Title:

The Girl With All The Gifts

Author:

M. R. Carey

Category:

Science Fiction / Fantasy

Rating:

Date Reviewed:

February 13, 2024
eading The Girl With All The Gifts reminded me greatly of the book The Passage by Justin Cronin. Both feature a young, gifted female protagonist with some unusual abilities, living in a post-apocalyptic world in which much of the human population has succumbed to a mutant virus that converts its victims into powerful, bloodthirsty zombies. The Passage is the first book in a trilogy, and although I enjoyed it greatly, for some inexplicable reason I never got around to reading the next book. The Girl With All The Gifts is not part of a series, thankfully it conveys the entire tale in a single 405 page (hardcover) book.

Melanie is a brilliant, cheerful girl, but she lives a strange life. Melanie is kept in a windowless cell in an isolated facility. Every weekday, the armed guards come and strap her into a wheelchair, constraining her so tightly that about all Melanie can do is move her right forearm a bit. Melanie is then wheeled to a classroom, along with approximately 30 other students who are similarly bound to their wheelchairs. Various teachers give lessons in history, mathematics, geography. Melanie's favorite teacher is Miss Justineau, who reads them epic poems and tells legendary tales. Miss Justineau seems so nice, unlike some of the other teachers who are hardly interested in the subject matter or their pupils.

On weekends, Melanie and the others a wheeled to a facility where they are sprayed with a strange smelling cleaning agent. Then they are given their weekly bowl of grubs to eat - no liquids, because Melanie and her companions get all the nourishment they need from the grubs. This is existence is the only one Melanie has known, and she is mostly content with her circumstances, but the reader knows something is very wrong with this setup, and that mystery is what propels the novel forward through the beginning chapters.

Melanie listens carefully to what goes on outside her cell. One day, Sergeant (Melanie's eavesdropping eventually reveals this grim, scarred man is named Eddie Parks) and his team come to take a couple of kids, Liam and Marcia, to visit Dr. Caldwell. Liam and Marcia are wheeled the other way down the center hallway - not to the classroom, but through a big steel door. What lies beyond the door? Melanie does not know, but Liam and Marcia never return.

Melanie (and the reader) overhear clues about what might be happening outside the facility. Then comes word that Dr Caldwell wants to see Melanie. This leads a series of events that explains a lot about what is going on, but also escalates the danger and violence Melanie and the other members of the facility face. Carey does a good job of revealing the horrors of his strange world, placing our heroes in constant peril. I am not sure how much of this believable, but the pace of novel keeps the reader turning the pages to find out what happens next.

M. R. Carey is a writer of comic books (though he did not write The Walking Dead), but with The Girl With All The Gifts he reveals the ability to write full length novels. Hopefully he keeps writing novels, rather than focusing entirely on graphic novels.