, although the reasoning for it felt rather murky. If a sequel follows I think I would pick it up.

This isn't a gentle supernatural tale, but I recommend it for fans of fast-paced horror-thrillers.

I'm a huge fan of Carey. His Felix Castor books are brilliant urban fantasy, his Lucifer and Unwritten graphic novels are excellent, his work on Hellblazer is magnificent and his recent book (with his with and daughter co-authoring) 'The City of Silk and Steel' is a fascinating retelling of the Arabian nights tales.

This book is possibly his best yet - no mean feat considering my love for his Felix Castor series.

Telling the story of Melanie, a girl in a secure facility in near future, devastated England it is simply beautifully written.

Living in her own cell, strapped to a wheelchair when she is allowed out for lessons, Melanie is no ordinary kid.

The prose in the first chapter is at once vivid, haunting and sad with glimpses of what is to come further on. The story is fantastic, forcing the reader to read just one more chapter...then another.

If you're. a fan, buy it. If you're not, try it.

Best book of 2014 already.

The opening sections of this book are brilliant. We know from the blurb that this child, Melanie, is being treated like a dangerous animal - kept locked up, never seeing the sun or the outside world, chained and immobilised for large chunks of time - yet her thoughts and words are those of a normal child. What's going on?

As the story unfolds, we share Melanie's growing awareness of what she really is, and empathise with the horror of her situation. The feeling of being in a surreal world just goes on and on.

It is hard to find fault with this book. The story telling is masterful, we see a lot of things from Melanie's point of view, but the (third person) narration is shared by other, adult, characters which gives us a wider perspective and allows the narrative to move on at a good pace. However, it is the central role of Melanie and the complexity of her situation that makes this so much more than just another "zombie book"

In the crowded genre of young adult dystopian fantasy this book really stands out as being intelligent, exciting and unusual. And my teenage daughter agrees - she has just sat up half the night reading it!

This is a novel which runs for four hundred and three pages. It has seventy two chapters. It is a complete story and is done in that span, and it's not part of any series or trilogy.

It will be categorised as science fiction. But to say much more or go into too much detail would result in spoilers.

It's the story of Melanie. A young girl. Who is very smart indeed for her age.

The whole story is told in third person present tense. She is the main viewpoint character. But there are also four others.

Melanie lives in a cell. She is taken out of it each morning at gunpoint to be taken to class. Whilst strapped into a wheelchair. She doesn't like the rather nasty Sergeant who is in charge of this. But she likes Miss Justineau. The nice teacher.

She jokes when she is strapped in that she won't bite. Nobody laughs when she says that.

She loves school and learning. And talking about what she will do when she grows up.

Which is another remark that the adults don't take in the way she expects them to.

This is going to grab you right from the off, down to the mystery of what's really going on here. That, plus some very clear and direct prose makes it readable right from the off.

The other viewpoint characters do come in gradually, taking chapters of their own. From them, and some clues that are dropped, the reality of the world in which Melanie lives does become apparent with less than one hundred pages gone.

Once you know what's going on, it may feel as if we are in more familiar genre territory. But there is still enough originality and fresh twists on old scenarios to come to keep this very readable.

The setting is convincing. It does have strong language and adult situations. But it also has five very strong characters, at least one of whom is incredibly sympathetic. They all go on quite a journey, which leave them having grown and changed and in very different places by the end. Which results in a powerful ending and a book that you won't forget in a hurry. Because it's all about the central theme of the book. Being human. And being alive.

Well worth five stars. I am very glad to have read it.

In the mornings, five mornings a week, Melanie waits quietly in her cell for Sergeant Parks and his team to collect her and take her to class. She hopes it will be a Miss Justineau day, because Melanie loves the days when Miss Justineau takes the class. In particular, she loves the stories that Miss Justineau tells; tales of Aeneas, of Pandora, of places and people Melanie feels she knows and understands, out there in the world Melanie has never seen. Because Melanie and all her classmates are special and so they must be treated as such.

Quite what’s happening in this book takes a little while to unfold before the reader; seeing things initially from Melanie’s perspective, things sit a little off centre from what we might consider ‘reality’, until the reader starts to understand why. When Melanie tells Sergeant Parks that she won’t bite, he doesn’t find it funny. And when you find out why, that’s only the beginning of the shocks that wait for the unsuspecting reader in this book. Is the fate of humanity hanging in the balance? And what can Melanie do about it?

