The Girl with All the Gifts
 Book cover from official website | |
| Author | M.R. Carey |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Dystopia |
| Publisher | Orbit Books |
Publication date | June 2014 |
| Pages | 460 |
| ISBN | 978-0-356-50015-7 |
The Girl with All the Gifts is a novel by M.R. Carey, published in June 2014 by Orbit Books, based on his Edgar Award winning short story, Iphigenia In Aulis. It deals with a dystopian future in which most of humanity is wiped out by a fungal infection.[1]
Plot
In the future, most of humanity has been infected by a variation of a fungus known as the Ophiocordyceps unilateralis. The infected, referred to as "hungries", quickly lose their mental powers and feed on the flesh of healthy humans. The disease spreads through blood and saliva, but can also spread through spores created by the fungus, which needs an unknown trigger to be opened. The few surviving members of the human race either live in heavily-guarded areas (such as the Beacon) or else roam in packs living off the land. The latter are called junkers.
The Beacon sets up a military base, called Hotel Echo, for the study of a specific group of hungries. What sets them apart is that these hungries, unlike others, are able to retain their mental powers and only lose control when they get too close to human scent. The men in the base, led by Sergeant Ed Parks, find these hungries (who are children) and bring them to the base, where they are educated by a number of teachers and tested by the head scientist, Caroline Caldwell. This often means she has to kill the children, something with which Helen Justineau, a teacher at the base, is uncomfortable.
One day, Caldwell decides that it is time to dissect Melanie, a 10-year-old hungry at the base with a genius-level IQ. Just as she is about to do so, Justineau interrupts and tries to save her. At that moment, however, the base is attacked by a group of junkers and hungries, forcing the three to stick together. As they escape, they find Sergeant Parks and his subordinate, Private Kieran Gallagher, as well. The five decide to travel to Beacon, which is a considerable distance away, but argue on whether to bring Melanie or not. They decide to take her along after placing a muzzle on her.
As the group walk, they come across the Rosalind Franklin Lab. The lab, commissioned when the epidemic was in its early stages, was a mobile lab with state-of-art facilities for both experimentation and attack. The lab is deserted, and the five enter it. Caldwell, whose health is deteriorating due to an infection, experiments with the limited samples available.
During their stay, Melanie comes across a group of child hungries. Melanie sees that they, too, retain their mental functions, although they have no language of their own, being uneducated. Afraid that they will be experimented on, Melanie instead tells the adults at the lab she saw a large group of junkers, but she later reveals the truth to Justineau. But Gallagher, scared by the news, sets off from the lab. He is found by the intelligent hungries and killed.
Meanwhile, Caldwell gets anxious about her experiments and realises she has little time left to live. In the absence of the others, she drives the lab away into hiding. She also captures one of the intelligent hungries and experiments on him, making some remarkable findings. Meanwhile, Justineau and Parks find the lab with Melanie's help, but Caldwell does not let them inside. Melanie explores her surroundings where she finds a giant mass of fungus spores.
Melanie tricks Caldwell into letting her inside. Caldwell realises she is dying and, in her last moments, tells her findings to Melanie. Intelligent hungries are second-generation ones, meaning their parents were hungries when they were conceived. Those born in this way retain their mental abilities. With this said, Caldwell dies.
Outside the lab, Parks and Justineau are cornered by hungries. Melanie calls them off, but is too late to save Parks. In his last conscious minutes, she asks him to shoot the mass of spores with a flamethrower, deducing correctly that the environmental trigger to open the spores is fire. Parks, now trusting Melanie, agrees not realizing that the fire will diperse the spores and likely infect the rest of humanity. When he realizes what he's done Melanie explains that as long as there are healthy humans, the war between them and the hungries will continue. She believes that for second-generation hungries to be born and rebuild the world, every one must first be infected. Parks' rational thought is deteriorating as the fungus penetrates his body so he is not able to respond to Melanie's rationale. Before he lost the ability to think, Parks asked Melanie to shoot him, preferring death to living as a hungry. She complies.
Some time later, Justineau regains consciousness and sees Melanie there. She leads her to a group of intelligent hungries, to whom Justineau, fully protected from infection in an environmental protection suit, starts teaching the alphabet.
Reception
The Girl with All the Gifts has received acclaim from critics, who praised its variation from typical zombie fiction as well as the depth of its characters. Torie Bosch of Slate called it a "crossover horror at its best" and wrote: "It's a welcome shift from the focus of many zombie stories ... The Girl With All the Gifts turns eating brains from the usual empty-calorie snack into a full, complex, palate-challenging meal."[1] Writing for The Guardian, James Smythe praised the book as being "original, thrilling and powerful" and wrote: "Were the characters not so strong, the book might fall apart. The plot is rather slight, and the ending feels a little rushed; but the characters are so well drawn and so human that it's impossible not to feel for them."[2] Miles of Entertainment Weekly concurred, writing: "The character at the story's heart may have no pulse, but Melanie is empathetic and sympathetic, and her deeply tragic existence is proof that zombie tales can elicit an emotion other than fear."[3] While NPR's Genevieve Valentine was critical of the protagonist's narrative, which "veer[ed] occasionally and abruptly in one direction or the other", she still found the book to be "grotesque and grimly hopeful by turns, underscored by lovingly detailed infection in both metaphorical and very literal terms: Spores and hopelessness are equally contagious."[4]
Film Adaptation
Not too long after the book's release, M.R. Carey announced that the book would be made into its own movie, and the movie's title will differ from the book in that it will be under the moniker She Who Brings Gifts. On the 23rd of March, 2015, the casting was announced for the film: where Glenn Close will be playing Caroline Caldwell; Gemma Arterton is set to play Helen Justineau; and Paddy Considine shall play Sergeant Parks. Private Kieran Gallagher will be played by Fisayo Akinade. TV director Colm McCarthy is announced to be directing the movie. It will be McCarthy's second feature length film. The film's screenplay has been adapted by Mike Carey.
The filming is set to begin in May 2015. The film has been announced to release in 2016, though an exact release date has not been issued.[5]
References
- 1 2 Bosch, Tori (8 July 2014). "Braaaiiins: The Girl With All the Gifts, a zombie novel of ideas". Slate. Retrieved 2 August 2014.
- ↑ Smythe, James (15 January 2014). "The Girl With All the Gifts by MR Carey – review". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 August 2014.
- ↑ Raymer, Miles (30 July 2014). "The Girl With All the Gifts (2014)". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2 August 2014.
- ↑ Valentine, Genevieve (11 June 2014). "'Girl With All The Gifts' Is A Thriller With (Sharp, Scary) Teeth". NPR. Retrieved 2 August 2014.
- ↑ The Orbit Team (23 March 2015). "THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS film adaptation to star Gemma Arterton, Paddy Considine and Glenn Close". Orbit Books. Retrieved 3 April 2015.