The Girl With All the Gifts

This was even better than I expected! Such a well written, compelling story. I went in pretty much blind and I definitely recommend reading it that way, the suspense and unraveling of information is great. I listened to this on audiobook that had some soundtrack music and sound effects, which was also expertly done. The narrator was perfect, and the added music and sounds were subtle and added tension and atmosphere. I would have given it 5 stars if it weren't for

The army guy's having unpleasant fixations on sexualizing women. I really hated reading those parts, they added nothing to the plot and made the characters voicing them seem excessively stupid.

I really enjoyed the gradual reveal of the world, first from Melanie's very limited point of view in the facility, and then later from all of the perspective of the adults. It was especially interested to see the moral struggle that Ms. Justineau faced (mostly in the beginning), and then watching as her moral compass and compassion won out againt her self preservation. The fact that Ms. Justineau was such a complex and nuanced character who was mostly driven by her love and care towards children was something I really appreciated, because it really punches the whole 'angry black woman' stereotype in the gut.
(I hate that the movie switched the races between Melanie and Justineau. The woman who is considered the most beautiful and amazing person by the protagonist is played by a white woman, while the little girl who isn't considered human by most is played by a black girl. A little telling of the cast directors, no?)
The ending was bittersweet, though how bitter or sweet seems to wildly fluctuate depending on the character's perspective.
Overall, I really dug this book. If you like well thought out monsters and believable survival stories, you'll probably like this.

Different kind of zombie story. Not bad but slow.

Hot damn! Now this is a great zombie tale. I am a fan of Carey's Felix Castor series (under the clever pseudonym of Mike Carey) so was hoping this would have the same punch and power. And it does. Clever, thought-provoking, and alarming. This is a scary book, both viscerally and intellectually, while remaining thoughtful, exactly what a good horror story should be. Carey does not reduce zombies to the lowest sum of shambling dumb, yet he uses that bottom layer to build up an even scarier, formidable undead.

Although I don't normally like zombie books/stories, I went into this not knowing it was a zombie story, but I actually enjoyed this one. I think a big reason for that was because it was such an original story, not like all the other zombie stories out there, and it was also a quick and easy read. I also liked how (most) of the group ended up as a bit of a found family of sorts. This was definitely a story about character development, which is my favorite type of story.

I particularly liked Melanie's character development as she grew into her own identity. She starts out the book as a child, and although the main story really takes place over less than a week, you get the sense that she's grown into the world and has become an adult able to take care of herself by the end. Her relationship with the teacher and how that changed as time went on was also nice to follow (it actually made me think a bit of Matilda and Miss Honey), and I enjoyed the kind of bittersweet ending and how everything was resolved with the hope of a better future, but without a definite "fix".