Movie Review – The Girl With All the Gifts (written by M.R. Carey)

The Girl With All the Gifts <— OMG I was DYING to read this. I one-clicked this book back October of 2015 (yep… for Halloween – what perfection! Especially when I read this chilling blurb):

Melanie is a very special girl. Dr Caldwell calls her “our little genius.”

Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don’t like her. She jokes that she won’t bite, but they don’t laugh.

The Girl With All the Gifts is a groundbreaking thriller, emotionally charged and gripping from beginning to end.

And when I saw it for rent on Vudu today (I had NO clue this was a movie!!!!). I hemmed and hawed over whether I should go there or not. Go there? Yep. Watch the movie (The Girl With All the Gifts) BEFORE reading the book? ‘Cause we all know books are always better, but it looked SOOOOOOO good and I was totally in the mood for an intelligent zombie thriller such as this.

I’ve been craving a good “horror” or at least something seriously creepy and mind-twisty. Movie or book, I didn’t care, as long as it was something that would make me think, and give me a case of the good ol’ heebie-jeebies. This did it.

Did I love the movie? HECK YES. Do I think the book would have been even better. HECK YES!!!!!! Especially since my book-twin DID read it and loved it!

Maryse: Amy what about “The Girl With All The Gifts”? I wanna…

Amy: Maryse! Yes to The Girl With All the Gifts! When are we starting it? I’m in between books right now so it’s perfect timing for me… *squeals and claps hands*

Marit: Has anybody read The Girl With All the Gifts? Sounds creepy  Is there any love in this story or is it a full heart thriller? * Creepy dance*

Amy: Oooooh guys, The Girl With All the Gifts was good.  Messed up, but good. …different. GOOD different. You’ll really want some people to get their comeuppance, trust me. Let me know what you think of it!

Marit: I just read The Girl With All The Gifts by M.R Carey. Great book  A total page turner! And it’s different. It melted my heart ❤️ I know that many of you in here have read it too.

Sam: I highly recommend TheGirl With All the Gifts by MR Carey! It was such an interesting POV!

Holy moly this was awesome. The premise, the uniqueness, the “reasoning”, and that ending. OH. WOW. I bet the book was EVER better!

So what’s it about?

It’s a post apocalyptic zombie movie, but with a different level of zombie (and a TON of emotion to it).

We’re introduced to a military base that has a group of children (I’d say approximately 10 years old) that they are both studying (or should I say, experimenting on… individually) AND teaching as if they were in a normal classroom. Well… “normal” if you consider each child being strapped from head-to-toe into a wheel chair… “normal”. Sweet, interested, adorable children that just want to learn, have stories read to them, to love, and to be loved.

The main character (Melanie – one of the “children”) and the teacher of this particular group form a beautiful bond, and it absolutely broke my heart while at the same time, gave me such hope. I WAS HOOKED!!!!!

Except no matter what they look like, and how sweet and child-like they are, humans are NOT to get too close to them. Just our scent alone, too close to their faces, will trigger a terrifying reaction, and remind you that these are NOT human children. At least not fully. These are scenes you will NEVER forget. And once you see this (or read it), you will be dying to know the reasoning behind their being. And what a reveal it is! I won’t say another word about it, as I was guessing the whole way through, until it finally became known, and I LOVED it. It made… sense.

The only part I didn’t thrill over was a particular scene in the last quarter that was a bit over the top for me. Kind of turned a totally thrilling horror movie into a more… YA dystopian feel, and while those are all the rage and plenty will LOVE it even more because of it, it lost a bit of luster for me. I’m more into post-apocalyptic disasters (and the fallouts and recovery stories), than I am into dystopian. But the two certainly merge well together, and this one proves it.

But that ending… I’m RIGHT there with that. Total goosebumps. Will I still read this, even though I saw the movie? YES. Maybe even more so now that I know… stuff. 😉

4 stars!