This is not a book for the faint-hearted; it’s emotional, and it’s bloody, and everybody in this game is playing for keeps. But if you like a gritty dystopian viewpoint from which to view our possible future, this is a book that will have you pinned to the pages. This is a fantastic book; breathless pacing takes the reader through a narrative that’s clever, ‘real’, and just close enough to the bone to leave you faintly worried as you close the last page. Brilliant.

The Girl With All The Gifts is an excellent book, but one that is very hard to review without giving spoilers away. I've left writing this review for almost two weeks, mainly because I think I just needed to process it and everything that it offered. There's a lot going on, a lot to take in, and a lot to mourn. It's terrifying in the sense that maybe this could actually happen one day, and we could all find ourselves in a similar situation. Who knows what future path the human race will take?

Before I go any further, I need to somehow talk about what this book's about. It's a dystopian, post-apocalyptic thriller with a twist. At some unspecified time in the future, Earth's population has significantly decreased. There aren't many survivors (think The Walking Dead levels of decimation) and those that are left are mostly children being kept at a military base. Of the adults that remain there, some are teachers and scientists while some are like wardens, charged with keeping the children safely encaged when they're not needed in the classroom. Melanie is one of these children, a bright, endearing ten-year-old with a high IQ, who takes a shine to her teacher Miss Justineau. Melanie, along with the other kids, is literally kept in chains and doesn't know why. Neither does the reader, but they soon will.

This book is extremely tense, horrific and ridiculously compelling. I ended up reading it all in one sitting, which took me a while. It's the kind of book that takes hold of you and doesn't let go until every twist has been turned, every secret revealed and every horror experienced. It's not an easy read by any stretch of the imagination - it's actually quite horrifying when you get into the heart of it - but it's all brilliant. I know I'm being deliberately vague here, but it's the kind of book that will be completely and utterly spoiled if you know everything going on. The beauty of it is reading further and watching everything fit into place.

It's a very character-driven novel, with a lot of exploration focusing on Melanie, Miss Justineau and scientist Caroline Caldwell. Miss Justineau is fantastic from start to finish; she's like a mother figure to Melanie and is possibly the only person working at the military base who owns a conscience. She's quiet but strong, hiding an inner strength that breaks out when it's most needed. Caldwell is the definition of a villain, but again this is ambiguous throughout the novel. To her she's just a scientist trying to make a breakthrough and possibly save humanity, but to Miss Justineau she's a stone cold killer. I went through phases of liking and understanding Caldwell and then absolutely despising her and what she stands for. Author M.R. Carey has a knack for doing that - he takes a stereotype and spins it around until their intended direction is no longer clear. It raises questions of good and evil and what we, as a society, deem acceptable, while also creating a character with much more depth than meets the eye. Melanie is also fascinating, though in a different way. She's the innocent all this, forced to live in shackles and live a regimented life full of rules and regulations, while all she wants to do is learn and make Miss Justineau proud. Melanie is a complicated character who really comes into her own later in the novel and, as you've probably guessed, has a huge part to play in proceedings. She may seem all innocent and fragile, but underneath a weak exterior is something just waiting to be unleashed. And when it is, it becomes clear that she's the one worth fighting for.

The whole setting of this book makes for an interesting discussion by itself. We never find out the state of the whole world and whether it's the same everywhere. There are a lot of questions left unanswered, but really the story is about this one little place and the state of their existence. It's a compact, complicated exploration of life and human beings after everything they know has been irrevocably changed, and always asks the question of what you'd do in this situation. Would you try and help like Miss Justineau or, like Caldwell, would you work tirelessly to figure out the secrets of this new Earth? I honestly don't know which category I'd fall into, which for me is the beauty of this book. For me there are no true villains, just people taking a different approach to a devastating turn of events.

The Girl With All The Gifts is one of those books that you just have to read for yourself. No cryptic synopsis can do it justice, just as no vague comparisons can truly tell you what it's really about. I've been thinking about this book for almost two solid weeks, weighing up my thoughts and deciding what to say to make other people want to read it. All I can come up with is that it's unlike anything I've read before (which could be because I don't often dip into adult literature), full of action, shocking revelations and understated moments centred around a likeable cast of characters. It's slightly too long and does get away with itself every now and then, but it comes right back and continues to grip you until the very last page. And that's really all I can ask for from a book.

