The Girl With All the Gifts by M.R. Carey

I saw this book being raved about on a few book blogs. The blurb was intriguing enough (what on earth is Melanie??) that I decided to give it a go. And as a testament to its popularity, it's extremely difficult to even get my hands on the book in the Singapore libraries (all copies loaned out, you need to reserve it, etc).

For those of you who expect me to read the book and be disappointed (I mean, it is very hyped), I'm sorry. I'm one of those reviewers that fell in love with the book and will end up praising it to high heaven.

The Girl With All The Gifts follows Melanie. All Melanie knows is that she lives on an army base with a bunch of other kids. They're also all special. What she doesn't know is that they're actually all test subjects. Even her beloved Miss Justineau is part of an experiment to test her cognitive and emotional capabilities.

And ah, I can't stand it. Let me say it right here: Melanie is a hungry (aka zombie). She and the other kids are different because they can think and feel. The only thing is that when they get close to human flesh, the hunger overtakes them. For Melanie, that is her biggest fear: that she will lose control and eat her beloved Miss Justineau.

When the Junkers (not sure what they are, but I think they are humans who are rebelling against what's left of the government) overrun the base, Melanie, Miss Justineau, the ruthless Dr. Caldwell and two soldiers (Sergeant Parks and Private Gallagher) are forced to leave and try to find help. Parks wants to kill Melanie, Dr. Caldwell wants to dissect her "number one test subject" and only Miss Justineau is trying to protect her. Melanie? She just wants to protect Miss Justineau.

This story was engrossing and tugged at my heartstrings. Melanie is really a special little girl, and I LOVE HER SO MUCH. She was my favourite character in the book. The other characters were well-written too - they all started off as one dimensional but then developed. I love character development of this sort!

If you like zombie books, and even if you don't, you should pick up this book.