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The Boy on the Bridge Kindle Edition

by M. R. Carey (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.4 4,888 ratings

Part of: Girl With All The Gifts (2 books)

Editors' pick Best Science Fiction & Fantasy

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One exceptional boy journeys into the ashes of society to find the cure for a devastating plague in this riveting post-apocalyptic standalone set in the same world as the USA Today-bestselling The Girl With All the Gifts.

Once upon a time, in a land blighted by terror, there was a very clever boy.

The people thought the boy could save them, so they opened their gates and sent him out into the world.

To where the monsters lived.

"Strange and surprising and humane" (Lauren Beukes), The Boy on the Bridge is a gripping, powerful story that will make you question what it means to be human.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Teens still clamor for pandemic apocalyptic fiction—nearly as much as zombies crave flesh! Ten years ago, a parasitic fungus started hijacking the brains and bodies of humans with frightening speed, decimating England's population and turning those afflicted into zombielike "hungries." Now, leaders at a fortified settlement called Beacon are desperate to halt the growth of the cataclysmic Cordyceps. They send a second mobile armored vehicle to take six soldiers, five scientists, and a teenager on a Hail Mary mission to collect samples left behind from a first group that never returned and to learn what they can to save the human race. Carey effectively brings to life many of the dozen characters. Young adults will especially appreciate the brilliant Stephen Greaves, 15, who might be on the autism spectrum. He was permitted to join the crew at the behest of Samrina Khan, the group's epidemiologist and his foster mother of sorts. Readers will be engrossed as Stephen searches for data to understand the hungries and the fungus and looks for ways to combat them, such as the e-blocker he develops to stymie the hungries' acute olfactory sense. A villainous civilian commander, an unplanned pregnancy for Khan, backbiting among the soldiers, and Stephen's work with the hungries add up to an intriguing read. VERDICT Lovers of speculative fiction or sci-fi will devour this fresh take on the genre.—Suzanne Gordon, Lanier High School, Gwinnett County, GA

Review

"Carey writes with compassion and fire - strange and surprising and humane"―Lauren Beukes, author of The Shining Girls

"A terrifying, emotional page-turner that explores what it means to be human."―Kirkus

"Thoughtful and compelling"―RT Book Reviews

"A tense story with superbly rendered characters and the same blend of tragedy and hope."―SciFiNow

"[A] brilliant character study as much as a tense, satisfying post-apocalyptic thriller."―B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog

"The Boy on the Bridge is a careful companion, including thematic parallels that remind us, in sometimes horrific ways, that our actions always have wider consequences than we think."―NPR

"The stakes are higher than ever...action-packed...Fans of Carey and readers of Ben H. Winters or Steven Barnes will enjoy."―Library Journal

"Spectacular!"―Martina Cole, author of Betrayal

"Compelling . . . may leave you feeling shell-shocked."―SFX

"A cast of fascinating characters.... Readers will feel surprisingly welcome in this world."―The Mary Sue

"A wonderful trip back into the universe of The Girl With All the Gifts"―100 Percent Rock Magazine

"Humane, horrific and unputdownable."―Irish Times

"Heartfelt, remorseless and painfully human...as fresh as it is terrifying. A jewel."―Joss Whedon on Girl With All the Gifts

"Original, thrilling and powerful."―The Guardian on The Girl With All the Gifts

"Unique and terrifying."―Booklist (starred review) on The Girl With All the Gifts

"A great read that takes hold of you and doesn't let go."―John Ajvide Lindqvist, author of Let the Right One In on The Girl With All the Gifts

"...a brilliant work of science fiction, but even people who never read science fiction should absolutely read this one."―io9 on The Girl With All the Gifts

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B01LL8BX9Q
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Orbit (May 2, 2017)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 2, 2017
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1293 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 435 pages
Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 0316300349

Best Sellers Rank: #41,470 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #464 in Dystopian Science Fiction (Kindle Store)
- #472 in Science Fiction Adventure
- #569 in Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction (Kindle Store)

Customer Reviews:
4.4 4,888 ratings

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M. R. Carey

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M. R. Carey has been making up stories for most of his life. His novel The Girl With All the Gifts was a word-of-mouth bestseller and is now a major motion picture based on his own screenplay. Under the name Mike Carey he has written for both DC and Marvel, including critically acclaimed runs on Lucifer, Hellblazer and X-Men. His creator-owned series The Unwritten appeared regularly in the New York Times graphic fiction bestseller list. He also has several previous novels, games, radio plays, and TV and movie screenplays to his credit.

