The Girl With All The Gifts

I had no idea this was being made into a movie, this was a book that I really enjoyed reading. Unfortunately, one of its joys was its slow escalation and unfolding of its mysteries and, of course, the trailer will have none of that. If you are interested in the story, you might be better served by reading the sleeve of the book to get an idea of what’s going on (and you can see that here, if you’re so inclined).

I guess this is turning out to seem unnecessarily coy, lacking in content. But even as someone who doesn’t really concern himself too much about spoilers or being spoiled, this was a good book to go into blind and I assume the movie would be as well. In fact, I’d suggest not watching that trailer. So let me just add that, while I consider it reductionist to call this a zombie movie, or an apocalyptic movie, those tags would more or less fit. I haven’t played The Last of Us, but I’m told that this movie would look familiar to those of you who have. Anyway, I just hope the movie lives up to the book.

I’ll second the advice that this is one of those things where it’s best not to be spoiled.

I went into the book blind and really enjoyed it. I’m looking forward to the movie. That said, the trailer does spoil some story elements. So consider that before watching it.

Wendelius

Well, you folks raving about it, combined with a truly great synopsis on the sleeve you linked to, got me to just buy the kindle edition.

Ok, I’m not watching the trailer. But there is little to go on for the book, and my book list is big already. Can you give me something more? What genre is this book even in? What is it about the book that makes you so spoiler averse*? Why do you recommend it?

*keep in mind I am on the far end of ‘don’t care about spoilers’. For me they are, at worst, neutral in most cases.

CraigM, I’ll throw some stuff in spoiler tags to give you a bit more info. I myself am not very spoiler averse at all, but I did appreciate this book more for knowing very little, so I’ll try to write this keeping that in mind.

light spoilers, mainly stage setting

So this story starts essentially after the end of the world. Something terrible has happened and not many people are left. The survivors we meet at the beginning of the story are mostly military, with some scientists. And a bunch of children. The children are kept carefully separated in cells each night, and in the morning they are woken by a soldier at their cell door, who instructs each child to sit in the wheelchair at the foot of their bed and carefully strap their limbs and heads down. Then they’re taken to class, where they are taught basically normal things kids usually learn about. This is all the first couple of chapters. If you want to know more about the nature of the apocalypse, I can tell you it’s related to the cordyceps fungus,which is a type of parasite that mainly preys on insects, and completely destroys their brain, taking over their higher functions, and in this case has mutated to do the same to people, basically turning them into ravenous beasts a lot like 28 Days Later. You can probably infer a lot about where the story goes from there, but it’s kind of fun not knowing.

Thank you Pogue! Sounds like it gets a bit horror-ish, which is normally a minus for me, but as a book might be good. My aversion comes from the movie form where the characters constantly pass around the idiot ball.

Interesting premise, one for the list I think.

Yes, it is horror-ish, or at least has horrific moments. I don’t recall any moments of stupidity from the characters in the book, but who’s to say about the movie.

I thought it was beautiful and affecting. But yes, there is violence and horror.

Bought on Kindle sight un-seen, and I won’t watch the trailer (yet). You cats have my curiosity up. Read 20 pages briefly before I mowed the lawn, now I’m going to sink some real time into it while I enjoy a cigar - thanks for bringing this to my attention, guys, I’m enjoying it so far!

I did the opposite, I watched the trailer and now I want to read the book. I’m not worried about what I know, because if it’s a well told story it won’t matter. It it’s a poorly told story then not knowing wouldn’t have helped. This is how it is for me, ymmv of course.

Yeah, I’m not really sure what this spoiled that isn’t obvious from the back cover of the book.

I wanted to get this in physical form, but I was worried about how large it might be. Thankfully, Amazon has a helpful image to explain the scale of a book!

Awesome. Thanks Amazon!

Hey man, whatever works for you. Also, it took all the willpower I had not to reply with “Well why don’t we just put you in charge?!”

I meant that as a thank you for posting this, bringing this story to my attention. I didn’t mean to ruffle feathers.

It was a joke. I figured you must be an Aliens fan with that tag.

Yeah I am, but sometimes I forget the tag I picked and so references sail right over my head. I really should have known better.

The movie came out yesterday in UK (didn’t realise it was coming out so soon!). It’s playing near me, but no way I’ll have the chance to arrange a baby sitter this week-end. :/

Has anyone taken the plunge? Does the movie stick close to the book?

Wendelius

Not a good sign when a studio dumps a movie into the market like this. Bummer.