I'm going to be honest, I really liked this book. 
 I choose it out of nowhere, mainly because the premise on the back of the book gave almost nothing away; nothing that would actually tell you what the book is all about. Althought the "She jokes that she won't bite, but they don't laugh." part made me quite suspicious that it was going to be a zombie book, and it kinda spiked my interest. And when I finally was able to read the book, I nearly devoured it. I don't want to spoil this book too much, because although some things are kinda "you-can-see-it-coming", it's best to read it without knowing too much about it. It keeps the elements of surprise and the fact that the narrative helps to build some little plot twists, also helps. 
 The first chapters are inside Melanie's head, a ten-year-old child that lives locked in a cell and has a peculiar routine; being strapped to a wheel chair while someone points a gun at her head, and then wheels her to a classroom filled with children, who are strapped like her, is not what anyone can call a "normal routine". She has classes, with a handful of teachers, and she has the same routine over and over. She is a child with genius-level intelligence, who has a "crush" in one of her teachers, Miss Justineau, which makes her always try to understand Justineau's mood and feelings and trying to improve them the best way she cans. She accepts that life as her normal life, learning things from books and from times that don't exist anymore. 
 Because the Breakdown happened. 
 It's the same drill as other zombie-like books (here, the zombies are actually called hungries) where some kind of apocalypse comes down to Earth and eliminates almost all Humans from it's surface, changing them into nothing but mindless, raging animals. This time, it's even better, because Carey gives us a great scientific explanation for what happened; a variation of a fungus, that actually exists, called Ophiocordyceps, that mainly infects ants, evolved to be able to make humans it's host. The "science talk" can be quite extensive and, sometimes, boring, but it doesn't fail to be, at the same time, interesting, because I don't remember anyone going to such lengths to search and find a "plausible" way for a "zombie apocalypse" to happen. I'm going to be honest, I really enjoy everything that revolves around zombies, but those stupid "a-random-virus-contamination-in-a-lab-that-spread-God-knows-how" reasons really annoy me. 
 Melanie is a child, and as we get to be inside her head, and understand how she feels and thinks, I get to like her more and more and I get to know the other characters. Luckily, Carey gave us the chance to read the story under the points of view of the five main characters; Melanie, Miss Justineau, Dr. Caldwell, Sergeant Parks and Private Gallagher. It's only because the other characters are so flawed and human, that Melanie strikes me as the best and strongest ten-year-old heroine anyone could ever ask. It's not that the others are terrible characters, not at all, is just that I found myself more easily annoyed at them. Miss Justineau only thinks with her heart and emotions almost 90% of the time and Dr. Caldwell only thinks about her scientific research 100% of the time. Sergeant Parks is kinda badass, but also a moron and to be frank, Gallagher is weak.(view spoiler)[ I got sad that he died the way he did, tho. (hide spoiler)] The way Melanie copes with realizing what she is, and how she tries to control it in order not to hurt any of her companions, specially Miss Justineau, only made me get even more mad when Parks or Gallagher treated her like she was a bomb, ticking and ready to explode. Although is understandable, I would probably do the same because I wouldn't trust something that I couldn't predict.. 
 There were some boring parts, I might confess, but that can be just for me; sometimes the story was really slow and sometimes it had too many details about some things, and it made me lose my initial thrill to read it, and there was a point where I thought I would just give up because I was actually not enjoying the book anymore. Also, I get really annoyed with anything that has to do with survival and zombies. I don't know why, but the way sometimes people are so stupid and selish in that type of situations, not even letting go their pitty greed and need for power to survive and help others survive, really gets into my nerves. And not onyl that, but also small things, has having no regard for their own survival and safety and doing things just because they feel like it (Miss Justineau and Dr. Caldwell, I'm looking at you). Soo, reading this book made me want to punch some walls at times. But at the same time, the curiosity of wanting to know how it was going to end (view spoiler)[and why Melanie is different from all the other hungries (hide spoiler)] kept me motivate to read it until the end. 
 And holy shit, I'm glad it did. It was the most unexpected ending in the history of unexpected endings. At least in my book. And I liked it. I'm really trying not to spoil it, but I just thought it was the most perfect ending, based on everything I read in that book, and if it had ended another way, I would not have like it nearly as half as much. It made me want to read the follow up of the story, but it's not an ending that is asking for a second book. It's just perfectly amazing the way it is. Trust me. Go read the book. And then you'll see what I'm talking about. 
 I'm actually glad that this book satisfied my need and hunger for good zombie books. And I appreciate even more one of the most amazing main characters I ever had the pleasure to encounter. Because you can never go wrong with kids being heros.