Overall, pretty good book. It kept my attention and was a quick read. However, I loved The Girl With All the Gifts and this didn't quite live up to that.

It sucks when a follow-up to a strong book is not nearly as good. The first book in this series, The Girl with all the Gifts, is infinitely better. I almost wonder if this book even needed to be written or if it wasn’t a decision to do so just to generate more income off the first book (which was also made into a movie, I have not seen yet).
The Boy on the Bridge spends the first half repeating discoveries we already know from the first book. Yawn. It’s also really annoying that I don’t really feel like the ‘on the bridge’ part of the title is even relevant or a factor in the book. Why not name it something more related to the story?

Additionally the characters are just not as likeable or relatable. They are just lacking in general. Unlike in the first book I honestly didn’t care too much about any of the deaths or outcomes for most of our core characters. There are also a fair few of them (and some seem very similar to one another) which doesn’t really help the cause.

I’m just not convinced this sequel adds much to this world and overall narrative; with two exceptions:
1) it confirms a number of things we thought to be true at end of book 1,
2) it’s ending is significant and an interesting choice by Carey.

I don’t want to give anything away at all but this only gets three stars for it’s ending. Otherwise it would be lucky to get two from me. The ending is interesting, unique, and definitely makes you think. As someone who tends to hate endings (especially of dystopian or mystery books) this is significant for me and so vaults it into the four star territory.
On that note, make sure you read this series in order so you have the context of book one, and because it’s a much better read.

Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.

This book lacked all of the qualities that made me enjoy The Girl With All the Gifts. What was left felt like kind of a run of the mill sci-fi movie. The pace was slow and I had a hard time getting into this one.

An excellent follow-up to THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS. Has everything that makes Carey's novels so great: excellent prose, characters, and a gripping plot. Very highly recommended.

This book was enjoyable, but not as good as The Girl with All the Gifts. I would also recommend reading The Girl first, or else this one would be more difficult to understand, as it seems to expect you have read that one first. I did enjoy spending a little bit more time in this world, as odd as that may sound, since it's a post apocalyptic world populated by zombies, but it felt a bit rushed.

The Boy on the Bridge is a stand-alone novel set in the same world as The Girl with All the Gifts but it’s also a prequel of sorts. If you haven’t read either, I would start with The Girl with All the Gifts. The Boy on the Bridge has a couple of spoilers in it if it’s read first. Accordingly, this review will be short as I don’t want to spoil The Girl with All the Gifts. Check out my review of The Girl with All the Gifts here.

The Boy on the Bridge takes place probably ten or fifteen years before The Girl with All the Gifts. The apocalypse due to the plague has already happened and a team comprised of military personal and scientists is traveling about England, trying to determine the cause and if there is a cure.

The first half of this book was very slow and not much happened. If you can make it through, it picks up quite a bit in the second half. I didn’t like it quite as much as The Girl with All the Gifts but I still enjoyed it and would recommend it to readers who liked The Girl with All the Gifts.

Sometimes one book is more than enough. Sequels tend to be lesser than the first book, but here, it was completely unnecessary to continue.

This book has some of the same flaws of the first one. M.R. Carey just doesn't know how to write the middle of a book. It is endlessly dragging, boring, and could be cut to 10% of its length. And, it is similar to the first book. In the first one at least we had some surprises, because we were all just introduced to what the hungries are.

There are too many sentences that are there just to fill the pages: They stare at each other for a cold second, each acknowledging the unspoken agenda. And why is it still unspoken after all these months of enforced proximity?. Sentences that say nothing and add nothing.

The Boy on the Bridge is set during a plague that has wiped out the population. This group of scientists and soldiers are attempting to find a cure for the plague by collecting tissue samples from the Hungries, people who have been infected. However, there's more fighting and rivalry among these scientists and soldiers than cooperation and teamwork even though they are all trying to save the human race from extinction. One would think that cooperation and teamwork would be their best bet for survival.
At times the arguing between them did drag on, but the parts of the book focused on Dr. Khan and Stephen were much more moving. Dr. Khan treated Stephen as an adopted son while the others shunned him for his unusual behaviors and extreme intelligence. Their relationship was unique and likely created jealousy and hard feelings between some of these crew members.
Stephen's ability to understand and communicate with the Hungries has much potential for the mission of this crew.
This quote from the very end was so cool, not just for this book but in general: "All journeys are the same journey, whether you know it or not, whether you're moving or not. And the things that look like endings are all just stations on the way."

