The Girl with all the Gifts, book review. (M.R.Carey)

Post-apocalyptic horror books come in all different shapes and sizes, from the true epics like, The Stand, to thin slivers of excellence like, I am Legend, but most of them fit into just a few categories: The Virus, The War or the Invasion; this book however, is harder to categorise.

There is a virus of sorts, but we only know that it turns people into 'hungries', zombie like creatures that feast on non-infected people, but, and it's a big but, there are the infected children, like Melanie, the girl with all the gifts: super intelligent, nice, articulate and more, who has the virus, but has no desire to feast on humans - or does she?

The book is told predominantly from Melanie's point of view, and it's all the better for it. She is kind and thoughtful, sad when her fellow classmates go and don't come back, but after the facility she has been kept, (imprisoned in), gets overrun by hungries, driven and herded by non-infected humans that eke out an existence in the wild, she and her teacher, the lovely Miss Justineau, have to leave, and leave quickly.

Together, with two soldiers and the doctor who was about to cut her up, they must travel across mile upon mile of unfamiliar, untamed territory, to London, and this part, for me, was of particular interest, because they are heading south through Hertfordshire, (which is where I live), Barnet, and then through north London, which I know well.

As the story develops, Melanie earns her freedoms: first, her handcuffs are removed, then, she's aloud to remove her face mask and find food, feast, but we don't see that, we don't need to, because we know how hungries feed!

There's something else, too. Some of the hungries have died and sprouted what look like organic tentacles! Could this be part two of the virus? After all these years, could it be mutating into something else?

With food and water shortages, Melanie's need to feed, Sergeant Parks trying to get the power back on and fix up an abandoned armoured vehicle, along with doctor Caldwell still readying herself to kill Melanie, things look bleak, but then, then the kids come and . . .

No; no spoilers here, you'll have to read it to find out how it all ends, but suffice to say, this book has pace, intrigue, and is quite different to anything else I've read. I love the characters, even doctor Caldwell, who you dislike intensely, and the tension, the constant threat that the author builds, the feeling that someone, or something, is always watching, that our band of survivors are just one wrong turn from death - or worse, zombiehood - is profound and creepy.

This book was not what I was expecting, it's not a save the world, 'The Passage trilogy', kind of thing, it's more, I am Legend, creepy, which was a nice surprise, and so, with the hairs on the back of my neck still prickling, a thoroughly well-deserved four stars for, The Girl with all the Gifts.