Review of "The Girl With All the Gifts"

“You carry on that way, you’ll start thinking of them as real kids.”

     In M. R. Carey’s post-apocalyptic The Girl With All the Gifts, the definition of “human” is up for debate. For ten-year-old Melanie, however, everything is as straightforward and wonderful as it could possibly be. Especially on Miss Justineau days, when Sergeant and his people strap her into her wheelchair, roll her out of her cell, and she finds her absolute favorite teacher waiting in the classroom at the end of the hall. Melanie wishes she was a Greek god or a Titan so she could save Miss Justineau from Heffalumps and Woozles, but she’s just a kid. That is, until Dr. Caldwell calls her in for a biopsy, hungries swarm the compound, and she, Justineau, Caldwell, Sergeant, and one of Sergeant’s men are thrown into the wilds of region 6. They have no shelter, very little food, and a whole pack of junkers and hungries on their tail…and little Melanie may be the biggest threat of all.

     In case it's hard to tell from the synopsis, this is a story about zombies. Rather, it’s about hungries, the once-human creatures that inhaled the spores of a deadly fungus and went lights-out. Now they’re vicious, starving, and terrifyingly fast. But there’s something about these hungries that is different than the average undead beast. Some of them haven’t lost their humanity at all. They’re sentient, capable of learning at incredible rates, and—most importantly—able to resist the smell of man if they want to. These very special hungries are all children, and Dr. Caldwell and her team are determined to do whatever it takes to find a cure through their partial immunity. Yet as she descends ever deeper into her project, she becomes less of a person herself and more of a monster.
 

     That’s one of the things that is most fascinating about this story: no one is perfect. One or two aren’t even likeable. Even Melanie, who starts out as a regular little girl, has to battle some pretty heavy inner demons by the time the narrative has run its course. And, of course, there is Miss Justineau, who is forced to reconcile her intimate knowledge of the hungry children she once taught with the dangerous creatures roaming the British countryside. The tale cycles through each protagonist’s point of view on a regular basis, so we get a great deal of insight as to how their minds work and what they’re scheming behind everyone else’s back. Because while this party of five might be traveling together, some are out for themselves in the end, and that means no one is safe.

     It’s chilling just how detailed this future world of Carey’s is. From spring blossoms to military rations and hungry-making fungi, the land and its occupants seem to seep out of the pages and into the real-life landscape, wrapping readers in a cocoon of suspended disbelief. Even the hungries are realistic, as far as that adjective can be extended to undead man-eaters. And by looking at it through the eyes of different characters, we get a true sense of what this world is actually like, without being limited to the biased perspective of a ten-year-old.

     That being said, this is definitely a book for the grown-up shelf. Not only are there zombie-like creatures that occasionally flaunt their wounds and condition in a gruesome manner, there is a boatload of cursing and violence, mostly in relation to those in said condition. Although Melanie spends a good third of the plot locked up in one way or another, she’s never actually mistreated until Caldwell tries to vivisect her—and even then, things don’t exactly go to plan. A few innuendos here and there eventually lead up to a subplot that’s more physical than romantic and takes place primarily off the page. In this case, at least, the details are up to the reader’s imagination.

     I would recommend this book to adults looking for a fast-paced plot set in a remarkably well thought-out world. The hungries are scary, the characters are complex, and the struggles they face are gripping. If it weren’t for the language and somewhat grotesque scenes revolving around the hungries, The Girl With All the Gifts would be YA-friendly as well; however, as it is I highly recommend pre-reading it before presenting it to teenagers. Nevertheless, M. R. Carey’s book is very good and deserves four stars.