Customer Reviews

Feed (Newsflesh, Book 1)

5 star:		(124)
4 star:		(50)
3 star:		(18)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

I am reviewing an Advance Reading Copy provided by the publisher.

The year is 2039 and bloggers have taken over the world. Twenty five years ago the Kellis-Amberlee virus went live. Infected humans and animals began reanimating after death--some underwent spontaneous change--to become walking feeding machines. With an appetite for the truth as insatiable as a zombie's diet, Georgia--George--Mason and her brother, Shaun, have climbed the ranks of news bloggers around the world. Their ratings have everything to gain from their recent invitation to join a senator's political campaign. Now they're on the road providing coverage of what's promising to be the campaign trail for the next President of the United States of America. There's only one problem: wherever they go, KA begins breaking out, putting the team at risk. Will they survive to see their candidate win the Republican ticket?

Feed is Seanan McGuire's third published book, but first under the pen name Mira Grant. Fans of her October Daye books will recognize some similarities between the two series. Mainly, these are minor--writers will invariably develop quirks that nuance their writing. Georgia is an independent, no-nonsense workaholic with a license that requires her to carry a gun and a disease that makes it impossible for her to cry. Clearly Grant likes writing strong female protagonists. They lean toward the flinty end of the spectrum and stop just short of growling when not amused.

It might appear at first that the inability to cry is going a bit overboard. It isn't necessary to literally remove a reaction stereotypically associated with the female gender to show how tough she is, but Georgia makes it clear how frustrating Retinal KA really is. She wants access to that human reaction and is frequently reminded of the deprivation, however much reliant she is on it when the situation requires stoicism. Here is a character fighting against two polarities. Her tears were stolen and without the necessary moisture, she can't even "tear up" about it. Add to this being adopted by parents making the gesture for the ratings and Georgia's developed into a very sympathetic character. She's had a difficult life--who wouldn't, growing up in a world where fear of contagion has kept people indoors and glued to their computer screens? What makes her--and her fellow bloggers, Shaun and Buffy--different is knowing when to put fear and terror aside to keep living.

How they earn that living is very interesting. When established media proved untrustworthy reporting the first outbreak, the world turned to bloggers. Bloggers spoke for the common good--as much to inform themselves as the frightened public. They helped make sense of the unexplained chaos breaking out across the nation. Enter Shaun and Georgia, sponsors willing to fund their efforts, and After the End Times was born. Grant manages to build a convincing news body which isn't too far from the truth. Some people already rely enormously on the internet and trust amateur bloggers for any number of needs. Grant's astute observations integrate this relationship with her own universe to mesh into the working framework of her narrative.

Grant's characters are solid; her universe well-established. It's so established that readers may become as exasperated over the meticulous mention of blood testing kits and procedure as the characters were to get tested. Grant has thought of everything--not just the small details to consider when and how an outbreak could occur. Feed is politics-heavy, not just because George and Shaun are on the campaign trail. Kellis-Amberlee is cause to reconsider things like the death penalty (why kill someone when a dormant virus goes live at death, thus endangering the public at large), gun control laws, pet ownership, and public gatherings. Playing in the backyard now depends on the danger level your neighborhood has been zoned for. Presidential candidates are made or broken on a campaign trail riddled with archaic practices now seen as brave instead of expected.

I do have one, and only one, thing to nitpick about. George's relationship with her brother Shaun was a bit too unrealistic for me. I say this only because I have a brother and we're pretty inseparable, but would never share the same bed with each other, let alone the same room. I suppose it's a bit immature of me, but I couldn't relate to certain aspects of their relationship and so didn't appreciate how close they were as much as I could have. Other readers (who have siblings) may feel otherwise--I can only hope they do. After all, this is a fault of my own. About as close to understanding as I came was realizing they also had a working relationship that functioned best under those circumstances. And in the end, they were a strong pair. I can't complain too much.

With Feed, Mira Grant proves she's an author to be reckoned with. The book may be lengthy (almost 600 pages), but we have to remember it's the first in a self-contained trilogy. There's such a large and complex story to tell--a lesser book would not be this involved. If readers haven't already started paying attention to Seanan McGuire because of her October Daye books, Feed will do the trick. There may be similarities between it and her other books--mysterious murders, resilient and accident-prone female protagonist with ready access to pain medication and a constant need for good night's rest, deranged bad guy, suspect good guys--but you also can't let yourself miss a book where one of the main characters runs around in a chain-mail shirt for fun, can you? And, there's a kitty. You can't beat kitties.

