Dream a Little Dream with The Girl with All the Gifts Reviews

Hello again. I am trying to catch up with my reviews and I hope that I can do them while waiting at the library. Today I will be doing two reviews. The first is Dream a Little Dream by Kerstin Gier and the second is The Girl With All the Gifts by M.R. Carey.

Dream a Little Dream, by Kerstin Gier, is about a girl name Liz who moves to England with her mom and sister and starts having these bizarre dreams about her future step brother and his friends. As time progress she becomes part of the gang to conquer an evil demon to protect her new friends.

I really did enjoy the book. I gave the book four out of five stars on Goodreads. I really did enjoy the characters, and thought most of them to be believable. I also enjoyed the mystery aspect of the book as you try to discover who Secrecy is as well as the mystery of the Demon.  In addition, I also loves the Sherlock Holmes Vibe that Liz has as she tries to piece together the puzzles to help her friends out. I also enjoyed the character development as well as the setting. Gier took her time in developing these two aspects of the story. Last but not least, I also enjoyed traveling between the real and the dream world, with the use of science and magic. Seeing the two worlds and what people want and dream up is really fun and creative. I really enjoy seeing how all the characters acted between the two worlds, as well as their reasoning of what is happening around them. Finally, I enjoyed the ending of the book. Not to give out spoilers, but Gier really set it up for a second book and made me want to grab that book. Though what got me more interested in the series, was the plot twist that she had at the end of the book.

However, there were a few things that I did not enjoy. One was the slow beginning. It took at least 100 pages for you to start to get into the story and feel any movement. A much as I enjoyed the development, I also felt like we spent too much time and wanted to get the story to move forward. Though once you do get past the initial dream, the book does pick up pace. Another point that I did not like was the mother. I do feel as though the mother is just there to help move the story along, but I also feel as though she is making choices that only have her interest, not her and her children’s. There were several times in which she acted as though her daughters should be perfectly okay with some of her decision after not talking to them all summer or giving them time to adjust.

In the end, I do recommend this book to everyone. I feel as though everyone would enjoy the characters and the travel between dream and real world. In addition, I also believe that everyone will enjoy the mystery and the thought process of our main character.

The Girl With All the Gifts, by M.R. Carey, is about a mutant name Melanie who lives on a base as a science experiment. The book looks at her development as well as the development of five other people as they try to adjust life outside the base after the Junkers (Rebels) attack and has taken over the base.

I gave this book four out of five stars on Goodreads. I enjoyed this new apoplectic new world. The idea of what houses and cities would look like after years of no one living in them. I also enjoy the concept of a fungus destroying the planet and how it affected people. Seeing how it affected people and created a second generation in order for the fungus to survive. In addition, I also enjoyed seeing the different stages of the fungus and how it affected people. In addition to this new world, I also enjoyed seeing how Melanie and one of the younger characters (who would have no memory of the old world) respond to some of the artifacts that were lying around as they journeyed to a safer location. In addition, I did enjoy all but one of the character. I loved how Carey created his charters with depth and layers. They are not so easily placed in a box and are willing to grow and expand throughout their journey. These characters were not the same people at the end of the book as they were at the beginning. Finally, I did enjoy the different perspectives of the situation. Throughout the book, you got to be one of the five characters as you journey through London. I enjoyed getting to see these perspectives as well as their growth.

However, there were a few problems that I had with the book. The first major problem was with the doctor, Caldwell, that was trying to find a cure to the fungus. She is labeled as this intelligent scientist who has the potential to save the world. There was a little bit of a background story that went with this character and how she was not chosen for the first wave of scientist to save the world. However, Caldwell made several decisions in the book that almost killed her and her cohorts that made me question her IQ. She was to focus on the cure to care about safety. Another problem that I had with this book was the slow beginning. Carey does take his time to develop the characters in the beginning of the book. However, I felt as though we were in a lull waiting for something to happen for at least the first fourth of the book. The other problem that I had with the book was the ending. Sorry about not going into details, I just don’t want to spoil the book for you. I felt as though the book ended a little lonely for some of our main characters. Last but not least, the last issue I had with this book was the lack of world development in the beginning of the book. Even though you are in different perspectives throughout the book, the only time you get to learn what happened and the changes in the world is with Melanie. Finally, the last problem that I had with the book was the lack of answering the question of how the second generation of these mutants survive, let alone exist. Given the pretext of the original disease, it would make it hard for this child to exist, let alone survive. I do wish that Carey would have explained that in the book.

In the end, I would recommend this book to anyone who is into Science fiction. I believe that you would enjoy the characters, world, as well as the story. However, if you are new to the science fiction world, I would hold up until you are better acquainted with the genre. Carey does not hold back on the science or the world, and I feel as though you should at least get acquainted with science fiction first before reading this book.

See you soon and happy reading!