Hungry and Hopeful: Greek Myths and Children of the Future in Mike Carey's Melanie Stories

A girl holds the key to the future of mankind: she has to choose between sacrificing herself and creating a new human race. In one version she is Iphigenia, in another Pandora. Mike Carey (or M.R. Carey) has now produced three versions of this story, all of which follow the child character Melanie through horrific trauma, which she navigates with the help of Greek myth. The first was a short story called Iphigenia in Aulis which appeared in an anthology of dark fantasy school stories, called Apple for the Creature. This then developed into both a novel and a film script, both with the title Girl with All the Gifts, referring to the myth of Pandora that takes over from Iphigenia. None of these are written for children, but they play with the conventions and expectations of children’s literature, especially the short story with its school setting. They feature strong focalisation, simple words, a child protagonist, and a child’s perspective. But Melanie is not just a child. All three stories also feature strong language, violence, and intensely adult themes. The novel and film were particularly successful among young adult readers.

The myths first emerge in the school room, where Melanie falls in love with them along with her teacher. They shape her identity as she struggles to understand her place in the world. Is she human or monster? Should she sacrifice herself and her kind, or carry out a generational coup? Greek myth, it seems, has quite a repertoire of characters who fear children at the same time as exploiting, even consuming them. This coming-of-age story shows a child setting the past in dialogue with the future in order to address some very big questions about what it means to be human and what it means to hope.