The Girl with all the Gifts by M.R. Carey

2015 Reading Challenge

3. A book a friend recommended: The Girl with all the Gifts by M.R. Carey

I recently went to visit my cousin, Helen who has a huge collection of books. I was there to hang out and help her clear her room of unnecessary clothing and things. While "helping" (A.K.A reading the blurbs on all the books) we had a huge discussion on books and she made a pile of the ones she thought I would like. I only managed to take half of them... She really has a lot, I'm quite jealous. One of them was The Girl with all the Gifts. I had read the blurb on Goodreads so I was already keen to read it but with Helen's recommendation it had to be the first book to read from the pile. P.S. You will be seeing more book reviews from the pile, some as part of the Reading Challenge but I think some won't fit and I want to read them!

The Girl with all the Gifts is set in a post-apocalyptic England. It's quite difficult to summarise or give a good description of this book. When I read this, I went in fairly blind and I think that's the best way to read it because it quite enjoyable finding out the setting as the story goes on. This poses a problem for writing a review but I think I'm safe discussing the characters but event and proper setting-wise I'll say as little as possible. I will give you the blurb that M.R. Carey wrote for the back of the the book:

"Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant Parks keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don't like her. She jokes that she won't bite. But they don't laugh."

I really like this blurb. It doesn't really tell you much about the the plot but it does intrigue you, which I thought was really cleverly done.

I found the the point of view very odd but refreshing and I couldn't quite figure out what was so odd. The only thing I could tell was that it was in third-person. However, while reading a Goodreads review the person had pointed out that it was written in present tense and in third person, which I had not noticed. It felt like you were being told the story as it was happening, rather than being told a story after it had happened which is a more normal case for books in third tense. I found it quite an interesting and refreshing style of writing. It helped with understanding Melanie's character as a 10 year old but who was extremely clever. Her perspective was seen as quite childish, naturally, but I think the third person perspective and present tense assisted in that due to it's oddness.

The characters in The Girl with all the Gifts were all made really well. There are five main characters:

• Melanie - 10 years old, incredibly clever, the protagonist, loves Miss Justineau.
• Miss Justineau - Possibly in 40s, Melanie's favourite teacher, psychologist, caring and empathetic
• Sergeant Parks - Possibly in 40s, classic military man, has a lack and white understanding view of the world from his experience, kind of horny...
• Dr Caldwell - Possibly in 40s, scientist/researcher, obsessive over work, un-empathetic.
• Gallagher - Age 18-21, green military man, cowardly, abused family life, kind, obedient, unlucky in life

Each had negative and positive qualities but surprisingly all the characters were quite likable. Though Dr Caldwell isn't very likable due to obsessiveness, her thought pattern is quite interesting and hilarious. I really enjoyed the characters and how you learnt about them. Each character would have their own chapters, where the story was focused on their thoughts and actions. I like how realistic each character was and even some of their thought patterns. I found this one quote that illustrates this, it's kind of funny and bit random from Sergeant Parks perspective:

"He stares up into the featureless dark, thinks of the flash of Justineau's crotch he glimpsed when she was pissing on the gravel outside. But the future is uncertain, and he can't get up enough enthusiasm even to masturbate."

This quote is quite crass but what I love about it is that this is what people really think. People think about masturbation and sex but a lot of times they a left out. This sentence helps convey that Parks has normal "urges" despite the situation they are in. Just because a disaster has struck doesn't mean people stop thinking about sex. It was quite refreshing to see the characters, specifically the men still think about normal things, which I think is quite realistic.

I loved this book. It was written well, the characters were realistic and each well-rounded and interesting. There was quite an interesting and new take on the genre and it was executed really well. I loved the ending and it was unexpected. You never really knew what would happen next, it wasn't predictable. At points you thought it was going to be predictable but were later pointed wrong, well at least in my case. I want to give this book a 5 out of 5 stars which is kinda a big deal for me. I highly recommend this book to anyone. The only possibly kind of negative is that it was named one of the best original thrillers. I didn't think it was much of a thriller, if it was made into a movie it would be a thriller but I never got spooked while reading and I'm a bit of a wuss. But this doesn't affect my view on the actual narrative.

I hope you enjoyed this review, I'd love some comments or response to my reviews if you'd like.

Thanks

Jenny