Our Take

M.R. Carey is best known for The Girl with All the Gifts, and The Book of Koli confirms he's one of the most inventive voices working in post-apocalyptic fiction today. Where many dystopian novels lean on spectacle, Carey grounds this world in something quieter and stranger—a rural England reclaimed by nature turned predatory, filtered through the eyes of a boy who doesn't fully understand what he's seeing. Koli's first-person narration is one of the book's great pleasures: unpolished, curious, and completely compelling.

The world-building here is patient and deliberate. Carey doesn't rush to explain the hows and whys of the collapse—he lets Koli's limited perspective do the work, parceling out revelation slowly and effectively. It's the kind of speculative fiction that rewards trust. Readers who enjoyed Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel or The Road by Cormac McCarthy will find Carey's vision equally haunting, if more quietly hopeful. A strong opener for a trilogy that promises to only get more ambitious.