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The Girl With All The Gifts

by

M.R. Carey

The Girl With All The Gifts
average rating is 3 out of 5

Horror, Post Apocalyptic, Science Fiction, Thriller

Richard Alex Jenkins

The first 20% of this book is unique and captivating.


Melanie is a 10-year-old girl and a zombie.

She wakes up every morning in a cell and gets pushed into a classroom with other zombie kids to get an education. Other kids then start to go missing, until it's her turn.


The remaining 80% of the book is a road trip around the south of England with a group of stragglers who are trying to survive in a zombie-ravaged world, which for me, is where the book became progressively flat.


I've rated it three stars because of the opening 20% and the scientific insights later on into how a zombie virus could exist and eventually take over the world. It's plausible and well explained and there's also an element of The War of The Worlds about it when the gang gets to London.


But there are a few things that I did not like about this book, such as the author's simplistic writing style and the need to baby the reader all the time, which felt patronizing and unrealistic.


The biggest issue is the lack of physical characters and the minimal amount of character development. There are only five people at the heart of this story and only two of them are relatable, likeable or have any discernible background story. That's a real problem when the cast is that small, and makes the book feel restricted and without scope.


It's authored by a capable scriptwriter for the big screen, who has some great ideas on apocalyptic fiction who pens pretty decent action at times, but concentrates his efforts on making you care about Melanie only, with a dollop of Miss Justineau for good measure.


I'm thinking about Robert McCammon or Stephen King and the way they make you care about the entire community, whereas here the peeps are just fodder.


The first part of the book is unique, most of the adventure is entertaining, and there are some thought-provoking concepts to grasp along the way, which is why I'm giving it 3/5 stars.


But is this an essential or important work of apocalyptic or dystopian fiction, or any other type of fiction for that matter? No.

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