Twenty years ago, humanity was infected by a variant of the fungus native to South America called Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, which led to the Breakdown – the end of civilization as it was before.

The infected, referred to as "hungries", quickly lose their mental powers and feed on the flesh of healthy humans.

In England, the few surviving uninfected humans either live in heavily guarded areas such as Beacon, or roam in packs of hostile, scavenging "junkers".

Justineau sees the child hungries as people, and is especially fond of Melanie, a 10-year-old with a genius-level IQ who loves Greek mythology.

After several encounters with hungries, including a few adults that also retain some human-like behavior, the group finds the mobile laboratory Rosalind Franklin, which has state-of-art facilities for experimentation and attack, but disappeared on its research mission.

Melanie leads her to a group of intelligent hungries, to whom Justineau, wearing an environmental protection suit, starts teaching the alphabet.

The Girl with All the Gifts received acclaim from critics, who praised its variation from typical zombie fiction as well as the depth of its characters.

The Girl With All the Gifts turns eating brains from the usual empty-calorie snack into a full, complex, palate-challenging meal.

"[3] Miles of Entertainment Weekly concurred, writing: "The character at the story's heart may have no pulse, but Melanie is empathetic and sympathetic, and her deeply tragic existence is proof that zombie tales can elicit an emotion other than fear.

"[4] While NPR's Genevieve Valentine was critical of the protagonist's narrative, which "veer[ed] occasionally and abruptly in one direction or the other", she still found the book to be "grotesque and grimly hopeful by turns, underscored by lovingly detailed infection in both metaphorical and very literal terms: Spores and hopelessness are equally contagious.

Filming began in May 2015, with newcomer Sennia Nanua in the lead role of Melanie, Gemma Arterton as Helen Justineau, Glenn Close as Caroline Caldwell, and Paddy Considine as Sergeant Parks.

Portions of the film were shot on location at the former RAF Upper Heyford site in the former Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) areas and the Northern Bomb stores.

[6] In 2017, Carey published a prequel novel entitled The Boy on the Bridge about a team of scientists and soldiers on a mission to find a cure for the fungal infection, which is set some time before The Girl with All the Gifts.