Review: The Boy on the Bridge

The Boy on the Bridge by M. R. Carey
The Girl With All the Gifts #2
Publisher: Orbit
Release Date: May 2nd, 2017
Source: Macmillan
Date Read: 2/16/18 to 2/19/18
392 pages

Once upon a time, in a land blighted by terror, there was a very clever boy.

The people thought the boy could save them, so they opened their gates and sent him out into the world.

To where the monsters lived.

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I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review. Quotes taken from ARC may or may not be in the published edition.

The Boy on the Bridge is the sequel, or really the companion novel, of the The Girl With All The Gifts. The latter is now a movie and has won a whole bunch of awards, hence the reason behind my low expectations for the follow-up. Yet in the end, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed The Boy on the Bridge.

Nessie Review ☆ Fiend

Fiend by Peter Stenson
Publisher: Random House
Release Date: July 9th, 2013
Source: Library
Date Read: 3/18/15 to 3/22/15
295 pages
Rating: ✰✰✰✰

There’s more than one kind of monster.

When Chase Daniels first sees the little girl in umbrella socks tearing open the Rottweiler, he's not too concerned. As a longtime meth addict, he’s no stranger to horrifying, drug-fueled hallucinations.
But as he and his fellow junkies soon discover, the little girl is no illusion. The end of the world really has arrived.

The funny thing is, Chase’s life was over long before the apocalypse got here, his existence already reduced to a stinking basement apartment and a filthy mattress and an endless grind of buying and selling and using. He’s lied and cheated and stolen and broken his parents’ hearts a thousand times. And he threw away his only shot at sobriety a long time ago, when he chose the embrace of the drug over the woman he still loves.

And if your life’s already shattered beyond any normal hopes of redemption…well, maybe the end of the world is an opportunity. Maybe it’s a last chance for Chase to hit restart and become the man he once dreamed of being. Soon he’s fighting to reconnect with his lost love and dreaming of becoming her hero among civilization’s ruins.

But is salvation just another pipe dream?

Propelled by a blistering first-person voice and featuring a powerfully compelling antihero, Fiend is at once a riveting portrait of addiction, a pitch-black love story, and a meditation on hope, redemption, and delusion—not to mention one hell of a zombie novel.

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To be honest, outside of The Walking Dead comics I've never really read much zombie fiction. I thought it was cool and provided an interesting background to test humanity and morality and stuff but I never really got too into the whole genre. But look at that summary! An addict making their way through a zombie apocalypse? That's something that I'd definitely heard of or imagined before so I had to check it out.

So the plot has the same straight forward as any other other zombie story--survive. The one key difference is that in addition to food, water, shelter, and guns, our heroes need meth. Throughout this book meth is their number one priority, which is makes sense. Literally the first thing Chase and his friend Typewriter do after figuring out that the end of the world is really happening is drive to their dealers house to see if they can find some meth.

They are so focused in their drive for this drug that we never really learn more about the outside world, and why all this is happening, and the state of everywhere else. We do learn that these zombies are called Chucks because they laugh when they are trying to kill you. But that's really all, nothing about what caused it or anything. However, that didn't bother me at all. That's because it made sense that the characters wouldn't know since they are just concerned about getting their next fix.

This book is written in present tense, so it moves pretty fast but it works. It's even a bit stream of consciousness-like at some points, it's actually really cool to be in the mind of a drug addict like that. Also one thing I liked is that the main character is a HORRIBLE person. He lies, throws his friends under the bus, is self-centered, disgusting...and somehow, I still end up rooting for him and sympathizing with him a tiny bit. It's weird, but cool.

My only complaint is HOW SUDDENLY IT ENDED. LIKE JUST BAM.

But outside of that this is a cool, and really different read you should definitely check out.

Vanessa is Val's bestest buddy, and she will be guest posting throughout because she loves to read and write. She loves video games, reading comic books, working out LIKE A BEAST and photography. You can also find her at her own blog, Musings of an Aspiring Writer.

Review: The Girl With All the Gifts

The Girl With All the Gifts by M.R. Carey
Publisher: Orbit Books, Hachette Group
Release Date: June 10th, 2014
Source: Netgalley
Date Read: 7/2/14 to 7/9/14
416 Pages
Rating: ✰✰✰✰

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.

Melanie loves school. She loves learning about spelling and sums and the world outside the classroom and the children's cells. She tells her favorite teacher all the things she'll do when she grows up. Melanie doesn't know why this makes Miss Justineau look sad.

THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS is a sensational thriller, perfect for fans of Stephen King, Justin Cronin and Neil Gaiman.

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Please keep in mind that this is published by the Hachette Group, so buying this book from Amazon may lead to actual list price and delayed shipping.

This was given to me in exchange for an honest review. Thanks NetGalley and Orbit!

Attention: This is not your average zombie book, or your average horror book.

In this action-packed, survival novel, zombies, otherwise known as the "hungries" roam the Earth. And in order to research a cure, a team of surviving humans build up a base, where they capture infected children to experiment on them. What makes these children so special, compared to the other adult hungries? They're smart, and they can learn and talk. As long as they're sprayed with chemicals, they won't bite.

Melanie is test number 1, and she attends class with the other children when they're not in their cells. She's the smartest kid in class. Her favorite teacher is Miss Justineau, who loves to read stories about the Amazon and Greek Mythology to the children. Along with teaching them everything that happened before, before the Breakdown.

Now, don't start thinking that this will be another boring novel, where everyone is safe in the base. No that doesn't happen. Right before the crazy scientist lady cuts open Melanie's head, everything turns to..uh...chaos. Hungries have gotten into the base, and are wreaking havoc everywhere. The only escapees are two soldiers, Miss Justineau, the scientist lady, otherwise known as Dr. Caldwell, and lastly, Melanie herself.

The character development is absolutely freaking fantastic. Melanie literally goes through an existential crisis. First, she has to come to terms with herself. Then, she needs to make amends with everyone else, while protecting her teacher. And then, there's the whole unexplored world itself, even if it is reduced to nothing. Throughout the novel, Melanie, a naive innocent girl, changes drastically. And not just her, but the others as well, which is why the multiple POVs work so well in this case. However, I ended up liking Melanie's POV more compared to the Sergeant Parks, Miss Justineau, and Dr. Caldwell. But they still play such an important role for the plot.

Yeah! That's right! You go zombie!

And no, this isn't like Warm Bodies (though I only watched the movie). There is actual science behind the rise of the hungries. So no they don't just pop out of graves or out of nowhere.

And as Stephanie @ Inspiring Insomnia commented on, the blurb makes this sound like Melanie's POV in first person, like in the novel Room. But this is not the case. Instead, it's all told in third person, but even in this form, you can still see the change in Melanie's thoughts over the course of the book. For me, this is what made the novel so good.

The only thing I did not exactly like, was the ending. IT NEEDS DISCUSSION! (highlight to read at your own risk)
OK MELANIE, JUST INFECT THE REST OF THE WORLD WHY DON'T YOU. Have you actually thought about Miss Justineau? I know you think this is the only way, and it might be, but you know your teacher can't survive with all those infectious spores! Sure, she has a suit, and then you gave her another dozen infected children to teach. But, ugh I just don't know. I guess I can see how this all works out, but it's just so open ended. It's just like The Last of Us all over again. (end spoiler!)

This combination of the Walking Dead and The Last of us is good. Real good. If you ever see it in a bookstore, library, or online, be sure to pick it up. You definitely won't regret it!

And it's not scary guys, I promise.