{"id":7301,"date":"2023-02-01T13:15:30","date_gmt":"2023-02-01T13:15:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gustavopineda.com\/?p=7301"},"modified":"2023-02-01T13:15:30","modified_gmt":"2023-02-01T13:15:30","slug":"the-last-of-us-girl-with-all-the-gifts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gustavopineda.com\/?p=7301","title":{"rendered":"‘The Last of Us’ is great. Here’s an amazing book (and movie) with an eerily similar plot."},"content":{"rendered":"
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Just three episodes<\/a> in, and The Last of Us<\/em><\/a> is already showing promise of becoming the best TV show of the year. But what if I told you that there’s a book, and a movie, with an eerily similar premise? And what if I told you that the both the book and the movie are really, really good?<\/p>\n

When I first heard of a TV show about a deadly fungal infection which turns most of the world’s population into zombies, my first thought wasn’t of the popular computer game The Last of Us<\/em>. Granted, I never played the game. What I did do, however, was read M. R. Carey’s amazing 2014 novel The Girl with All the Gifts<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

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I really want you to read it, because it’s great, so I’m not going to include any spoilers in here. But the book’s setting is a bleak future in which humanity has been all but wiped out by a deadly fungal infection. The fungi in question? Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, also known as the zombie-ant fungus, which you may recognize as one of the main plot devices in The Last of Us<\/em>. And yes, one of the main characters is a young girl. <\/p>\n

At this point, you’re probably wondering whether The Girl with All the Gifts<\/em> is a blatant copy of The Last of Us<\/em>, which launched in 2013. To the best of my knowledge, it’s not. <\/p>\n

The Girl with All the Gifts<\/em> is based on M.R. Carey’s short story Iphigenia in Aulis<\/em>, which was published in 2012 as part of a short-story collection called “An Apple for the Creature.” And it’s not very loosely based, either; the short story, which I’ve also read, is essentially the first chapter of the novel, with the same main characters, plot and setting.<\/p>\n

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\n \"The<\/p><\/div>\n
\n Yes, there’s a young girl in the story. But there’s a cruel twist or two that’ll keep you on the edge of your seat. <\/span>
\n Credit: Amazon<\/span>\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Both the novel and the short story also include a heart-wrenching twist that I won’t reveal, though I will say that it rhymes with parts of the plot in Stranger Things<\/em>, Season 4. The short story, while pretty great on its own, is just a glimpse into this world. The novel, on the other hand, is gripping and terrifying. M.R. Carey, who started his career as a comic book writer, knows how to push the pace; once you start reading, it will be tough to stop, and the book will haunt you until you turn that last page.<\/p>\n

While The Last of Us<\/em> and The Girl with All the Gifts<\/em> have many similarities, they\u2019re definitely not the same story. Yes, both plots involve a group of people on a perilous, zombie-infested journey, and both are centered around a young girl that\u2019s more than she seems. But in The Girl with All the Gifts<\/em>, you\u2019ll experience several unexpected moments we can’t say too much about (did we say they\u2019re heartbreaking, too?), and follow a larger group of people whose dynamics change rapidly under the pressures of the world\u2019s cruel surroundings. <\/p>\n

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Oddly, we haven’t lately seen much chatter about The Girl with All the Gifts<\/em>, the movie. Yes, there’s a 2016 movie based on the book, starring Gemma Arterton, Paddy Considine, Glenn Close, and Sennia Nanua. And I’m happy to report that the movie is surprisingly good, given its $5 million budget was orders of magnitude below what Hollywood blockbusters get these days. Compared to the book, it does feel a little bit rushed at the end, so my recommendation is to read the book first, and then check the movie out, but both are well worth your time. <\/p>\n

There’s more! In 2017, Carey published a prequel to The Girl with All the Gifts<\/em> called The Boy on the Bridge<\/em>. I haven’t read that one, but it’s set up in the same, fungal-zombie-infested world. The novel has a very good rating<\/a> on Goodreads, so it’s probably worth a read, too. <\/p>\n

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And if you’re yearning for even more dystopia from Carey, check out his “Rampart”<\/a> trilogy, which features a different, albeit no less sinister threat from nature.<\/p>\n

Given that The Last of Us<\/em> is being revealed on a weekly basis, there’s plenty of time in between episodes to quench that fungal zombie dystopia thirst you’ve probably got, so give The Girl with All the Gifts<\/em> a try. And stay away from the hungries. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just three episodes in, and The Last of Us is already showing promise of becoming the best TV show of the year. But what if I told you that there’s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7302,"comment_status":"registered_only","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gustavopineda.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/images-1.fill_.size_2000x1125.v1675258037.jpg?fit=2000%2C1125&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gustavopineda.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gustavopineda.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gustavopineda.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gustavopineda.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gustavopineda.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gustavopineda.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gustavopineda.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gustavopineda.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gustavopineda.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gustavopineda.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}