Warning: This is book 2, or a companion, to book 1, The Girl With All The Gifts and my review for that is here. Just a pre-warning because this review MAY spoil you for what occurs. Likely not, but a warning can’t hurt.
Anyhow, onward!
Synopsis
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.
Title: The Boy on the Bridge
Author: M R Carey
Pages: 392
Release: May 2, 2017
Genre: dystopian, apocalyptic, adult
Publisher: Hachette Australia
Link to buy book here.
Buy: Dymocks, Booktopia, Book Depository
My thoughts
The narrator of this book (Finty Williams) makes me think in a British accent. She’s brilliant. BUT, moving on, I was so pumped to pick this audio up after loving the first one, The Girl With All The Gifts. Except in this book, we don’t follow Melanie anymore. There’s a time jump backwards 20 years, where we see Rosie, the vehicle our team found in book 1.
Dun dun dunnnnnn.
We know where the vehicle ended up, but not what happened to its crew. Whether they survived. Who they were. WELL, The Boy on the Bridge answered all of those questions in its unfolding, careful narrative. The two characters I connected to, were Doctor Kahn, and Stephen Grieves. The Doctor quickly became one of my favourites, she’s brilliant, defiant, vulnerable, and primary carer for Grieves even though she isn’t his mother. Grieves, is 15. We don’t know if he’s autistic (it’s not specifically mentioned), but he doesn’t like eye contact or physical touch.
AND. This was super cool. He INVENTED the e-blocker gel. He is a literal genius. And so intriguing: he couldn’t lie. Physically couldn’t. He got sick and sweaty just considering it. How do you write someone who needs to conceal his knowledge, but can’t if asked a direct question? The dynamics of his characterisation are probably the most interesting thing I have read in a long while. That, and Kahn’s pregnancy, because who wants to be pregnant in an ongoing zombie apocalypse?
The plot of this book really appealed to me when the Hungry kids showed up. You knew they were going to, it’s inevitable. Grieves meets a girl early in the book, she turns out to be the leader of the Hungry kids. They form a tribal understanding, or respect, of each other. But of course this is a zombie book SO NOTHING GOES RIGHT, who’d have guessed?!
I don’t want to tell you too much because as usual: spoilers. I thought I’d be sad that Melanie wasn’t the narrator (or focus) for this book, but I was wrong. Grieves is a genius, Kahn is determined, and the colonel is seemingly gruff and unfeeling. The dynamics of such specific characters created a brilliant tension! There are sub-plots and so many feelings…!
Overall, please go pick up book 1 first. You will not regret. Grieves and the unruly cast of characters truly outfitted this story; I was so wary, yet so unprepared for how it concluded. I was expecting hope, then no hope, and I just couldn’t settle on what would occur. I didn’t pick the ending at all and I love it when that happens. I’m being deliberately vague, I know. Characters, good! Plot, intriguing! Setting, terrifying! Humanity, screwed (basically)! Ha.
If zombies are your thing, these books will be your jam. If not, well, the tension and detail will definitely hook you regardless. Go give this a shot! I’d love to re-listen to these audiobooks!
Rating
4.5 / 5 stars
Thank you Hachette for sending me a physical copy of this book!
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