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3.94 AVERAGE
3.94 AVERAGE
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Lost interest and the pacing got kind of slow
It was only after I finished this book that I realized M. R. Carey was Mike Carey, author of some of may favourite DC comic series. My reaction? "Of course it is." This novel doesn't have much in common with The Unwritten or Lucifer, but the characterization and atmosphere are there.
This is one of the first horror novels I've read in a long time that had me well and truly horrified, both at the means by which the infection spreads and my inability to choose a side. Combine that with a diverse set of characters (3 of whom are female) and the actual absence of teenagers in this novel (watching plucky teens save the world by drawing secret skills out of a hat gets old after 20-some years of reading about it) and it easily merits a 5 from me.
If you're looking for an apocalypse novel pitched at adult horror fans, this is your book. If you're looking for a novel with a strong cast of characters who all have their own agendas, this is also your book. If the thought of reading a book without teenagers, love-triangles, or chosen ones makes you recoil in horror, skip it and read something else instead.
This is one of the first horror novels I've read in a long time that had me well and truly horrified, both at the means by which the infection spreads and my inability to choose a side. Combine that with a diverse set of characters (3 of whom are female) and the actual absence of teenagers in this novel (watching plucky teens save the world by drawing secret skills out of a hat gets old after 20-some years of reading about it) and it easily merits a 5 from me.
If you're looking for an apocalypse novel pitched at adult horror fans, this is your book. If you're looking for a novel with a strong cast of characters who all have their own agendas, this is also your book. If the thought of reading a book without teenagers, love-triangles, or chosen ones makes you recoil in horror, skip it and read something else instead.
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Listened to on audiobook - first one I've listened to all the way through since I was a kid. Really makes the story more involving and emotional, I think. Kept getting distracted by the reader's british accent, though.
I'm unsure about the characterization - on the one hand, each character seemed to change their behavior every chapter or so, but on the other hand, the third-person limited POV kept changing and so we were seeing everything from different people. I liked Gallagher and Parks, even though he was an ass. Caldwell made sense, even if she was...mean, to say the least. You could understand her point of view. Justineau (or however you spell it; I listened to it so idek) go annoying at points, though. Like we get it you want to protect Melanie, but you are also in the middle of an apocalypse situation? We can't afford to coddle children, even strange ones.
Did not totally foresee Melanie's last decision, but it makes sense, at least from a ten-re-old's perspective.
I'm unsure about the characterization - on the one hand, each character seemed to change their behavior every chapter or so, but on the other hand, the third-person limited POV kept changing and so we were seeing everything from different people. I liked Gallagher and Parks, even though he was an ass. Caldwell made sense, even if she was...mean, to say the least. You could understand her point of view. Justineau (or however you spell it; I listened to it so idek) go annoying at points, though. Like we get it you want to protect Melanie, but you are also in the middle of an apocalypse situation? We can't afford to coddle children, even strange ones.
Did not totally foresee Melanie's last decision, but it makes sense, at least from a ten-re-old's perspective.
The beginning was really interesting. I didn't read any reviews so at first I was weirded out how the staff treated the children and of course I wanted to know what exactly happened to them and the rest of the world. Sadly, once the big secret was revealed it got kind of boring. It turned into a pretty standard survival/zombie book (well, not that I'm really familiar with this kind of genre). I liked Melanie the most and also preferred to read about her thoughts and insights. Miss Justineau was a close second. All the other characters didn't interest me that much, though. I wish the book had maintained its misterious atmosphere and that, at least, more interesting characters had been added. :| However, it posed some interesting questions and well, I did like it overall.
What do I say about this book without spoiling one of its best A-HA! moments? This particular moment comes fairly early in the book and if you know what particular horror sub-genre this title falls under, it’s fairly well telegraphed in advance. But I’m sure there are still people out there who could possibly go blindly into this title knowing only the very miniscule information given in the very short synopsis provided by the publisher.
So, you know what? Let me just go ahead and issue a BIG ASS SPOILER WARNING EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY. Read this review, or don’t. Your call, but consider yourself warned.
SERIOUSLY
SPOILERS HERE ON OUT
LAST CHANCE
OK, so this is a zombie book. And given that there’s been lengths taken to protect that information, this is a spoiler. The titular girl with all the gifts is Melanie, whose home is an underground cell in a military complex charged with finding a cure for the zombie plague that has felled mankind. After the base comes under attack, Melanie is forced to flee with her teacher, the base’s lead doctor, and two soldiers. Cue up the bad-ass zombie road trip.
The Girl With All The Gifts is a perfectly fine story, but not one that entirely clicked for me. I liked it well enough, but I kept expecting it to deliver more than I was getting. The premise is unique enough, unless you’ve played The Last Of Us, in which case you’ve seen some of this before to a certain degree, and I liked that this particular road trip strikes out across the UK. Zombie America Books are a dime a dozen, so it’s refreshing to not have New York or Los Angeles under assault, and to get to spend time in a locale where they have boots and bonnets instead of trunks and hoods on their cars.
