The Girl with all the Gifts by M.R Carey

I picked this book up in the local bookstore (we still have those here). The cover calls it a thriller; it doesn't call it a zombie story written by someone who usually writes for Marvel. If it had I wouldn't have read it. That said, it was good (377 reviewers on Amazon agree with me).

The story is set twenty years in the future. A disease has turned most of the world's population into zombie like Hungries who feed on other people. Melanie is one of 20 children scientists have found, who have the disease but are still able to reason. The children are kept in a prison, strapped into wheelchairs to stop them eating anyone, and experimented on in the hope of finding a cure.

Helen Justineau is a psychologist whose job it is to teach the children and to report back on their mental state. She becomes attached to Melanie and the other children. Caroline Caldwell is the scientist in charge of the project. When the camp that houses the prison is overrun by Junkers (people who haven't got the disease but choose to live outside society) Helen, Caroline, Melanie and two guards escape and need to find their way to civilisation under the constant threat of Hungries, Junkers and other children like Melanie.

The book explores the relationship between teacher and child, scientist and subject. Melanie is highly intelligent and slowly comes to realise that she is somehow not human but at the same time not a zombie. As they move across Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire the 5 escapees encounter the detritus of consumerist Britain. They reflect on how people used to turn their homes into nests of ornaments, toys, books and other stuff no one needs. The survivors ponder how people had nothing more to worry about than remembering where they'd parked their cars.

Films and books about the future used to be a lot more cheery. We had The Jetsons, now we have The Hunger Games and this sort of thing. No one is sure whether we'll all hack each other to death, be wiped out by disease or killed in some catastrophic climate event. I can see why people who stick to this genre (a lot of video games have similar storylines) might become depressed. The end of life as we know it appears to be just around the corner, but of course in some parts of the world, it's already happened.