4.5/5

This was a very difficult review to write. I have a lot of feelings, that I haven’t yet untangled. But I want to let out some of this emotion in the form of this review. I have a lot to say, but I can’t say too much – the details of this book have been so wrapped up by the publishers that it would feel a shame to spoil anymore than they would like. I will say that I was looking forward to this book from the moment it was announced, spurred on by my love of Mike Carey’s Lucifer graphic novels. And now, this looks to be one of my favourite for the year – already!

Melanie and the children are not like other children. They stay in their rooms when not in class, which is led by one of four different teachers. There, they are taught the geography of England and the world – both things they have never seen. In fact, they have never seen anything but their cells, and their classroom. They know where freedom, whatever that is, lies – at the end of the corridor, behind a steel door. But when children are wheeled out of there, they never seem to come back…

Oh, and that’s the other thing. Whenever the children are taken to class, or to shower and eat (a once a week event), they are strapped into wheelchairs (despite the fact they can walk just fine), which neck straps and all. This is all done by a soldier, while two others watch on, guns pointed at the children’s heads.

Melanie’s world is not the world as we know it.

Nor is it the world as she knows it, come to think of it. She has never seen sky, and, until the day Miss Justineau forgets herself and strokes the little girl’s hair, has never felt human contact before. Even with her genius level IQ, she just doesn’t understand – from the big questions, like why they can’t go outside, to why their drunken teacher tells them the population density of Birmingham doesn’t matter, because the population of Birmingham is really 0. But…that’s not what they should be being taught.

This is a twisting book. It runs circles, and then double backs on you. It’s a quiet book, for sure, especially given its subject matter, but it’s got a lot of weight in it.

Spoilers in the following paragraph – not huge ones, just enough if you wanted to go into this book blindly. You can skip the next paragraph, and read ahead instead, if you don’t want any info.

But this is a (this is the naughty word) zombie novel at its most basic level. What I liked was the fact it isn’t a shooting and bloody book. The zombies, as physical beings, are not the matter here – mostly their effect on a mental level is what matters. Because there are mysteries here – existential, as well as medical. While Dr Caldwell, the last remaining scientist with a slight chance, who only has this facility that the children are on, is hellbent on finding the cure, she is inadequately equipped. And there are many more problems than that later in the book.

Back to spoiler free waters, the book is also about the care and protection of a young child. It is about a troubling and complicated friendship between Miss Justineau, who is trying to absolve herself from former sins, and Melanie, who puts them all in danger, but is full of platonic infatuation for her caring teacher – the only one to ever show her affection.

Then there’s Parks, a soldier at his core, who finds himself faced with difficult decisions and difficult decisions. He starts off a bastard that you slowly come to care for. And Gallagher, who is under Park’s command, a troubled young man who has known of the discipline and bravery for soldier work, but will do anything to escape his troubled life at home.

This is not just a post-apocalyptic novel. This is a post-apocalyptic novel with feeling – that will twist you up as you see the bad things coming for the characters you don’t want hurt, and will let you sigh with relief when they struggle out of tight corners. We begin in a static that changes rather quickly, and the novel you thought you’d started turns out to be a totally different one. I can’t help but be vague to stop myself from spoiling any surprises.

But the ending is what really makes this book. It is as surprising as it is inevitable. But again, I won’t say much more.

I will admit that the prose style left my feeling slightly detached from the drama, but I still felt something. I’m just nitpicking now, to try and find a negative, but I am definitely emotional compromised by this book. It’s wonderful, and one of the best I’ve read in the post-apocalyptic genre, because it sneaks up on you and throws things at you that you never thought you’d see.

I do love Mike Carey. Highly recommended.

Not a usual genre for me, the Zombie horror. If it were, possibly I'd have given it five stars.
I found the first part of the book absolutely rivetting, the sort of book that made me think "I wish I had written that", but thought that the middle sagged a bit, though it still moved at a cracking pace. I think perhaps it was because though an excellent bit of "road movie" writing it did not have the tense originality of the first part.
The ending was also very good; a lot of thought had gone into making the reasons for the zombification credible, rooted in the real world.
The book is fast paced and well written. the main protagonists engage ones sympathies very well and develop as the story gallops on, not the usual two dimensional characters that I expected from the genre. there is a good supporting cast who are also quite complex in their motivations.
If you are a zombie fan, buy it. If not, at least consider it

A really good book, enjoyed reading every word. Really engaged with the characters and it was nice it was set in England.