The Girl With All The Gifts by M. R. Carey
Rating: 4/5
Warning: This review is full of spoilers.
Even though I enjoy watching zombie movies and TV shows, I had never read a zombie book before The Girl With All The Gifts.
Fortunately, this book proved to be quite entertaining.
Carey begins the story by showing us a mysteriously-infected world from Melanie’s (a hungry child) perspective.
Throughout the book, Melanie struggles to suppress the urge of feeding on humans. Her love for her teacher, Miss Justineau, helps her in overcoming these desires repeatedly.
Majority of the storyline is similar to other zombie apocalypse stories. It includes a hunt, a desire to find a cure, and a journey that shows us what remains of the outside world.
However, it is the twist at the end which makes the story worth reading.
It’s always interesting to see how well a book handles end-of-the-world situations. As humans, we tend to believe that only we can save the world.
The Girl With All The Gifts uses that concept cleverly — we are convinced that, surely, there must be a cure to this world filled with hungries.
But sadly, there isn’t. For once, we must put down our weapons and accept defeat. We must let nature carry on with its work.
You can’t save people from the world. There’s nowhere else to take them.
In a way, the ending leaves a bad taste in your mouth. Should we be happy that Miss Justineau is going to help these children? Or should we mourn for her life, because apart from teaching the hungry children, she is eventually going to die?
And what about civilization? What about all these years spent in creating a world, only to watch it collapse right in front of your eyes?
Sadly, we are left to answer these questions on our own.
What did you think about the book? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!
Habiba Tahir 