Until I began reading The Girl with All the Gifts (2014), I didn’t realize how familiar I was with the author. Here listed as M. R. Carey, it’s the same Mike Carey who wrote one of the greatest comic book arcs in recent memory, Lucifer, as well as a 40 issue run on Hellblazer.
If that turns you off, stop and pretend you don’t know it: The Girl with All the Gifts is an engrossing thriller, a page-turner to the very end, and a book that takes some familiar tropes–teens coming of age, vampires, post-apocalyptic settings–and turns them on their heads.
Most importantly, the characters are compelling: from the young protagonist to her adult adversaries and protectors, they are well sketched and their motivations are far richer than often occurs in the genre. Additionally, the science is intriguing, and the plot is propulsive. This isn’t great literature, but it’s highly enjoyable, and his take on vampires (vampires with a slight zombie component, even) is inventive.
One minor quibble: writing for comics trains one to climax and denouement very, very quickly (often in the space of a few panels, let alone pages). For me, The Girl with All the Gifts ends far too rapidly, but the mechanics of the end remain quite satisfying nonetheless.
And, one intriguing note: Carey worked on the novel at the same time as he worked on the screenplay (the film came out to generally positive reviews earlier this year, I have not seen it), and they diverged as part of that creative process. I find that fascinating.
#WhatIWishICouldDo
Mix the action/adventure with the character study while not losing the strength of each. The pacing is quick and the page-turning quotient is very high, but the characters remain real, and even the ones that are “bad guys” (or indeterminate gals) have clearly coherent motivations.