Monthly Book Club: The Girl With All The Gifts

It’s May’s Book Club review marking the 7th month of my neighborhood & virtual book club! Thank you all for joining me on this fun reading adventure. I’ve loved getting to know my neighbors, as well as reading some great books. I hope you have, too. Well… not so much meeting my neighbors :P

(Like always, if you didn’t catch my previous post about how my virtual book club works, please click here, and then come back!)

The newest neighbor to the club chose this month’s book, and it certainly was unlike any we’ve read before. Of course, new people bring new perspectives, which I absolutely appreciate. That’s why I like getting together with these ladies- we all bring something different to the table, yet get along so well.

For the first time in our club’s history, we read a science fiction novel called The Girl With All The Gifts by M.R. Carey. Our neighbor explained that she had seen the 2017 movie adaptation staring Glenn Close, but was interested in reading the book since we all know that the books are almost always better than the movies. The rest of the club was a tad skeptical after listening to the synopsis, but since it was her turn to pick, we went for it.

A chapter into the book and I realized I had actually seen the movie a couple years ago with J! Guess I wasn’t really paying attention because it never “clicked” when she was talking about reading it at our last meeting.

Despite apparently having seen the movie, I remembered very little, so I enjoyed the book as a fresh participant. It was, in some way, refreshing to venture into a new genre and I think that intrigued me to keep going.

I often read prior to going to bed. Although it’s technically a “zombie” book, it is more thought-provoking than it is scary. The author did a great job with enhancing typical “zombie ideas and behaviors”, and dug deeper into how and why rather than just a come at the story from a pure place of survival. However, survival is still a key topic throughout the chapters, not only for the humans, but the zombies, as well.

The book’s over-arching themes consisted of the nature of human survival, the quest for knowledge and power, and understanding and accepting diversity. In fact, the story lingers with you after you close the book. Case in point: I dreamed about zombies one night. Hysterically enough, J said I was making so many grunting noises in my sleep he had to wake me up because I was scaring him… awkward! After he told me that, I do remember a moment in my dream where a zombie was standing over me and I was feeling panicked. What can I say? I’m a vivid dreamer…

Sometimes I found the connection between two of the main characters, Ms. Justineau and Melanie, a little strange, but, all and all, I thought the book did a great job at intertwining opposite personalities together to co-exist. It’s a quick read, although it took me longer than necessary due to a busier schedule this month. I think this would be a different and fun read on your summer vacation, too!

We’re no 8 months into our book club and we’ve chosen The Murmur of the Bees by Sofía Segovia as our next book! Check back here next month for my review and our future selection.