Book Report: The Girl with All the Gifts

1. M. R. Carey, The Girl with All the Gifts (2016) (1/28/18)

I have not been reading. I keep picking up books, starting them, and then getting distracted. My pile of half-attempted books is about two feet high. The last book report I made was at the end of September! That is serious not-reading.

But not long ago a friend in my writing group recommended a dystopian futuristic novel, so I dutifully bought it. And the other day, I picked it up. It drew me right in, and before I knew it I was closing the book, all done.

It's also a zombie novel, which I had no clue of when I started. The packaging makes no reference to this detail. You don't really realize it until you're a ways in, and by then I was hooked. I'm not sure I would have attempted it had I known, so I'm just as glad I didn't know. It's a good book: fast paced, well written, with a cluster of (mostly) sympathetic characters.

The story revolves especially around Melanie, a special girl in a special school who, it turns out, is a somewhat arrested zombie (or "hungry," as they are known here): she does go into a frenzy when she smells humans, but she is also very intelligent, which true hungries are not—they're just hungry. Melanie is able to use reason, plus such tools as a metal muzzle and handcuffs, to battle this instinctive drive. She is especially motivated by the strong feelings she holds for her teacher, Miss Justineau.

About a third of the way into the story, it becomes one of cross-country flight as Melanie and Miss Justineau, plus a gruff sergeant, a fearful private, and a driven scientist (played by Glenn Close in the upcoming movie, which seems like perfect casting), try to make their way to a haven called Beacon, dodging hungries and feral humans along the way. Plus, they encounter the fungus that caused the zombie disease in the first place—itself a beautifully creative imagining.

What I especially enjoyed about the story was the exploration of relationship, as well as the occasional ontological musing. For example: "And then like Pandora [the original 'girl with all the gifts'], opening the great big box of the world and not being afraid, not even caring whether what’s inside is good or bad. Because it's both. Everything is always both. But you have to open it to find that out."

And now that I remember what a pleasure it is to sit with a book, I hereby am launching my Fifty Books project. To be finished by the end of January 2019.