First Impression Friday will be a meme where you talk about a book that you JUST STARTED! Maybe you’re only a chapter or two in, maybe a little farther. Based on this sampling of your current read, give a few impressions and predict what you’ll think by the end.

Synopsis:

Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class.

When they come for her, Sergeant Parks 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.

Happy Friday everyone! Well, it is already Saturday. Nevertheless, I am glad we could make it through yet another workweek, although some barely made it. I have had yet another busy week at the office. With the year-end looming, I am bracing myself. It is usually the busiest time for accountants and auditors out there and me. So if you have an accountant or an auditor as a friend, do check up on them. I think they might not be doing fine. HAHA. At least that is how the meme goes. Regardless, I hope that everyone ended the work week on a high note. I hope you were able to accomplish all your tasks for the week. It is time to slow down, unwind, and dive into the weekend! Perhaps even a long sleep will recuperate those energies lost in dealing with work.

With the year slowly inching toward its inevitable conclusion, I hope that your hard work gets recognized and repaid. I hope the remainder of the year will be brimming with good news, blessings, and pleasant surprises. More importantly, I hope everyone will be healthy in body, mind, and spirit. But before I can fully dive into the weekend, let me cap another blogging week with a fresh First Impression Friday update. Ordinarily, my reading months are organized to follow through with a single theme but the past few months have been chaotic. While it was a tumult, it allowed me to explore different worlds through an eclectic mix of books. I jetted across the world to read the works of Latin American, African, and Asian writers. I also completed all books shortlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize. Nevertheless, there was always room for surprise. For November, I was reading whatever I felt like reading although the focus remains unchanged: read the books that are part of my ongoing reading challenges.

With my 2024 Top 24 Reading List completed, I have now turned my focus on the remaining books on my 2024 Beat the Backlist Challenge and 2024 Top 10 Books I Look Forward To Lists. I am now down to the last three books in the former and two in the latter. I am currently reading M.R. Carey’s The Girl With All the Gifts, the eighteenth book on my 2024 Beat the Backlist Challenge List I read; over the past week, I was able to complete David Wroblewski’s The Story of Edgar Sawtelle and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. The book is in a way a breather after reading the works of two American writers; the last two books remaining on the said list are written by American and Japanese writers. Yukio Mishima’s Thirst for Love is going to be a springboard for a different kind of literary journey later in December. Nevertheless, I am looking forward to all of these books.

Like The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, I believe it was in 2016 or 2017 when I obtained my copy of The Girl With All the Gifts. The book was ubiquitous and even though I had no inkling about who the writer was nor had I read any of his works before, my curiosity got the better of me. However, like most books I bought, it was left to gather dust on my bookshelf. I have been meaning to read the book over the past few years but I never got the chance. Well, I guess there are just too many good books out there waiting to be read. This is the reason why I included the book in my 2024 Beat the Backlist Challenge to make sure that I finally get to read it; I am eternally grateful to the creator of the challenge because, in the past few years, it allowed me to go over the books I own and have not read, and read them finally. Nearly a decade since I bought it, I am finally reading The Girl With All the Gifts.

I should have already surmised what the book was about when I read the title. Imagine my surprise when it dawned on me that it was about a dystopian society and zombies. Interestingly, the zombie part is the reason why I am avoiding The Maze Runner series, which I think the book is similar to. I actually thought it would be a dystopian novel akin to Divergent or The Hunger Games. Nevertheless, here I am, reading the book. The story commences in a military base-like setting somewhere in England. It is there that we meet children who are being educated by alternating teachers. They were transported to class by soldiers. Interesting setup. Among the children is Melanie, a ten-year-old girl who I surmised is the titular girl with “all the gifts” because of the ensuing events. Melanie’s favorite teacher is Miss Helen Justineau who teaches literature to the children. Her brand of literature, however, is a patchwork of different literary works such as Winnie the Pooh and Greek mythology.

The military base was headed by Sergeant Eddie Parks who occasionally disrupts Miss Justineau’s class. Another adult character came in the form of Dr. Caroline Caldwell. With her appearance, I was starting to achieve some level of clarity on what the story was about. The children were “orphans” whose “parents” had already perished, leaving them to the care of the soldiers at the “orphanage.” However, the truth is more sinister than that. I realized that the children were subjects of a scientific study helmed by Dr. Caldwell. Apparently, the children were “hungries”; read between the lines, they are essentially zombies, or at least it flows down their bloodstream. Dr. Caldwell’s study focuses on saving humanity through the hungries children. She dissects their brain. I know, it is a little discomfiting. Melanie, tagged as Number One, was next on the chopping block. However, Miss Justineau was just in time to save her student from being dissected. At the same time, the base was rocked by an attack from hungries and junkers.

In the tumult that ensued, Melanie, along with Miss Justineau, Dr. Caldwell, and Sergeant Parks were able to make it out of the base. Along with Private Kieran Gallagher, they were able to ride a Humvee out of the base. The adults convened because it was now becoming clearer that Melanie was a danger to them; this was particularly true after Melanie tasted flesh for the first time. She was tied up but she reassured the adults that she was no danger to them; Miss Justineau also backed her up. The adults were also debating on how to survive in the hinterlands where danger – junkers, the elements, and hungries – lurked at every corner. They also had to procure provisions; this was Sergeant Parks’ main concern. Miss Justineau, on the other hand, can’t keep her mind from the children left in the base. Miss Dr. Cladwell, meanwhile, was more concerned about her studies and notes which were also left behind in the base.

The story has opened up. lt also has quite a fast pace, hence, I don’t think I will be allotting that much time to complete the book as tension and action both pick up. I am looking forward to how Melanie claims the title of the girl with all the gifts. What gifts is the title referring to? How will the clique survive? And what role is Melanie going to play in their survival considering that she is supposed to be the predator? How about you fellow reader? What book or books have you read over the weekend? I hope you get to enjoy whatever you are reading right now. Happy weekend!