I personally didn't like this book, at least what I read of it. I stopped at the 40% mark when I just didn't wanna read anything because it was making me get into a reading funk.

Is there anything left to say about the zombie apocalypse? Feels like this theme has it been done, uh, undeath. But Mike Carey’s The Girl With All The Gifts and the sequel, The Boy on The Bridge, show there’s one unique take left. With a unique spin on the causes of the undead army, and a cast of conflicted, complex characters, this dark world will pull readers in.

I received a copy of this from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I actually started reading this book a year ago after reading the Girl With All the Gifts and for whatever reason I kept pushing it off to the side. It just didn't hold my interest at first. Finally though, I cracked down and read it. Once you get past the 1st 100 pages or so and the bombardment of different characters, the story is actually really good. There was always a great element of suspense and waiting for the shoe to drop. The "battle" scenes were very well done and I really enjoyed the ending. I'm actually wondering if there is going to be another or more books in the series since it was set up so well.

I'm keeping my eye out for more from this author. Well done.

I received a free copy of this book courtesy of the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I haven't read "Girl With All the Gifts," and I am only vaguely aware that there is a movie for it. However, I found that "The Boy on the Bridge" can stand alone just fine. It is technically a prequel, but the way that it is written makes it very accessible to readers not familiar with the series. I enjoy Carey's writing style quite a bit being a big fan of Lucifer and Hellblazer and again he doesn't disappoint. This book could easily fall into the realm of mindless horror, but it doesn't. It has heart and I care about the characters. I definitely recommend.

I can't really explain my fascination with these books. When I read The Girl with all the Gifts, I never imagined I would read the sequel — not because I didn't love it, but because I sometimes have the attention span of a gnat, and rarely follow up with series, trilogies, etc. because I just run out of steam. This is probably the same reason I have loyalty to only a few television shows and am quick to consider they've "jumped the shark". In any case, here I am again, reading a zombie book while my husband watches The Walking Dead (and no, I didn't give that show up, I was too chicken to even watch it.) Before I read The Boy on the Bridge, I watched the movie of The Girl with all the Gifts. Had I not been watching that on an airplane, I would have either cried in terror or shrieked like a little baby, because, despite knowing the entire plot and outcome, I was terrified.

The Boy on the Bridge is equally terrifying, at least to me, but in a completely satisfying way. The author considers it a sequel, prequel or equal, but that's merely semantics. Whatever he wants to call it, I'll read it. In fact, I will probably even read another. Bring on number 3.

For Goodreads:

Why I picked it — Because I loved The Girl with all the Gifts
Reminded me of… Margaret Atwood's MaddAddam series (yes, I read a couple of those, too!)
For my full review — click here

I couldn't get into this one, so I didn't write a lengthy review on my blog, but did add this to Goodreads:

I did not really finish this one, so I didn’t give it a rating.

I read a quarter of the book and wasn’t all that captivated with it, but saw in some of your reviews that the epilogue was good, so I jumped to the end and read the last chapter and epilogue. I did like the epilogue best.

I just didn’t connect with the characters, and there wasn’t enough excitement and energy to keep me going. I really liked The Girl with All the Gifts and how fast-paced and intriguing it was. It started with a bang and things weren’t fully known and there was some mystery and danger to it. Here I was kind of bored following scientists and reading their diaries or inner thoughts disseminate the day’s events. I’m sure there is more excitement later, especially with the death toll I read about in the last chapter, but I didn’t want to slog through the slow parts to get there.

I did enjoy the epilogue and would be interested in the third book to see more of Melanie and the teacher.

I loved The Girl With All The Gifts. Unfortunately I just couldn't get into this story. Stephen was not as interesting of a character compared to Melanie. I stopped reading about 40% in and skipped to the epilogue to find out what happened.