My main complaint is that The Girl With All The Gifts feels like a lot of other things that have already been done. And while I like zombie stories in general, there is a fair amount of incestuousness and inbreeding within the genre, with writers borrowing familiar tropes and running them into cliches. That’s part of the fun of the genre, to a degree, I suppose, but it almost always carries a heavy weight of been there, done that. It’s important, then, that the elements enshrouding the core conceit of the zombie narrative to reach out into new places. Mira Grant did a wonderful job of this in her Newsflesh trilogy by not presenting the zombie apocalypse as an actual apocalypse, but a life-goes-on narrative with a presidential election spin. Here, it feels like Carey borrowed from a few too many other sources in order to string together his plot, adding a dash of The Last of Us mushroom’s powers with a smidge of The Road and peppering them with nicely violent zombie action sequences.
I did appreciate that the story grew into an interesting sort-of family dynamic between the survivor, and reading how the characters transformed and grew together, or apart, was what really held my attention. While we have plenty of zombies, or hungries in Gift parlance, and nasty human scavengers, there’s actually not much in the way of central figures to root against, save for the survivor squad’s not-so-good doctor. But even her motivations are well-crafted and relateable, even if they are completely antagonistic toward the others. The behaviors of these group members were nicely believable and each at least have some brains in addition to their survival instincts, so it was refreshing to not have a handful of stupid people behaving stupidly in order to create false tension. Still, I kept expecting the scavengers to become more of a threat and the book’s climax left me appeased but not entirely satisfied.
On the other hand, this is very much a book that is about the journey, not the destination. The characters grow and change, and the heirarchy in which they operate evolves over the course of the story so that by book’s end there is a pronounced shift in the balance of power. Whether that’s good or bad, in terms of the narrative, who can say? It is darn intriguing to consider, though.
So, final verdict? 3.5 stars. Good book, but I felt like something was missing along the way.
So, you know what? Let me just go ahead and issue a BIG ASS SPOILER WARNING EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY. Read this review, or don’t. Your call, but consider yourself warned.
SERIOUSLY
SPOILERS HERE ON OUT
LAST CHANCE
OK, so this is a zombie book. And given that there’s been lengths taken to protect that information, this is a spoiler. The titular girl with all the gifts is Melanie, whose home is an underground cell in a military complex charged with finding a cure for the zombie plague that has felled mankind. After the base comes under attack, Melanie is forced to flee with her teacher, the base’s lead doctor, and two soldiers. Cue up the bad-ass zombie road trip.
The Girl With All The Gifts is a perfectly fine story, but not one that entirely clicked for me. I liked it well enough, but I kept expecting it to deliver more than I was getting. The premise is unique enough, unless you’ve played The Last Of Us, in which case you’ve seen some of this before to a certain degree, and I liked that this particular road trip strikes out across the UK. Zombie America Books are a dime a dozen, so it’s refreshing to not have New York or Los Angeles under assault, and to get to spend time in a locale where they have boots and bonnets instead of trunks and hoods on their cars.
My main complaint is that The Girl With All The Gifts feels like a lot of other things that have already been done. And while I like zombie stories in general, there is a fair amount of incestuousness and inbreeding within the genre, with writers borrowing familiar tropes and running them into cliches. That’s part of the fun of the genre, to a degree, I suppose, but it almost always carries a heavy weight of been there, done that. It’s important, then, that the elements enshrouding the core conceit of the zombie narrative to reach out into new places. Mira Grant did a wonderful job of this in her Newsflesh trilogy by not presenting the zombie apocalypse as an actual apocalypse, but a life-goes-on narrative with a presidential election spin. Here, it feels like Carey borrowed from a few too many other sources in order to string together his plot, adding a dash of The Last of Us mushroom’s powers with a smidge of The Road and peppering them with nicely violent zombie action sequences.
I did appreciate that the story grew into an interesting sort-of family dynamic between the survivor, and reading how the characters transformed and grew together, or apart, was what really held my attention. While we have plenty of zombies, or hungries in Gift parlance, and nasty human scavengers, there’s actually not much in the way of central figures to root against, save for the survivor squad’s not-so-good doctor. But even her motivations are well-crafted and relateable, even if they are completely antagonistic toward the others. The behaviors of these group members were nicely believable and each at least have some brains in addition to their survival instincts, so it was refreshing to not have a handful of stupid people behaving stupidly in order to create false tension. Still, I kept expecting the scavengers to become more of a threat and the book’s climax left me appeased but not entirely satisfied.
On the other hand, this is very much a book that is about the journey, not the destination. The characters grow and change, and the heirarchy in which they operate evolves over the course of the story so that by book’s end there is a pronounced shift in the balance of power. Whether that’s good or bad, in terms of the narrative, who can say? It is darn intriguing to consider, though.
So, final verdict? 3.5 stars. Good book, but I felt like something was missing along the way.
A great page turner but also the characters are fleshed out.
I knew before I started reading that it was a zombie thriller but even if you didn’t know that before starting to read it that becomes apparent quickly. You realise before the girl herself does.
I knew before I started reading that it was a zombie thriller but even if you didn’t know that before starting to read it that becomes apparent quickly. You realise before the girl herself does.
dark
informative
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated