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The Girl With All The Gifts. M R Carey #Inbetweeny

I first heard about this when someone suggested it as a Book of the Month for book club. It didn't make the cut for the group however hearing a faint sniff of zombie I went and bought it from the Internet. 

I have to confess reading this straight after the excellent World War Z was probably not the best thing to do. However whilst the two were both about zombies they were extremely different. 'The Girl' was more of your typical 'it's the end of the world and we need to get to a safe haven' kind of book. In this respect it was more similar to the recently reviewed The End of The World Running Club than World War Z. 

Like with 'Running Club' humankind had gone to sh!t with people turning on each other left right and centre despite the main characters trying to put differences aside to reach a common goal. Like with Running Club there was the inevitable betrayal with a few characters lost along the way and also a surprise repeat occurrence of Jaffa Cakes (they are clearly the end of the world food of choice!)  

This was a book about zombies however and where this one differed from your a typical zombie page turner was we actually got to see things from a zombies perspective, in the form of Melanie a young (zombie) girl captured by the humans for scientific testing due to her ability to speak, learn and generally act non-zombie like. Once the book progressed and Melanie discovered the world outside of her cell I found it similar in some respects to Twilight where vampires had to resist the urge to bite humans to live amongst them (only The Girl was about zombies instead of vampires, obviously). It was certainly a different take on zombies and I found myself liking Melanie's character and seeing how she processed all the new information she was faced with. 

I thought there were some serious plot holes - Dr Caldwell severely cutting her hands whilst stabbing a zombie and yet not getting infected despite the open wound to open wound exposure for one in addition to silly plot twists Raymond's disappearance (random) and his decision about the grenade? I also didn't understand Dr Caldwell's sciencey parts (why wasn't the fungus pollinating? what did Melanie do to it? and how on earth does Dr Caldwell's theory work in practice (I'm trying not to give too much away and finding it difficult!) 

There were however some very strong moral questions posed, summed up very nicely by Dr Caldwell in her compassion v greater good speech. This could have worked if I had felt invested in the characters however even the saint like Miss Justineau became a bit boring (oops sorry she wasn't a saint because of her big reveal to Parks which made her whole 'but she is a child' stance very hypocritical). The reveal about The Beacon lead me to think I was wasting my time reading to the end and my lack of caring about the characters was a good thing as the ending was bleak! 

I would probably rate The Girl middle for diddle in between World War Z and The End of The World Running Club and think it's best I avoid the post apocalyptic genre for a while. A Boy Called Christmas it is then! 

 
 

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