I do not know when its sequel, Deadline, will be out, but I'm looking forward to it. I hear it has epileptic teacup bulldogs.

Feed is set in the year 2040, twenty-six years after two viruses merging caused the zombie apocalypse. Zombies in this world are just an accepted annoyance to be avoided, like mosquitoes. Georgia and Shaun, sister and brother blogger journalists, get a revolutionary job offer - to be part of a promising presidential candidate's press campaign. Except the zombies might not be the only dangers out there.

I loved the twist Mira Grant used in this zombie novel. The virus cause for zombies is everywhere and part of everyone. As soon as one dies for any reason, BAM! They are a zombie. There are intricate laws and personal rules for the treatment of people who are injured. Animals over 40 lbs also reanimate. So there are no pets, you can't eat those animals for food, you can't go into the wilderness, ect. Mira Grant created this fantastic world, that was simply a joy to read the complexity of.

The story, however, focuses on journalistic blogging and the politics of a presidential candidate. These topics were only somewhat interesting to me. Feed is 560 pages long and I lost interest in the story about ¾ the through. It did have an exciting finish with an unexpected twist, but for me the story was just way too long and too slow. I considered not finishing it, but after 450 pages I felt rather committed. Feed is the first in a new series. I will probably take a look at the sequel, Blackout. But unless it is mind-blowingly thrilling and suspenseful, I don't think I will be investing more time into this series.

Conclusion:
This is a fascinating original series about a post-apocalyptic zombie world. So if zombies are your thing, this will definitely entertain you. But the slow pace and length of Feed makes it a definite try-before-you-buy for me.

I think it's important to distinguish really early on that this book is not really about zombies. Sure, the aftermath of the zombie outbreak is paramount to the story, but zombies themselves are not really the focus. Rather, the book is about conspiracy, politics, intrigue, and humanity's good intentions gone horribly awry.

As other reviewers have gone over the plot in great detail, I'll skip the bulk of the summation, but in short, the book is about a future where we've cured cancer, cured the common cold, and accidentally unleashed the hell that is the zombie "apocalypse." The world isn't ended, but it's certainly changed. Our story follows a group of bloggers who get their big break -- Following a presidential campaign in the wake of "The Rising." In this future, blogs are the last bastion of the Truth with a capital T, and the group of bloggers we follow is led by Georgia "George" Mason, a "Newsie" who takes this truth very seriously. With her is her adopted brother, Shaun, who is an "Irwin," bloggers who take serious risks to get a great story. As I'm sure you can guess by the length of the book, the plot thickens in a huge way.

I'll start my feedback with "The Bad," which is a pretty small complaint. The book is a lot longer than it needs to be. A good chunk of the book is in the form of blog entries from either George, Shaun, or Buffy, their "Fictional." (It's just what it sounds like.) This format is pretty cool, and definitely lends us some depth to the characters, but it really isn't necessary to the extent it's presented. Shaun and George, especially, are very well fleshed out without these entries, and I feel like they could have been used more effectively in short bursts. There were a few really excellent blog entries (especially one near the end... No spoilers, but it made me cry on the bus home, and I'm an adult woman. It's pretty powerful.), but for the most part, they only add a small amount, and really take away from the movement of the story.

However, I am pretty happy with the book overall. For one thing, it has enough little references to make it read somewhat like a love letter to the zombie genre in general, ie : the popularity of the name George/Georgia/Georgette in the wake of the Rising, George Romero's zombie being used to further research. There's enough subtlety to this that those not into the genre may miss things -- For example, Shaun may seem like a common name, but I mean... Shaun of the Dead? Yes? That pleased me. It also takes what is wrong and simplified in the zombie genre and really ramps it up a notch. Zombie outbreak caused be a virus? Not exactly -- It's caused by two antiviruses combining to create a horribly virulent strain of a brand new virus. It's a pretty cool twist, and while I'm sure it's been done before, it's incredibly well put together. Granted, that probably added to the length in a big way, but in this regard, I don't mind the extra reading. It's interesting to see the epidemiology in this case.

I loved the character development. People have criticized Shaun and George's somewhat unbelievable relationship, but if you consider that these are two adopted kids that have grown up with, really, just each other to truly rely on and truly form a connection to in a world where every day means the potential for a horrible death (or undeath, as it could be), it's not all that far-fetched. Another noteworthy connection was that between Rick and Lois -- I won't spoil it, but it's incredibly touching and sad.

