The Girl With All the Gifts Kindle Edition

Wow! This was a bit of a surprise for me. I don't really know why it was a surprise since I have heard wonderful things about it but it was. I guess I went into this book thinking that I would probably like it but I had no idea how much I would end up enjoying it. Once I started listening, I was hooked and I wanted to know more about Melanie. I spent hours at a time listening to this book and enjoyed the experience immensely. This is a zombie story that I will not be forgetting anytime soon.This book is told from Melanie's point of view. She is a very bright girl but her experience at the start of the story has been very limited. I really enjoyed seeing the world she know through her eyes. Melanie's entire existence is limited to her cell and her classroom. She knows the rules and how things are supposed to be. She knows exactly what to expect from day to day.Melanie was a fantastic character. I would never have imagined that she would turn out to be so easy to relate to but she was. I loved the way she worked out problems in her mind and how observant she was of everything going on around her. She was able to work things out very quickly and made the people she was around re-think some of their beliefs. All of the key characters in this book were really well developed and added something important to the overall story.I thought that Finty Williams did a fantastic job narrating this book. This was the first time that I have listened to her narration and I wasn't sure of her voice as the book first began. I was over any reservations that I initially had pretty quickly and her voice became Melanie's voice. I thought her voice was very pleasant and she brought a lot of excitement to the story. I was able to listen to this story for hours at a time and never tired of her narration.I would highly recommend this book to others. It is a different kind of zombie story that was highly entertaining and hard to put down. I would not hesitate to read more of M.R. Carey's work in the future.

It’s going to be hard to write this review without being too spoilery. Because there’s a pretty major part to this story that you don’t know going in... You’ll either LOVE it or you’ll HATE it. But I refuse to wreck it for you. I personally am possibly the biggest wussy pants ever. Ghosts, zombies, axe murderers, spiders, sharks. You name it and I’ll lose sleep over it, so I have NO idea what on earth possessed me to buy this book. (Ok granted, it wasn’t exactly too clear from the description on Amazon what it was about exactly, but I still knew it was going to possibly be a bit scary... I just wasn’t prepared for HOW scary it actually was!) It sounded intriguing and different from my recent reads... I’m actually glad I didn’t read the reviews in this case because I can guarantee you, if I had there is no way I would’ve even attempted to read this book. No way ever in a million years. But now that I have read it and am sleeping at night again (ha!) I can honestly say that I would recommend it, although with a warning about needing to be brave! (Also I feel my most repeated phrases whilst reading this were: Nooo! Oh my god no! & WTF, ok seriously WTF!)So the deal is (or as much of the deal as I can tell you) this story is set in a post apocalyptic world. Humanity is struggling to survive, which as you can imagine brings out the very extremes in people that are kept under lock and key in a functioning society... They are all trying to make their mark. Some are much more brutal in tactics than others, some are just trying to live another day. The little girl Melanie, whom the story is based around, is being held at a secure base outside the safety of the main human centre with other children like her, she seems so smart for a child, but also sad and lonely, not able to be a normal kid at all. I kid you not when I say your heart will break for her. She’s part of a bigger plan that she does not understand.You can probably guess from here, things must go awry... and they do very much so, which leaves us with not only a compelling terrifying story of this post apocalyptic world, but also a very intense story of the 5 main characters that have been thrown together in it. And I have to say that I was surprised, that in a book such as this (genre generalisations and all) that there could be such detailed, description character writing. The main characters that you follow through the story are very well fleshed out, (pun intended) they weren’t just one dimensional. It was this character writing, which for me made the story so much more than just a horror read. In fact, I think the main reason I actually kept reading once I realised very early on what I had gotten myself into, was that I was feeling very attached to Melanie. Which is strange really, and a testament to the writing, considering my feelings on the circumstances that surround her are not in the ‘like’ category, or even ‘tolerate’ category whatsoever.The world in this book is one of those settings where the idea is SO foreign that it makes you feel sick just trying to imagine it. The author does a brilliant job depicting the ruin, torment and coldness of a doomed world. So many times I had to stop reading because it was just too much. The horror, the sickening scenes, the fear, the absolute feeling of despair. It was heavy going. Really heavy going. I could've seriously thrown up a few times. I actually don’t know what I was expecting at the end of this book? A Happily Ever After? Ha! For whatever reason I had in my head (I seriously do not know how I finished this) I could not stop reading, I HAD to know what happened at the end. The world was depending on the ending! And I was not disappointed, it was the ending, along with the character Melanie that were my favourite aspects of the book. You would never guess this ending, it wasn’t the obvious route. It was smart. It was heartbreaking. It was hopeful. It kept my brain ticking. It made me glad that I had made my way through the story. It was absolutely worth it. So, yes. Read this book! But make sure you have your big girl/boy knickers on....and maybe some spares. You’ll definitely need them. Good luck!

