Book Review: The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R Carey

Don't be deceived by the cover of The Girl With All the Gifts. This is not a YA novel. This book, written by M.R. Carey, is a post-apocalyptic, science fiction thriller, it is quite bleak and depressing even for this genre. Despite its sad and oppressive tone I recommend it nonetheless because it is both a moving tale and am interesting take on the genre.

Synopsis:

Melanie is 10 years old and she lives in England. Every morning three soldiers strap her to a wheelchair and wheels her from the cell to the classroom. Melanie is not alone, there are many other children like her. They all live in a walled fortress because they were told there are "hungries" outside and they want to eat people.

Why do the adults strap the children to the chair? To Melanie and the children this is a good question, but the cell and the classroom are all these children ever know, so maybe this is just the way things have always been. The mundaneness and the lack of freedom bother Melanie a little, but Mr. Justineau makes it bearable. Melanie loves Mr. Justineau, she teaches the children history and greek mythology. Melanie loves those stories.

One morning, Sergeant Parks and his men came to Melanie's cell as usual, but this time they did not take her to the classroom. Instead, Parks told Melanie that she has a special appointment with Dr. Caldwell. This is the day when Melanie's life will change forever.

My thoughts on the book:

If you must choose to either save a child or save millions of people, what will be your choice? This moral dilemma is at the centre of The Girl With All the Gifts. The story follows a small handful of characters. Helen Justineau, the school teacher, represents the choice of saving a child. Dr. Caldwell, the scientist, represents the choice of saving millions of people by sacrificing a little girl. Meanwhile, Melanie is the little girl to be sacrificed. However the story has a twist, because Melanie is not exactly a girl but something more.

I liked the theme and the exploration of this moral conundrum, but I think Dr. Caldwell's character was a bit thin. The book portrayed Caldwell as an antagonistic character, and I was ok with it, but she was one dimensional and her motivation seemed unrealistic to me. I think the author could have added more depths to Caldwell's character. As a result, the book's theme was hampered by Caldwell's weak characterization, and the conflict in the story was overly black and white.

My second issue with the book is the treatment of "junkers". But what are the "junkers"?

Minor spoiler ahead:

In The Girl With All the Gifts, humanity faced an extinction event where an epidemic was turning every living human into mindless cannibals. Or, zombies, if you like. There were three types of "humanoids" on earth; 1) The survivors who barricaded themselves into walled cities and compounds, 2) the zombies, and finally, 3) The junkers, they were large bands of scavengers, while they were not infected, but the survival challenges wiped out every trace of their humanity. In this book, the junkers had a big role in the world. Yet, the book used the junkers as a plot device. They were the catalysts, to move the characters from location A to location B. Crucial information about the junkers, such as their origins, their motivations, their social structure, so on and so forth, were missing. The bare bone treatment of the junkers was a disappointment given their significant role in the book's world.

Other than the two above mentioned issues, this book is excellent in every other way. Melanie herself was an interesting and likable character. Her journey from innocence to the shocking discovery of her true identity was heartbreaking. Meanwhile, Helen Justineau was an intriguing character, who, out of a deep guilt, sought salvation by protecting Melanie. Finally, Sergeant Parks was a fascinating character. Parks appeared to be a ruthless man at the start, but as the story went on his character showed surprising depths. I think Parks was the most honest out of all the adult characters in the book.

The book also scored a bonus point for its worldbuilding. The zombie genre is very popular. While in most zombie stories people were turned into zombies by "some virus", but the stories never explain exactly how the virus turned people into those shambling, flesh eating corpses. I mean, it is all good and well to say some virus turned people into zombies, but how does the virus work? The Girl With All the Gifts defies the trope, because it went into details to explain how the infection worked, including the biological details of how the virus affected the human brain and its neural networks. 

The Girl With All the Gift is a very good book. While Dr. Caldwell and the Junkers could have been better written, but as a whole this is a heartfelt story with memorable characters. Most importantly, it is a refreshing take on the zombie apocalypse genre.