Eight thrillers featuring a child with a mysterious supernatural power

C. J. Tudor is the author of the newly released The Other People as well as The Hiding Place and The Chalk Man, which won the International Thriller Writers Award for Best First Novel and the Strand Magazine Award for Best Debut Novel. Over the years she has worked as a copywriter, television presenter, voice-over artist, and dog walker. She is now thrilled to be able to write full-time, and doesn’t miss chasing wet dogs through muddy fields all that much. She lives in England with her partner and daughter.

At CrimeReads, Tudor tagged eight thrillers featuring fictional children with freaky powers, including:

The Girl with all the Gifts by M. R. Carey

Melanie is one of a group of strange children kept confined and shackled in an underground facility.

Turns out that these children are infected by—yet partly resistant to—a zombiefying plague that has ravaged the world.

Dr Caroline Caldwell sees them as specimens to be cultivated and cut up – the key to a possible cure. Psychologist/teacher Helen Justineau believes in their essential humanity and wants to save them.

When their rural army base is besieged, the group embark upon a road trip towards London, during which Melanie’s true nature is gradually revealed. A clever take on the much done ‘zombie apocalypse’ story.

Read about the other entries on the list.

The Girl with All the Gifts is among Keith Yatsuhashi's five gateway books that opened the door for him to specific genres and C. A. Higgins's top five books with plot twists that flip your perception.

--Marshal Zeringue