The first thing I need to say is that I absolutely love the fact that the author, a MAN – the ‘M’ is for ‘Mike’ – has the incredible ability to create such strong, resilient female protagonists. He must have had some pretty amazing role-models in his life!
I’ve had ‘The Girl With All the Gifts’ sitting in my TBR pile for quite some time now, and I never seem to get around to reading it, so when the opportunity arose to read the next offering from the same author, I jumped at the chance. I certainly wasn’t disappointed, and now I’m even more determined to get to his previous book!
It’s impossible to categorise ‘Someone Like Me’ into any one particular genre. For similar reasons, it’s equally difficult to review it without giving too much away. The storyline revolves around Liz and Fran, two very different women, who are having to manage life under some rather harsh circumstances.
Liz is a single mom to Zac and Molly, while still dealing with her abusive ex, Marc. Fran is just sixteen, but in such a short time has had to do more adulting than most adults. She’s lost her mom, was abducted and abused ten years previously, still suffers from PTSD, and is just trying to make the best of things with her well-meaning dad, Gil, and her imaginary guardian – a fabulous armour-clad, sword-wielding fox named Jinx.
The book is told alternately from both Liz’s and Fran’s points of view, and then gradually we get to see how their paths intertwine. Initially this happens through Liz’s son Zac, who attends the same school as Fran. They slowly (at first, even reluctantly) become friends and the relationships evolve from there.
Although this is quite a long read, it’s engrossing and intriguing with enough twists to keep the reader fully absorbed all the way through. The edgy psychic, slightly paranormal theme that runs through it was definitely what gave me that extra impetus to keep reading. The plot is great, but this just added to the unnerving quality of the entire narrative for me, and I loved it! 4.5 silvery stars for this one!
About the author: 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 X-Men and Fantastic Four, Marvel’s flagship superhero titles. His creator-owned books regularly appear in the New York Times graphic fiction bestseller list. He also has several previous novels, two radio plays and a number of TV and movie screenplays to his credit.
Thanks to Tracy Fenton of THE Book Club on FB and Compulsive Readers, and Nazia Khatun at Little Brown (an imprint of Orbit Books).
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