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Genesis A.

Great zombie book!

Reviewed in the United States on April 24, 2024

Great read.

A good prequel to The Girl with All the Gifts

Reviewed in the United States on September 23, 2017

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A crew of military and civilian workers traverses the post-apocalyptic world to take samples from the hungries and try to discover something groundbreaking to create a cure. They operate and travel in Rosie, an armored cross between a tank and an RV with small living quarters, weapons, and a lab. Its crew is plagued with lies, secrets, politics, and resentments becoming more toxic by the day. Pregnant Samrina Khan feels very protective of Stephen Greaves, an exceptional boy largely dismissed by the rest of the crew. He goes on unsanctioned journeys with untested inventions and eventually discovers something lifechanging, but the crew would never believe him. He keeps the information to himself until he has something concrete, but doesn't think about how this could effect the others around him.

The Boy on the Bridge is a prequel and slight sequel to The Girl with All the Gifts. Melanie and her crew stumble onto Rosie in the latter book and it's nice to fill in what happened and then tie the two stories together. This book is just as addictive as the first with just as varied characters. Stephen had an extremely traumatic chidhood where his parents were killed by hungries and their corpses protected him from discovery. As an older child, he has odd behaviors such as avoiding eye contact and physical contact with other people. He views things analytically and keeps his emotions separate. With his brilliance, photographic memory, and scientific curiosity, Stephen developed the e-blocker that masks human scent from hungries. Stephen seems to be somewhere on the autism sprectrum, but it's never explicitly stated. I felt for him because of how easily the rest of the crew dismisses him. However, he made some pretty terrible decisions that put everyone at risk.

The rest of the crew is a hodgepodge of people who don't get along. Colonel Carlisle is in command and makes confident decisions with little input from anyone else. His past is full of mistakes like firebombing civilians at the beginning of the outbreak and everyone at least internally calls his command into question. Lieutenant McQueen is a hot headed soldier who follows orders only to the letter with a big dose of disdain if he thinks he knows better. The civilian leader Dr. Fournier undermines the entire operation with secret communication to Beacon, their base, and orders to delay so a coup won't be interrupted. He's completely willing to even sacrifice lives to garner a little bit of favor from a general. Of course he doesn't get along with any of the military as they exclude him in any decision making and in general. These tensions explode (mostly because of big egos) during the course of the story and make situations even worse.

There are two types of hungries here. The first is the mindless type that go into stasis with no stimuli. Sound, smell, movement, and body heat make them return to consciousness and attack whatever caught their attention. As heliotropes, they face the sun in their stasis and move with it. At night, movement and smell of nocturnal animals keep them active. Extreme temperatures have little effect on them and only destroying the brain will kill them. Two theories seem to be plausible about the people they used to be; either they are trapped inside the mind without the ability to control their body or they simply lose all sense of self. These types of hungries almost seem alien after the more intelligent type seen in both this novel and its predecessor. The second iteration of them can communicate, use tools, reason, and organize in groups. Physically, their bodies are the same as the normal ones and their brains are completely different as shown with Stephen's experiments. The fungus was introduced to their bodies before they are developed, thus retaining about half of the brain chemicals and function. These being between hungry and human are fascinating and it seems that they are still a mystery even though more is explained about their state.

The Boy on the Bridge isn't quite as good as The Girl with All the Gifts, but it's close. The latter has a much bigger scope because its events affected all of humanity. This former is on a smaller scale, but gave a better look at the past. The characters were pretty frustrating all around and I didn't connect to them as well. The writing is wonderful as usual and I was engaged for the entire story. The interesting mix of human drama, zombies, and science drew me in. I would love another book to come out as a full sequel to The Girl with All the Gifts.

