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

Format: Paperback
Publisher: Orbit Books
Published: June 19th 2014
Pages: 460 Pages

The Blurb
NOT EVERY GIFT IS A BLESSING

Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class.

When they come for her, Sergeant Parks 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 is a very special girl.

Rating: 4/5

The Review
Thank you to Waterstones and Mike for sending me a copy to read and review. Although I am posting my review today there will be a video to follow as part of the Waterstones Blogger Book Club.

Sadistic as it sounds, but I’m quite a fan of Dystopian novels and The Girl With All The Gifts certainly didn’t disappoint. Dystopian novels focus on apocalyptic situations and I’ve only experienced end of the world type of scenarios so it was quite nice (maybe nice is the wrong word) to get involved with flesh-eating zombies called Hungries.

Melanie is a little girl, but a little girl locked in a cell and when she leaves her cell she is restrained. No one is going to take chances with her; she’s a threat. Melanie knows nothing other than living in the compound and when she leaves due to an attack from the Hungries, she’s scared.

I felt really sorry for Melanie because for such a young girl she was exposed to so much. I’m nearly 27 and I don’t think I could cope with such dramatic things. She took everything maturely and was sometimes the one to keep everyone sane and realistic. It must be hard knowing you’re programmed to be a flesh-eating zombie and want to eat people, when your mind is full of love and you don’t want to do it.

One thing I thought was a little too much for me was the descriptions of medical procedures or of bodies that had decomposed or had been infected. I know, I know, I’m a wimp. I accepted the medical procedures as they were part of one characters role in the story, but the rest were gruesome! However, I have read worse so maybe it’s up to your own thoughts and how much you can cope with it.

When I read a Dystopian novel I always think ‘what would I do in situations like that?’ and the reality is I’d probably cry and ask for my Mum. Each character was strong and they just dealt with things as they come, I suppose that’s all you can do in situations like that.

I did find that there was a dip in pace during the middle of the novel and I felt like nothing “exciting” was happening. There was a little too much walking around and just waiting.

You can purchase The Girl With All the Gifts on Amazon UK, Amazon US and Paperback.

Find out more about M.R.Carey at his website www.mikeandpeter.com and on Twitter at @michaelcarey191