In Review: Feed by Mira Grant (Seanan McGuire)

Feed (Newsflesh Trilogy)

·                   Paperback: 592 pages

·                   Publisher: Orbit

·                   Language: English

·                   ISBN-13: 978-1841498980

Feed is the first book in the Newsflesh Trilogy, and a refreshing look at the zombie genre. It takes place in the future, twenty five years after Kellis-Amberlee, a pair of viruses that were suppose to save humanity from the common cold and cancer instead began bringing back the dead to prey on the living.

But it isn’t about the zombies, it’s about the life that’s left after the zombie outbreak has gone from being news to being history. In this world the bloggers are now the real journalists, after regular paper journalists failed to do their jobs during the outbreak, and Georgia (George) Mason and her brother Shaun Mason, have just been given the biggest ratings boost of their lives, they’ve just joined a senator’s political campaign, but what they’ve gotten themselves into, they may not be able to live to talk about. Wherever they go, KA outbreaks follow, putting everyone at risk.

George is tough as nails, almost too tough at times, maybe it’s the whole not being able to cry because she has KA in her retinas, that makes her almost perpetually pissed, but she’s a little abrasive. Personally, I love a strong heroine, but when the girl is constantly on the brink of growling down throats, it makes me wish for heroine who’s a little softer. Her only soft spot seems to be for her brother Shaun, which in a way is sweet, but in another makes me feel dirty. But she’s had a difficult life, what with zombies, and parents who only have kids to put them in danger and boost their ratings, and you cut her and her team which is comprised of her charismatic brother Shaun, and their friend and tech god Buffy, some slack.

All in all, the characters are solid, even the prickly George is very believable. The universe is well laid out. And although all the blood testing can be tedious at times, it is very realistic. Politics plays a huge role, not just because of the presidential campaign, but also because of the restrictions that a life full of zombies brings, when simple things like owning a dog that could possibly cause an outbreak are big concerns.

This is a phenomenal first book in the series, and I cannot wait to see what comes next. Some of the plot twists should have been expected, but they’re the type that almost never happen, you end up more shocked when they do. And I applaud Seanan McGuire (whose pen name is Mira Grant) for actually pulling those triggers. I highly recommend this one!