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 favourite 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
For fans of I Am Legend and The Passage, this novel is a stark modern take on the traditional vampire novel. This book is rich with sympathetic characters, and does not shy away from exploring the more complex issues. Without giving any of the plot away, let me just say that it is one of the most well-rounded and credible novels of its type in recent years. If you need more convincing, M R Carey is the author of the Hellblazer comic series, the inspiration for the upcoming Constantine TV show. Trust me, he knows how to write believable dark fantasy. Reviewed by 52mm
QBD, 28/08/2014
Compelling Apocalypse
I don't normally read post apocalyptic books, it's just not my thing. But when this was described to me I just had to know Melanie's story. This was the kind of book that drops mysterious hints but doesn't quite give you the full picture straight away. It was truly compelling. I couldn't help but like Melanie, she's such a sweet and clever girl and is just so innocent. A lot of the scientific detail of Dr Caldwell's work was explained, I have no idea how 'accurate' the science would be but it sounded authentic to me and really went a long way in impressing on me the seriousness of the situation they're in. As I said, it's a post apocalyptic story so if you can't handle the kind of carnage that usually comes along with that then I wouldn't recommend this, there were a few scenes where I had to put it down for a few minutes to recover. But if you can handle it, I really enjoyed this book and would recommend you give it a go.
Kate, 17/10/2013
