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verosnotebook 's review for:
The Girl With All the Gifts
by M. R. Carey
Well - I had to finally succumb to reading The Girl with all the Gifts. As it happens, it was a very good and thrilling read. Yes, it did feel like The Walking Dead but with an added angle - that of Melanie and what she represents.
There is of course violent, horrific, and breath-taking action scenes where people are trying to survive at all costs. However brilliantly these are orchestrated, the book shines for a very different reason - its characterisation. Our protagonists are no paper cutouts, or rather they start from a stereotyped stance and grow into their own fully-fleshed personalities. The narration jumps from one to the other, giving us different points of view of this nightmarish world but also what drives each of them, from Melanie to Sergeant Parks, Caroline Caldwell the scientist, and the teacher Miss Justineau. All the shades that makes a character are included here and are fascinating. You may not like a character and yet end up understanding their reasons for doing something while still not agreeing with them. The relationship between Melanie and Justineau is actually very moving and totally believable, which is quite a feat when you think about it! Apart from this side of the psychology, Carey also focuses on the ethical dilemmas that this post-apocalyptic world creates. How far would you go to save the world? At what cost? How much is too far? And all the while, Pandora awaits to fulfil her destiny…
There is of course violent, horrific, and breath-taking action scenes where people are trying to survive at all costs. However brilliantly these are orchestrated, the book shines for a very different reason - its characterisation. Our protagonists are no paper cutouts, or rather they start from a stereotyped stance and grow into their own fully-fleshed personalities. The narration jumps from one to the other, giving us different points of view of this nightmarish world but also what drives each of them, from Melanie to Sergeant Parks, Caroline Caldwell the scientist, and the teacher Miss Justineau. All the shades that makes a character are included here and are fascinating. You may not like a character and yet end up understanding their reasons for doing something while still not agreeing with them. The relationship between Melanie and Justineau is actually very moving and totally believable, which is quite a feat when you think about it! Apart from this side of the psychology, Carey also focuses on the ethical dilemmas that this post-apocalyptic world creates. How far would you go to save the world? At what cost? How much is too far? And all the while, Pandora awaits to fulfil her destiny…