The Girl with All the Gifts

• Written by: M. R. Carey
• Narrated by: Finty Williams
• Length: 13 hrs and 4 mins
• Unabridged Audiobook
• Release Date:06-10-14
• Publisher: Hachette Audio

***THE BLURB***

Melanie is a very special girl. Dr Caldwell calls her “our little genius”.

Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant 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.

Melanie loves school. She loves learning about spelling and sums and the world outside the classroom and the children’s cells. She tells her favorite teacher all the things she’ll do when she grows up. Melanie doesn’t know why this makes Miss Justineau look sad.

The Girl with All the Gifts is a sensational thriller, perfect for fans of Stephen King, Justin Cronin, and Neil Gaiman.

©2014 M.R. Carrey (P)2014 Hachette Audio

The Cover is pretty plain but it is pretty powerful when you look at it after you have read the book. The narration was really excellent. I can’t think of anyone that could have done a better job.

Just reading the blurb you know more about this book than I did when I started it. I knew absolutely nothing of what it was about I had heard people saying it was good. But if I am completely honest the main reason I got it is that the Author is quoted on Dyrk Ashton’s  book cover extolling its virtues, and since Dyrk is a friend and I loved his book  I wanted to see what M.R. Carrey had written.

When it first started I was drawing a lot of parallels to an anthology I read a year or two ago called Through the Eyes of the Undead   ( Very good by the way and free right now on KU)

But it soon went far afield from anything that can be done in a short story. Now I need to explain something. I am a father. My kids are the most important things in my life. I would do anything for them. I even stayed in a bad relationship for 22 years (17 bad years) because I would not be one of the guys that isn’t around to talk to his kids after school every day. The reason I tell you this is so I can try to explain the anguish I feel when I read about kids in harm’s way or emotionally messed up. So I have to admit that during the first 2 or 3 hours of this AB I was pretty much continuously holding back tears.  And I loved it!

I fell in love with Melanie from the very first minute of the book. The other characters were not that well fleshed out but most of the book is from Melanie’s POV anyway. And that is my only criticism of the book.

There are some pretty scary scenes  but nothing to bad. While not the best bed time story for the toddlers, for a zombie story I would say it’s OK for the younger teens.  It is a hell of a lot less than any thing you would see on a episode of The Walking Dead.

FINAL THOUGHTS

It is a great read. It pulled on my heart strings so hard at times I thought it would get pulled right out. It doesn’t matter if you don’t like zombie books this is something I think most of the people that visit my blog would love. And OMG what an ending I did not expect that! Just kidding……. or am I? HAHA now you will have to get it just to see if there really is a surprise ending. My work is done here. I give The Girl with All the Gifts 5 out of 5 Goblins

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