I don't think the book is perfect -- It did drag a bit, and, if you're looking for a lot of action, this isn't necessarily for you. The action that exists is great, but it is relatively sporadic. I've been hearing that the second book in the series has more zombie related action, and I plan on starting it soon. However, the overall feel of this book is just really great. I really did cry on the bus, and I felt physically sick and tense at a few parts. I highly recommend reading it if you're into realistic "outbreak" scenarios, or if you're a fan of the zombie genre who isn't really feeling like a straight book o' violence. Definitely recommend borrowing it from a library to start, but I know I'll be picking it up for my personal library.

There are zombies. There's some gore, though not as much as you might think. And yes, some people (and animals) die in highly unpleasant ways. Still, I don't think of Feed by Mira Grant as a horror novel. It's science fiction in both the extrapolative and speculative sense, and a fine example of both.

A little term definition is in order here. Extrapolative and speculative SF have sometimes been referred to, respectively, as the "if this goes on" and "what if" types of science fiction. An extrapolative story looks at our world as it is today, examines current trends, and makes educated guesses as to what will happen next. A speculative story posits one Big Change, and explores how that change will affect the rest of the world.

In Feed, that Big Change is the Kellis-Amberlee virus, an engineered and mutated plague with the nasty habit of animating the corpses of those it infects, and using the time before the body collapses completely to a) feed, and b) spread the infection. Hence, zombies. In the Feed timeline, the first spread of Kellis-Amberlee, and the Rising that followed, occurred in 2014. It's now 2039, and the world is, as you might expect, a very different place. It's a world where the CDC carries the highest level of governmental authority, a world where Alaska has been abandoned, and a world where a bullet to the brain is far, far preferable to death by natural causes, and everyone knows it.

The extrapolation? That comes from the protagonists, Georgia and Shaun Mason. They're a brother and sister team of bloggers, and bloggers have become the primary source of news and information for the majority of the remaining population. We see how online news gathering and reporting (among other things) has come fully of age, with a feel for how people and organizations pursue ratings and status, and how those organizations function. We also see the technology used, though for my taste the advances shown there were actually on the conservative side.

The structure on which all this extrapolation and speculation is built is the 2040 United States Presidential race. Senator Ryman, a Republican candidate, invites the Masons to travel with and cover his campaign. Beyond that, it's a trip I encourage you to take for yourself.

"Mira Grant" is the not-at-all-secret pen name of Seanan McGuire, whose urban fantasy novels have landed her on this year's final Campbell Award ballot. Her greatest strengths under both names are in world building and characterization. The world here is believable and engrossing, and the infodumps are relatively unintrusive. The characters are fully formed, with individual voices, beliefs, and attitudes. I grew to care about them deeply, so much so that at one point I likely would have yelled "No!" if I hadn't been reading on a crowded plane, and at another I had to put down the book for a minute to wipe my eyes.

McGuire/Grant's weakest area before now, the one that's been the target of the most criticism, has been plotting, particularly where it comes to building and resolving mysteries. That's still a little bit of an issue, in that the villain of the book is too cartoonishly obvious, but Feed displays a more developed sense of pacing than her previous work, and carries the reader along, sometimes at breathtaking speed.

Feed is the first volume of the "Newflesh" trilogy, so there are a couple of key questions that remain unanswered for now. But this book has a clear, satisfying end, so the wait for next year's Deadline (which has already been delivered to the publisher) isn't too onerous.

This is an outstanding book. Highly recommended.

First, let me be clear, this is not a young adult novel despite what other reviewers have stated. While the main characters can occasionally feel a bit juvenile, they are, in fact, adults (23 or so) and behave in adult-like ways. The target group for this book is probably not, in fact, zombie enthusiasts, but rather the type of people who rely heavily on Jon Stewart and The Daily Show for their news or spend copious amounts of time on the internet maintaining their blogs. If that amounts to 'Young Adult' in some people's opinion, they need to read more. (I'm a Youth Services focused librarian. I think I can recognize the difference, thanks for asking.)

Anyway, on with the review. I gave it three stars. I practically loved the book. So why 3?

The dialogue (internal, mostly, it seems at times) is repetitive. Georgia likes to keep reiterating the fact that her brother, Shaun (Shaun of the Dead anyone?), will probably die before her because he's an Irwin (as in Steve Irwin) and likes to poke things with sticks. Great. There's some potential action right there, should Shaun decide to find something to poke, preferably the taken over by virus type of thing, aka the Zombie. We also keep getting the same information over and over about Georgia's medical condition, retinal KA which is a version of the zombie virus that is limited to her eyeballs and forces her to wear glasses all the time just about and constantly explain how much an inconvenience it is. And then there's the excessive blood testing, also known as finger pricking that goes on. Not much actual zombie battling, though at least it's a bit different what with contact being a trigger for instant conversion and all.