What an amazing story told with incredible grace and clarity of insight and wisdom. Characters one hates to lose in the service of a future no one has yet known. This one kept me up at night! A great read, deserving of the attention it has received.

It started off strong and by 1/3 of the way through I’m fighting not to skip large sections.If you’ve seen/played “The Last of Us”… you’ve experienced this book.It starts off believable before Melanie turns into some super soldier on a dime flip. Miss J irritated me but the flare almost made me DNF this.I see what the author was going for but between dialogue/description word walls and the way the characters were written out I struggled to finish this without skipping whole chapters at a time.Interesting enough concept but I’m not a fan of the execution.

Just when you thought that stories about a post-apocalyptic, zombie-filled future were all starting to sound the same, here is one with a fresh and intelligent new perspective. Damaged and realistic characters help tell a story filled with sadness and hope that kept me glued to the book until it ended far too soon.

I'm not really comfortable with Sci-fi books, but this one is simply amazing.If you want to read it, just make sure that you have enough time to finish it, because once you read the first page, you won't be able to stop until you see what happens next.The writing style is very direct, I liked that. It will make you feel and imagine every detail on the story. What I appreciated the most is that there is a logic in every sentence, so you just enter Melanie's world and forget that you're actually reading a book.

This is one of the best books i have read in a really long time, everything about it is amazing