36 people found this helpful

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rhs

An Unlikely Hero

Reviewed in the United States on December 4, 2017

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The Boy on the Bridge
by M.R. Carey (Goodreads Author)
22264452
Rita Schuldt's review Nov 24, 2017 · edit
it was amazing
bookshelves: dystopian, fantasy, giveaways, kindle, owned-books, paranormal, thriller, horror

I decided that this book was worth another try at a real review and take my chances that Goodreads software won't lose it again. The Boy on a Bridge is worth another chance at a decent review. It's one of the best books I've read in a long time. M R Carey seems to be on a roll with this one coming on the heels of The Girl With All the Gifts.
The Cordyceps fungus has wiped out most of the world's population. How it started no one really knows but they do know that one bite from a person who has it is enough to spread it very rapidly.
One bite is all it takes to turn normal people into "hungries". They are called hungries because their sole purpose is to eat whatever warm blooded creature they sense. They stand dormant, head and arms hanging until something edible comes across their radar causing them to spring into motion to rapidly bring down and eat whatever has awakened them.
This story takes place in Great Britain but I'm sure it could be repeated across the globe. All that remains of the population has gathered in Southern England at a location called the Beacon. It is from there that our little gang of characters set out to study what remains between Southern England and Scotland, and maybe, just maybe, find a cure for the Cordyceps fungus.
Onboard the heavily armed and armoured travel trailer called the Rosalind Franklin or Rosie, is a crew of 12, 6 scientists and 6 military.
Dr Alan Fournier, a worthless excuse of a human being, leads the science team which consists of Samrina Kahn, Lucien Akimwe, John Sealey, Elaine Penny and the hero of the book, a 15 year old autistic boy, Stephen Greaves. Stephen has a special bond with Samrina Kahn or Rina, as he calls her. Samrina Kahn has just discovered that she is pregnant by John Sealey, after they have started their journey. This certainly adds a new wrinkle into expedition.
The military contingent is under the command of Colonel Isaac Carlisle, a very well respected leader and also the only other person on board that shares a mutual respect with Stephen Greaves. Serving under him are Lt Daniel McQueen, Lance Bombardier Kat Foss, Private Brendan Lutes, Private Gary Phillips and Private Paula Sixsmith. There is no love lost between Lt McQueen and Colonel Carlisle.
The crew wears something called e-block to hide their presence from the hungries. It falls to the military escort to shoot several of the hungries for the scientists to gather samples.
While the other scientists are doing their thing, Stephen wanders off on his own, looking for anything that differs from what has come to be considered the norm. And he certainly finds it. He spots movement and discovers the "children". They are not hungries nor would they be classified as human. They are a new part of the puzzle and he wants to study them, but keep them secret from other crew members. His study of the "children" leads him to a potential cure for the Cordyceps fungus, but at a cost that would be so monstrous that he knows that he can't tell anyone else. But here his autism becomes a problem. He cannot lie if asked a direct question.

"I'll have to tell" he moans "I'll have to tell if they ask".

So Stephen finds a way to make sure that they can't ask.
If I could give The Boy on a Bridge more than 5 stars I would. For those of you that don't like dystopian novels, this is one with a lot of hope. This is a book I intend to read again.
I received this book as an Amazon Kindle giveaway in exchange for an honest review.
Posted to Goodreads and Amazon 12/03/2017

3 people found this helpful

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John O'Neill

Great read

Reviewed in Canada on July 31, 2023

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Perfect

M. Cristina Macia Orio

No es una de zombies.

Reviewed in Spain on July 8, 2017

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Es una maravillosa precuela de The Girl With Alll the Gifts. Se puede leer sin necesidad de conocer The Girl, aunque sin duda se disfruta más y se comprende mejor el final. AMBAS MARAVILLOSAS.

