A review by neonskylite
The Boy on the Bridge by M.R. Carey

tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

Usually I'm very glib or brief in these reviews, but I will put in the effort to write a more honest long-form review for this book. Why? I love The Girl With All The Gifts and think the concept is very unique. It's taken me a year to read this book, after two failed attempts and finally succeeding after almost a month.

I think that's because of the very slow pace - one of the reasons why I didn't 5/5 The Girl With All The Gifts was because of that dragging middle in between a deliciously creepy beginning (seriously, M.R. Carey could've kept the whole book inside Hotel Echo and he'd have so much content) and that groundbreaking ending. Here, there is very little to care about until just over halfway into the book when
the negotiation with the Hungry kids goes wrong and Rina gets bitten
, where it definitely amped up the thriller and the political intrigue subplot that excited me but I recognise feels distant from the main plot and most other readers probably didn't find as interesting as me. There is definitely action or other thrilling sequences before this part but it is hard to be connected to them because I was only really invested in Samrina and Stephen and found most of the other characters half-baked.

Which I think is another struggle of this book - The Girl With All The Gifts keeps it together when it starts to fall apart by its strong characterisation. Of course we know that most if not all of the cast are going to die by the nature of this being a prequel - but other than Stephen and Rina as I said, damn the Science Team is barely developed so I didn't really feel hurt when they met unfortunate fates
especially John and Akimwe, who I think are supposed to be tragic and devastating but I literally barely knew John so I could not empathise with Rina's grief
I didn't like the Military Team on the same level as the main duo but I did find the Carlisle/McQueen rivalry as a more greyer take on Caldwell from Gifts of the goals-oriented anti-Hungry antagonistic character which while I didn't enjoy their characters per se I found it more interesting.

However, it's pretty hard as an Autistic reader to enjoy the Autistic main character when you have to stomach pages upon pages of how much the other characters hate him and call him names and compare him to Hungries when Stephen, as I kept reminding myself, is literally just an Autistic 15 year old from Surrey.
I did appreciate how Carey tries to link Stephen being rejected by basically everyone to why he bonds so well with the Hungry children: "A human being is a very hard thing to be",  or how oh god when he lets the Hungries infect him he relinquishes his humanity with relief, not fear, because "it was an awkward burden to carry at the best of times". Still kind of upset me hearing the endless stream-of-consciousness of Everyone Hates Stephen though
I liked Rina as well, but compared to how stunningly original Gifts was, had we not all seen coming that her pregnancy ends in
her turning and Stephen handing over the baby i.e. humanity's future to the Hungry children?


My last point of contention is the epilogue. A lot of other reviewers, it seems, really like the epilogue! Some go as far to say that it's the only thing that makes this book worthwhile! I disagree!
I understand The Girl With All The Gifts very much about tearing the system down and starting over, and as a modern-day I Am Legend. Melanie and the other second-gen Hungries were treated like animals like objects like vermin by a wilting humanity trying to assert its control over them and she finally decides to put a stop to the killing and seize the world for herself and her people. Hell, Stephen realises this, that the Hungries are inheriting the Earth and he needs to make sure any knowledge of a "cure" dies with him. The only human who can live in the new world Melanie's created for her people is Helen Justineau, the only human who treated Melanie like a person and will teach and nurture the new generation. And then... twenty years later she finds one of the last human settlements and decides that the Hungries should dedicate their time and effort to supporting the very people who hated and wanted to exterminate her? Why does she turn back to serve the humans that marginalised her? Why did Carey spend so much of this book meditating on how characters know the end is coming (see: Rina who knows she is going to die days after birth, working towards a future she will never see) and then at the end cheat death? Why did Carey decide this was the best choice for a distant epilogue rather than showing us what Hungry society is like now the kids have grown up? I admit I did freak out when Melanie showed up in the epilogue like I saw a celebrity but it feels like a reversal of what The Girl With All The Gifts and Melanie stood for.
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