(no subject)

I found The Girl With All The Gifts much more stressful to read than I expected! Kudos to M.R. Carey for writing a book compelling enough that it made me anxious on the protagonist's behalf all the way from Boston to Philadelphia.

The story starts out with a tight focus on Melanie, a bright little girl in a classroom in an experimental facility, and her bond with her favorite teacher, Miss Justineau, who is the only one who treats the kids there like human beings as opposed to mysteriously and potentially dangerous monsters who need to be strapped into chairs when interacting with anybody else. Melanie is fine with most of this, since she doesn't really remember anything else, but she wishes non-classroom times weren't so boring and is mildly concerned about the occasions when other children disappear beyond the doors into the lab and don't come back.

( Spoilers below! )