2 people found this helpful

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Ali @ I Wuv Books

Wow, Carey has done it again

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 24, 2018

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The Girl with all the Gifts turned out to be an unexpectedly brilliant read and while I had high hopes for sequel/prequel The Boy on the Bridge I will confess I also had some doubts. Did we really need another book, could it ever be as good? The answers to both of those questions is a very definite YES!!!

This has all of the elements that made The Girl with all the Gifts so wonderful (and is fairly similar in terms of plot) but, if like me the first book left you with a lot of questions, this is the story with the answers... well some of them.

It's very much a character driven story as it follows a team of scientists and their military escort as they set out on an expedition in an armored lab on wheels (with a very familiar name) to try and find something that will help them fight the infection that has destroyed the world. This is a long trip with not a lot of personal space for the crew so as you may expect tensions rise. Add to that the split between the civilian scientists and the military, different beliefs and a mixture of personalities and there is almost more conflict amongst themselves than with the hungries.

The story is told from the point of view of the various members of the team giving different perspectives on the same events but also giving a real insight into the reasons for their actions. In the beginning I did struggle to remember who was who (my feeble brain struggles with lots of names even with the handily provided list) but I soon came to recognize each of the individual voices.

Some characters and personalities do feel a little familiar but the youngest member of the team Stephen Greaves is truly unique and absolutely fascinating to read. His brain doesn't work the way everyone else's does making him a bit of an outcast from the others and the one who's either going to save everyone or get them all killed. He could be a genius or he could just be a very troubled and traumatized child and he's ostracized by almost all of the crew who view him as the latter.

Unsurprisingly given the mission of the team and the number of scientists there is a lot more science in this story. It's incredibly detailed and well thought out, explaining how the infection began and it's effects on the host but I have to confess it became a little too heavy for me at times and lost me. It is interesting to learn more about the hungries and their behavior, and I'm sure those more knowledgeable about biology and chemistry will find it fascinating, but it was a little too much for me and I may have skimmed a little.

Even with this focus on the science and the characters, there is enough action to keep the story moving forward and the reader on their toes. There are moments of extreme violence (some which made me squirm), they're generally sudden, unexpected and over quickly but have a lot of impact. There are all of the best zombie story tropes and it raises those intriguing ethical dilemmas around sacrificing for the greater good and following orders which will leave you pondering whether the characters actions are right or wrong and just what you would do in that situation.

I wouldn't necessarily say it was a fast paced story, it's a little slow in places but there is a gradual build in tension throughout and the ending when it comes is absolutely jaw dropping. Those characters who I wasn't too fussed about had somehow snuck their way in and I was truly invested in what happened to them and without spoilers, it was horrifying, heartbreaking and absolutely wonderful. And, I kinda want more....

Overall, this is an incredibly well written and intelligent story with a focus very much on the characters. It's a little heavier on the science than I would like but the ending more than makes up for any quibbles I may have had along the way. If you read and enjoyed The Girl with all the Gifts I'd really recommend you read this.

46 people found this helpful

Craig Dandeaux

As good as it gets in SF horror.

Reviewed in Australia on February 13, 2018

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Parallel story to "The Girl With all The Gifts" and just as good. Fills in a lot of loose end from The Girl and rounds out the story nicely. Just as exciting, page turning as The Girl and still is so dark it makes Stephen King look gentle! The door is still open for book three, even if by another author, in the same fashion as "Wool".
Another masterful book from Carey.

Daniel Dyck

OK for a sequel to Girl With All the Gifts but not great.

Reviewed in Canada on October 2, 2022

Verified Purchase

I loved Girl With All the Gifts and was eager to read this sequel. I found it less interesting than its predecessor. Probably, because the focus of the story veered away from the girl in the previous story. Of all the characters there really wasn't a sympathetic one, i.e., one you could strongly identify with and root for. It was a story where everyone was a bit of a disaster and there wasn't a clear protagonist. For this reason, I found the story to be much less compelling.

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The Boy on the Bridge Kindle Edition

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