The story of a very special little girl and her journey of self discovery

I’m actually going to use the Goodreads summary of this, because it’s what made me want to read the book in the first place:

Melanie is a very special girl. Dr Caldwell calls her “our little genius”.

Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don’t like her. She jokes that she won’t bite, but they don’t laugh. 

Melanie loves school. She loves learning about spelling and sums and the world outside the classroom and the children’s cells. She tells her favourite teacher all the things she’ll do when she grows up. Melanie doesn’t know why this makes Miss Justineau look sad. 

I don’t usually read horror, but I made an exception for this book, because the blurb made it sound so very intriguing and because I’m a huge fan of Mike Carey‘s other work. I can only assume he’s writing under a new name because this is a different genre from the work he normally produces.

This book was so good, you guys. Read my full review on my blog.