THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS by M.R. Carey. Hew York: Hachette Book Group, 2014. 403p. ISBN978-031627815-7 hc. $25.00   A FIC

This is science fiction at its best, elevating the zombie theme to a new level of sophistication.  Ten year-old Melanie is collected from her cell each morning by three guards with rifles and delivered to her classroom with 30 other students who are strapped into their wheelchairs.  Melanie can’t remember any other way of life and enjoys the stories taught by her favorite teacher, Miss Justineau.  She is clearly the most intelligent student in the class, but begins to realize that her brain cannot control her snapping jaws or her notable strength when she smells human flesh without the disinfectant chemicals used by school personnel.  She is a “hungry,” a human shell powered by a contagious grey fungus that destroyed most of the people in England twenty years ago.  When other “hungries” breach the school’s defenses, Melanie and three human school administrators make a break for safety.  Who will survive and for how long?
Lynette Suckow, Superiorland Preview Center, Marquette, MI