First off, I liked the first book but I thought it was... I don't know, too wordy? I liked the story but something about the writing just turned me off. Maybe it was because I saw the movie first and it spoiled it for me. But this sequel / prequel. Wow! I love it. The writing felt much more polished and I actually cared about the characters. Not to mention I just loved the ending

I loved The Girl With All the Gifts by M. R. Cary, so I didn’t hesitate to read The Boy on the Bridge. The Boy on the Bridge is actually a prequel to The Girl With All the Gifts, taking place some twenty years earlier. You can read either book as a standalone, but I suggest you read them both!

The book begins with Rosie heading from Beacon on the south coast of England to the wilds of the Scottish Highlands. Rosie is a sort of RV/Tank hybrid. The crew is made up of two teams. The medical/scientific team who are out to collect tissue samples and the military team whose job it is to protect them from the hungries. The hungries are human zombies.

What makes this post apocalyptic novel so special is the character development. The clashes between the scientist and the military, two very different mind sets. Some of the more interesting characters are Stephen Greaves and Doctor Samrina Kahn. Dr. Kahn is the reason Stephen is on the mission. He is a young boy, probably somewhere on the autism spectrum, and very, very smart. Most of the other people on the mission don’t understand him and call him “Robot.”

It’s during one of the missions that Stephen stumbles upon hungries that to act different than other hungries. There seems to be more human reasoning left in them. Could these children be helpful in creating a cure?

This was such a good book. Excellent characters, lots of twists and plenty of action. I highly recommend The Boy on the Bridge and The Girl with All the Gifts.

I received an ARC of this book.

I really enjoy M. R Carey's books and I believe that I have now successfully read them all. They make me think in ways I didn't know I was prepared to think, and the "zombie" books are so creatively non-zombie that I don't even care that I'm reading about zombies. They are more like "this an entirely plausible future for humanity" books, and I am a sucker for that sort of thing. I will keep tracking M. R. Carey and look forward to what comes nex.

This a prequel for The Girl With All the Gifts. Not too long after the infestation began, we follow a team of soldiers and scientists as they try to figure out a cure for the plague. The main characters are Stephen, a 15 year autistic genius and his mentor Dr. Kahn. Even though humans have been pretty much wiped out, we still see how terrible we can be to one another. If you enjoyed the first book, you will like this one. While there are certainly similarities in the plot, I think this definitely stands right along with The Girl.

In this post-written prequel to The Girl with All the Gifts, M.R. Carey explores the events that took place on the Rosalind Franklin, an ultra-armed tank like exploration vehicle loaded with military and scientists who set out across a decimated England to discover what they can about this plague that may well destroy all mankind. (I'm being vague here so as not to destroy the wonder of Girl if you haven't read it yet.) The titular boy of the novel is an autistic fifteen-year-old named Stephen Greaves, a boy genius who created the gel that blocks human scent, thus saving the lives of many in this new plague-ridden world. He is on this mission thanks to his savior, friend, confident, and fellow traveler Dr. Samrina Khan, a scientist on board the Rosalind who is pregnant and hides it for most of the trip since such a thing is absolutely forbidden. Stephen makes a shocking discovery that puts the entire crew at risk; but because of the bickering, deceit, and overall hatred among most of the crew on board, revelations are way too little, entirely too late. While there have been several reviews to indicate that the entire book takes place 20 years before Girl, that time line may be a little twisted. The period between one and the other is actually shorter than that, with only the epilogue of this novel occurring 20 years later. If you can do the math, please let me know! I do encourage anyone questioning which to read first to go with The Girl with All the Gifts since much of this novel presupposes the reader has knowledge of the occurrences in the first novel. I enjoyed getting the backstory of the work M.R. Carey created and found the story to be solid. Where others may find holes, I only find possibilities. The reading of this novel also prompted me to watch the Girl movie, which was quite good, and to reread the original story, which I plan to do immediately. What more can you ask from a novel or novelist? Carey has invoked my curiosity! Happy reading!