The Girl with all the Gifts, auf Deutsch Die Berufene, ist ein Buch von M.R. Carey, welcher vor allem durch Comics bekannt geworden ist, aus dem Jahr 2014. Das Buch spielt im postapokalyptischen England und konnte mich sowohl von der Handlung, als auch von den Figuren her vollends überzeugen.Zunächst einmal zur Handlung:England in nicht näher bestimmter Zukunft: Ein Großteil der Menschheit wurde durch einen Pilzinfekt ausgelöscht und in sogenannte „hungries“ verwandelt, die es auf die übrigen Menschen abgesehen haben. Auf einer militärischen Anlage scheint es ein Heilmittel gegen diese Plage zu geben: Kinder, die zwar ebenfalls infiziert sind, jedoch im Gegensatz zu den üblichen „hungries“ dazu fähig sind logisch zu denken und überhaupt völlig normale mentale Kräfte zu scheinen haben. Eines dieser Kinder ist die 10-jährige Melanie, sie ist intelligenter und lernfähiger als all die anderen.Was mir gefallen hat:Ich habe The Girl with all the Gifts auf Englisch gelesen und mir hat der Schreibstil des Autors sehr gut gefallen. Auch wenn mein Englisch nicht meisterhaft ist und ich nicht jedes einzelne Wort verstanden habe, so habe ich jedoch durch die vollständigen Sätze, meistens herausgefunden was das fehlende Wort wohl bedeuten müsste, damit der Satz einen Sinn ergibt. Normalerweise lese ich auch fremdsprachige Bücher in der deutschen Sprache, aber hier habe ich einmal eine Ausnahme gemacht.Des Weiteren hat mir die Handlung von dem Buch sehr zugesagt, da mich solche postapokalyptischen Endzeitszenarien sehr faszinieren und der Autor es geschafft hat, eine sehr tolle und bewegende Geschichte mit diesem Szenario zu verknüpfen. Ich mag sowohl Bücher, als auch Filme die eine mögliche Zukunft schildern, sei es eine bedrohliche Dystopie, oder wie hier ein schreckliches Endzeitszenario. Das Buch ist zudem nicht zu lang geworden, es war jederzeit spannend und zudem hat der Autor es geschafft neben der Spannung noch zahlreiche bewegende und herzerwärmende Momente mit einzubauen. Diese Momente baut M.R. Carey zudem wunderbar in die Geschichte ein, sie sind weder kitschig noch wirken sie künstlich aufgesetzt, und lassen das Buch sehr realistisch wirken. Generell hatte ich bei diesem Buch ständig den Gedanken im Hinterkopf, was wäre wenn so etwas in der Realität geschehen würde, da dieses Buch die Geschehnisse eben so realitätsnah beschreibt, dass der Leser meinen könnte selbst Teil der Geschichte zu sein. Die Tatsache, dass der Autor bei diesem Werk oftmals die griechische Mythologie beschreibt und diese hervorragend in sein Buch zu integrieren weiß, trägt ebenfalls positiv zur Handlung bei. Auch der Titel des Buches wird somit verständlich, denn dieser ist ebenfalls aus der griechischen Mythologie entnommen und wird schon ziemlich weit vorne erklärt.Die Figuren sind allesamt ziemlich interessant und ihre Motive und Beweggründe waren für mich immer gut nachvollziehbar. Melanie, die in Miss Justineau so etwas wie eine Mutterrolle sieht und sich somit eng zu ihr hingezogen fühlt, Miss Justineau, die in den Kindern mehr als nur ein Heilmittel sieht und nicht als Mittel zum Zweck verwenden will, Dr. Caldwell, welche im Gegensatz zu Miss Justineau die Kinder nur als Mittel zum Zweck einsetzen möchte, um ein Heilmittel gegen den Infekt ausfindig zu machen und Sergeant Parks, welcher sich für die noch übrigen Menschen auf der militärischen Anlage verpflichtet fühlt und es sich zur Aufgabe gemacht hat diese zu beschützen. Die Wandlung und Zieländerung einzelner Figuren hat der Autor ebenfalls gut hinbekommen und diese Änderungen sind, wie bereits erwähnt, für den Leser gut nachvollziehbar. Gut ist es ebenfalls, wie auch schon zuvor erwähnt, dass dieses Buch kein reines Actionspektakel geworden ist, sondern sich viel Zeit für eine glaubwürdige Entwicklung der Charaktere nimmt und sich generell zu Beginn der Handlung viel Zeit nimmt um die Figuren dem Leser näher zu bringen und diesem versucht zu erklären womit er es hier zu tun hat. Dieser langsame Aufbau zu Beginn hat mir persönlich sehr imponiert. Zu guter Letzt ist auch das Ende des Buches sehr überzeugend, also dieses Buch ist wirklich von vorne bis hinten gelungen und wird mich auch im Nachhinein weiter beschäftigen.Fazit:Ich kann The Girl with all the Gifts wirklich jedem Leser empfehlen, ob Ihr es dann auf Deutsch oder auf Englisch lest, ist Euch selbst überlassen. Ich kann nur sagen, dass das Buch auch für Leute verständlich ist, die nicht perfekt Englisch können, aber auf jeden Fall dazu dient die Sprachkenntnisse zu verbessern. Für Fans von postapokalyptischen Szenarien, vor allem für Fans von der TV Serie "The Walking Dead" oder von der "Maze Runner" Trilogie, ist dieses Buch fast schon ein Muss. Wer von dem Buch allerdings eine Science-Fiction Komödie à la "Zombieland" oder "Shaun of the Dead", welche mir beide zugegeben ebenfalls gut gefallen haben, erwartet, wird beim Lesen ziemlich bald enttäuscht werden, da dieses Buch auf keinem Fall die Absicht hat, in Absurdität und Lächerlichkeit zu verfallen. All jenen denen meine Rezension gefallen hat, die aber nicht dazu kommen werden, das Buch zu lesen, können sich den gleichnamigen Film ansehen, der ziemlich genau vor einem Jahr in den deutschsprachigen Kinos erschienen ist. Ich persönlich kenne den Film noch nicht, habe aber vor mir diesen bald anzusehen.Da mir das Buch wirklich sehr sehr gut gefallen hat, ich es als sehr anspruchsvolle, spannende und zugleich tiefergreifende Lektüre betrachte, erhält es von mir die vollen fünf Sterne! Ich wünsche Euch allen viel Spaß mit diesem Werk.

I really enjoyed this! I listened to the audio edition, read by Finty Williams. Williams really brought an excellent performance to the story and added a lot of nuance that I appreciated.The book is a twist on the usual 'zombie-apocalypse' narrative, with one of the zombies being the main protagonist. I'm not a real horror fan, but this was accessible through its framing of the goings-on through the eyes and mind of a small child who is different but doesn't understand how or why. It wasn't particularly scary, just filled with sad details of a society crumbling apart.The perspective of the narrative was especially interesting and engaging to me. It was mostly third-person but there were tinges of insight and information about characters' inner dialogues that had a almost medium-like element to them. Every time Carey gives a window into the mind of a character, it's framed in the context of their language and context. This gives each character a unique inner voice as well as their physical voice, the dissonance between which serves up some humour in the midst of truly terrifying circumstances.I saw that there was a movie for this (which actually alerted me to it) and look forward to seeing it now. Carey's world is beautifully filled with interesting characters and details that draw you in and make it easy to build a picture of what's going on. It's this world building that kept me heavily engaged over the 13-hour listen. I definitely recommend listening to the audio edition to make the most of Williams' performance.Top shelf! Looking forward to more of Carey's world, bring on The Boy on the Bridge!