The Girl With All The Gifts by M.R. Carey

It’s not usual that I enjoy zombie related books. I haven’t read much, but I’ve seen a lot of movies and several tv series about it. When I first bought this book months ago, the only thing I knew about it was that it’s about zombies. I was a bit reluctant to buy it, and also read it a few weeks ago, because I didn’t see how an author could make a zombie book standout. M. R. Carey managed to do one of the more difficult things to do, and that is to make a zombie novel astounding.

When it comes to zombie stories it’s all about being unique. Apocalyptic elements are always present when it comes to zombies, and honestly that’s the only way to go. You can’t create a zombie story without tackling on the apocalypse. It always starts with someone making something infectious, and that’s where the whole plot starts.

The thing with The Girl with All the Gifts is that it is original. The author did a bit of a different take in the zombie genre. It’s hard to feel something for a zombie character, but I learned to like Melanie early in the novel. I know that she is not your typical zombie, and that is what made her standout. I don’t think it is a spoiler to call her a zombie because the summary at the back of the book says it all.

What is amazing about this novel would be the characters. It is not just Melanie who made this novel amazing, but all the other supplementary and fellow main characters. Even Dr. Caldwell made this great for me. Without her brutal and heartless experiments, Ophiocordyceps would forever be a mystery to the story. Parks and Justineau obviously plays a major role in the novel. I don’t want to tackle much on the plot as spoilers always ruin the experience.

Another thing about the characters is that they developed perfectly. It’s a different kind of development for each one, but I really like how they changed. I liked all of them all throughout the novel. I didn’t dislike anyone, not even the normally annoying ones.

I’ll be honest and say that I tend to love character-driven novels, and this is one of them. I can gladly say though that aside from having terrific characters, the novel also has an amazing plot. When I was reading chapter 67, I thought I was going to loathe this novel. There were only a few pages left and the story felt tremendously unfinished. I was dreading those final pages, but the author gave the novel a proper closure. I really like how he ended things. It can either be open-ended, or that’s it. The major plot-twist in the end is an indicative fact that anything can happen in literature.

The writing is exquisite. The flow of the story is commendable, and the length is perfect. Like I said above, I thought the ending will suck, but fortunately the author knew what he was doing.

5/5 stars. Once again, I really don’t want to spoil anything, so all I can say is go ahead and read this amazing novel. I can’t wait to read more novels written by M.R. Carey (also known as Mike Carey in the comic book world)