But dialogue and repetive descriptions aside, this is a trilogy starter. It's a background book. It could be great (see The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins or Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld), but it's only sort of middling. We get all the info we'll probably need in background for the next two books and we get some character motivation for later on seeing as, surprise or not, some serious deaths occur. It's informative and witty and culturally relevent to now with a slap in the face as an aside.

So, bluntness aside, and the fun cultural relevencies which may or may not be true come 2040, the brains (pardon the phrase) comes from the fact that this is not really a zombie novel. It's a survival story. It's apocalyptic and full of conspiracy enough to almost make it a thriller. The writing may not be perfect, but it flows and makes terrorism into zombie chow. What we have is a novel that illustrates the fears of our current times and shifts them into the future where an attractive senator has a shot at becoming president despite the crazy world around him and his press crew.

This is a book about the freedom of the press, the freedom of speech, and the fact that technology can't always save us. Should you read it? Sure, if you want. I won't say you shouldn't and I won't say you should, because, really, I'm not in it for the ratings. I'm just happy to be able to have my say. Strangely, I don't care if no one reads or comments on this review. I'm not facing a Zombie Apocalypse for ratings now, am I?

Other reviews have described the plot, so no point in going over that again.

What keeps this book in the so-so realm rather than the great realm is quite simple. First of all, the characters are somewhat stereotyped. There is the tech geek named Buffy who is 22 but of course knows more about tech stuff than any professional. There is the fun loving brother who is adventurous but whose character is never developed beyond his affection for taking absurd risks and making low-grade smart alec comments about it. So you have numerous scenes where zombies approach people and he banters with his sister despite the fact he is in deadly danger. The real soldiers and security men get scared but of course our 24 year old hero does not and instead laughs it all off.

Then there is the sister, who is the main character. We spend more time having her talk about her sunglasses and why she has to wear them to protect her eyes from harsh light than anything else. Again, she is 24 but smarter than everyone, cooler than everyone, more calm under fire than a seasoned soldier etc...... Wow, three kids who are smarter and more cool than anyone else. And they live at home.

And of course they speed around in their high tech van with thousands of dollars of equipment, much of it of higher grade than even the professionals have. Sound a little bit like Scooby Do? It is.

There is also not much development emotionally from the real characters. They see people get ripped apart, attend the senator's daughter's funeral, they even lose people they know.....and never a real emotion other than stoic coolness. You can argue they are seasoned pros, but at least in a dumb show like the A-team no one died and so the characters never had to be anything other than stoic. Here there is death and real danger, and yet no emotional response.

Too much time also spent on tech-talk and descriptions of people turning on their cameras, and cameras being hidden inside buttons of clothing and such. Again, the tech girl is so good at hiding her high tech toys that even the pros can not detect them.

I think this would be a fun book for a teen to read. This idea of the high school and college kids who are more adult than adults, more cool and poised than professionals, less emotional under horrifying events than anyone else, and wise beyond their years is the stuff of lots of teen targeted fiction and television.

If you want characters with any depth beyond that of the Scooby Do characters, this is not your book. If you want guns blazing zombie killing, this is not your book.

I think the author is trying to do more than the typical zombie book and I applaud that, since zombie novels are generally pretty crummy, but in the end these characters come across as about as well developed as the characters in a movie like Predator.

It might make a cool movie and then all the tech stuff would just be background detail rather than something we have to hear about over and over, like those stupid sunglasses.

Zombies are the perfect lodestar for modern anxieties. Staring at their iPads, iPhones, Blackberries, GPS devices, plasma screens, laptop screens---zombies everywhere you look. And the zombie threat is anxiety. The zombie is weak, you push him down and flee. The zombie doesn't run, he shambles; you outrun him easily. Then you stop because you're tired. The zombie isn't tired, he's still coming. And he's brought some friends. Constant, nagging, anxiety. The zombie is the ultimate suicide bomber--he's the suicide bomber that suicide can't stop.

The problem, of course, is that zombies are impossible. Wise authors throw up their hands; the characters in World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War constantly lament that science has been unable to crack even the simplest questions about the origin and nature of the zombie virus. Or you can have something more realistic that mimics the zombie apocalypse; see Sleepless: A Novel or Hater.

Mira Grant (a pseudonym for Seanan McGuire, Rosemary and Rue (October Daye, Book 1)) chose to buck convention and provide an excruciatingly detailed virological backstory involving aerosol distribution of viruses that are individually benign but when combined--hey two great tastes!--turn into the zombie virus.

