Like many novels, “The Girl with All the Gifts” is best when read with as little prior knowledge as possible. That way, all the mysteries can be solved with your own theories and the book is more fun to read. However, sometimes a reader will need more than a vague synopsis on the back to flip open to that first page.

Melanie is a bright and intuitive ten-year-old girl who has known nothing but her cell, a classroom, a shower room, and the hallways in between. Her days begin with soldiers pointing guns at her, strapping her to a wheelchair, and pushing her into a classroom. This is where Melanie learns about the outside world, and some of it, as she finds out, no longer exists. The teachers are switched daily, but Miss Justineau is Melanie’s favorite. At the end of the day, she is wheeled back to her cell, left to herself.

Life seems to go on normally for Melanie, until one day when she is taken away to a lab to be tested on. Before the procedure begins, there is an attack at the base. Along with Miss Justineau, a doctor, and two soldiers, Melanie is able to escape the danger. Despite their differences and the dangers that they present to one another, they trek on to find a safer area.

It is evident fairly early on that this is a zombie novel. This isn’t a bad thing, but it’s easy to see how marketing it this way might put off potential readers. This book is about zombies, but in a way you may not expect.

As with any zombie story, blood, guts and gore are abundant, but there is also a fascinating science angle. There is a solid “why” behind the disease’s origins, which is what a lot of zombie novels lack.

It’s amazing how beautiful the prose is. The descriptions of Melanie’s emotions and experiencing the outside world for the first time were as beautiful as the zombies were terrifying (think 28 Days Later zombies–they are fast and ruthless).

The characters were flawed and all carried their own baggage. Everyone had a past that somehow affected they way they lived. The younger soldier, Gallagher, was one of my favorite characters aside from Melanie. He was born right around the time the world started falling to pieces, so all he knows is the rubble, ruin and hardship that came with it. He is fascinated by the ways of the past, and the things that mattered, like paper money. This is just one of the few things that make the story have a unique spin on the zombie genre.

The ending was hopeful and heartbreaking at the same time. It was something that wasn’t foreseeable from a mile away. It was also part of the reason why the book received five stars—a zombie book with actual closure for an ending is exceedingly rare and something to be commended.

If you’re looking for something action-packed and haunting, yet with intelligence and innocence, this is one to pick up.