Zombies are everywhere right now. They've taken over classic literature ('Pride and Prejudice and Zombies”), the movies ('World War Z”) and even our dining establishments ('Zombie Burger”). What more could possibly be done with zombies? Aren't they - excuse the pun - dead?

Comic book writer and novelist Mike Carey (writing under the name M. R. Carey) thinks otherwise – and we should be glad.

His latest work, 'The Girl With All the Gifts,” takes place in the not-too-distant future when an infection has reduced most of the human population to flesh-eating monsters.

Yet while the virus destroys the host's capacity for higher-level thinking, there are a few exceptions: a handful children who are able to use language, form community bonds, and exist like normal kids – except for that whole 'wanting to eat people” bit.

Gifts is the tale of one of these children, Melanie, and a few personal from the government base where the children are held for observation, including Sergeant Parks, a level-headed supervisor, and Miss Justineau, a kind hearted, stubborn teacher charged with determining the children's capacity for knowledge.

Where other zombie novels divert into long, sometimes unwieldy passages detailing the post-apocalyptic world, Gifts veers in a different direction, focusing instead on character development and the bonds – and conflicts – between characters. More than a zombie novel, Gifts is a story about love: the love between a parent and child, between a man and a woman, and between a professional and his work. It is a novel that strikes the unusual balance between the familiar and the fantastic.

Still there are issues: the plot is thin, and the ending, though heart-rendering, is rushed. Despite this, Carey still manages to make Gifts a gripping page-turner, thanks to the solid connections between characters.

Maybe zombies - and the zombie genre - aren't as dead as we thought.