On the upside, this allows Grant to explore, almost to the point of fetish, the link between blood and disease. The biohazard bags, the fear of sharps, and the constant blood tests. It adds a fascinating extra wrinkle to the zombie story, channeling our modern fears of AIDS, Hep C and all the rest.

On the downside, the narrative is mired in the constantly shifting manifestations of the virus. Everybody has it, even horses! Except it's dormant! Except when it's not! And some people have active infections in ... their eyes! Zombie eyes! The effort to create a patina of credibility winds up doing just the opposite.

Lurking behind all the tiresome backing and filling to explain zombies, there's a pretty good novel about the balance between terror and security, information and safety, blogs and print media. That last story line is a little jarring when set in 2040---print newspapers are still treating blogs as upstarts three decades from now? And blogs are still recognizable? Leaving aside the zombies, technology and society appear realistically rooted in, say, 2012.

So, this book is heavy on the tiresome science, light on the zombies, and doesn't envision a future with any novel features other than zombies.

On the upside, it's a pretty affecting and thrilling story. The writing is vivid, the characters are weird but believable, and the reader quickly sympathizes with them. That makes up for a lot of the deficiencies. I look forward to the sequel which, I hope, will be lighter on the exposition and heavier on the anxieties inherent in the zombie apocalypse.

Feed is an interesting and enjoyable book, but one with flaws.

The central premise of Feed is one we are all familiar with from horror movies - there has been a zombie apocalypse. A man-made virus (two, in fact) that get loose in the populace turn the carriers to mindless virus-feeding machines.

The book takes place a few decades later. The reality of feral zombies, and the fact that any mammal over 40 pounds that dies is going to turn into one, has had time to sink in and for society to try to find ways around it.

Enter our heroes, a trio of bloggers. In much the same way that the traditional media in the US didn't start reporting on Iranian unrest until it was well underway, newspapers and TV fell down on reporting and assisting people in Grant's zombie apocalypse. The facts in the case were distributed by bloggers. In the wake of the trouble, bloggers organized, and are at the forefront of real-time reporting.

The crew of After the End Times win a contract to follow a Presidential hopeful on the campaign trail. On the way, we learn a lot about the society, blogging, and zombies. We also learn that the candidate and his family are the targets of a deadly conspiracy.

The story and characters are engaging and believable. The villain of the piece is a bit one-dimensional, and the candidate comes off as too-good-to-be-true.

Where the book really fails is in world building. The broad strokes of the world and society are pretty good. The details suffer from a lack of consistency. In one instance we learn that a piece of technology costs "more than a blogger makes in a year." Later in the book the main character says she'll buy a new one with her Christmas money. In one instance, security precautions are draconian and extremely overdone. Later (sometimes involving the same groups) security is much more casual. All in all it gives the story a frustratingly slapped together feel that could have been avoided with better editing.

I enjoyed the story enough that I will probably read Grant's next book.

This is a very original and entertaining take on the zombie genre. I enjoyed the world that was created, showing how the world has adapted to a future where zombies are just a part of everyday life. Focusing on a presidential campaign with how to deal with the reality of zombies as one of the major issues of the day was a fresh take. I wish there had been more focus on some of the candidates. The author spends many pages describing the various mini cameras and blogging techniques, which, for me, became tedious after awhile. At a certain point, I felt like I understood that aspect of this world, and didn't need anymore of that exposition. But that's a minor quibble, I still really enjoyed the book.

The book is actually fairly light on zombie action, which is ok by me, my favorite aspect of the zombie plague is how it affects humans dealing with the situation. The zombies are more in the background, an ever present threat, but not the main focus of the story. If you saw the length of the book, and expected a lot of zombie carnage, then you'll be a little disappointed. We get some great characters, and I really liked Georgia, the girl narrating the story. Her friend, that gave herself the nickname 'Buffy' was also one of my favorites. I really didn't much care for the Shaun character, which is why I'm not sure if I'll read the rest of the books in the series. It's clear at the end that he will be taking on a larger role in future stories, so even though I enjoyed this book, I might be out on future installments. We'll see though, I might not be able to resist when the next one comes out.

Zombies have become a new norm in Mira Grants novel, Feed. Reliable news comes from the internet from bloggers, not from CNN, well if you want the true news that is. Our main characters are bloggers recording the world as it now exists having their journal licenses and a gift for getting down and deep into the truth. We follow Georgia and Shaun, adopted siblings down a path that has a surprising ending.

Anyone interested in the zombie genre will greatly enjoy this book and those who want to give the genre a try would do well by starting here.