REVIEW: The Girl With All the Gifts

The Girl With All the Gifts
Author:  M. R. Carey

Melanie is a star pupil at her school. She likes her classmates, and loves her teacher, Miss Justineau. It's a special school....there is no recess, no socializing. Just lessons under the supervision of Miss Justineau. Under the eyes of Sergeant Parks. And the direction of the Dr. Caldwell. All students must be firmly affixed in their chairs with straps. Wheeled out from their cells only for class time. Then wheeled back by soldiers following safety protocols. Melanie doesn't understand. But she doesn't remember anything else. It has always been her cell, soldiers, Miss Justineau and all the rules......  Until one day when everything changes.

Wow! This story is a creative, new take on the zombie apocalypse story. I listened to the audio book format on my commutes to work for a few days. I found myself looking forward to the drive just so I could listen to more of the story! Towards the end I started listening at home too because it was at the exciting part and I couldn't wait til the next day to find out what happened! Interesting characters, very interesting premise....a nice mix of action, story and emotion. Things build slowly.....little bits revealed here and there until the whole picture of what happened to humankind is revealed. Very well written!!

I have a personal rule that I have to read the book(s) before I can watch a film or television adaptation. So when I heard about the Netflix show The Girl With All the Gifts and then read it was based on a book...I made my way to my local library's digital site immediately. Glad I did! Now I'm ready to watch the show....but I'm a bit wary. I hope they didn't tinker with the story. This tale is perfect as it is...and changing it would mess it up.  But, I'm going in....armored with my best bibliophile "been here before" shielding.

The audio book (Hachette Audio) is excellent! I can totally understand why it won an Audie Award! The audio is about 13.5 hours long, and narrated by Finty Williams. She gives a wonderful performance, showing excellent voice acting skills. I have partial hearing loss, but was easily able to understand and enjoy this entire audio book. The recording is superb quality and Williams reads at a nice pace with a pleasant voice. Entertaining listening experience!

There is a second book, The Boy on the Bridge. I'm waiting for my library to consider getting the audio format for it. Hopefully soon! I'm so curious what happens in book 2!!

The Girl With All the Gifts gets full stars from me! Very creative and well written!