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Apr 12, 2012

Feed (Newsflesh, Book 1)

Feed (Newsflesh, Book 1) by Mira Grant

I have a thing for zombies. I know, this is shocking news. That being said, there is a lot of media - and I mean a lot - in the genre I really despise. Poorly written books filled with unoriginal content. Terrible movies filled with bad acting that are also full of unoriginal content. Awful, awful, awful. Even so, I'll give anything zombie related a chance to wow me. Or even just not make me stop watching/reading a few minutes/pages in.

Within the first few pages of Feed, I knew I wasn't going to hate it. That was very promising.

From Amazon.com: The year was 2014. We had cured cancer. We had beat the common cold. But in doing so we created something new, something terrible that no one could stop. The infection spread, virus blocks taking over bodies and minds with one, unstoppable command: FEED.

NOW, twenty years after the Rising, Georgia and Shaun Mason are on the trail of the biggest story of their lives-the dark conspiracy behind the infected. The truth will out, even if it kills them.

 

It turns out, I didn't just not hate it. I loved it. I loved the characters - they were interesting and varied. The zombie back story was interesting and bordered on originality without going too far (and thus becoming unbelievable). The future tech is not so far advanced that you can't imagine that we'd make those kinds of advances in 20 years, but still manages to be new and interesting. All in all - very well done.

It also gave me my new favourite insult - Bright as a Box of Zombies


I really only have one complaint, and it's a minor one. It's the description of Shaun's style of reporting from Georgia. Not the actual description, but the repetition of it. We get it, Georgia. Shaun likes to poke zombies with sticks. You've told us 12 times (note: not actually, but I believe this number to be close), and the book started out with Shaun poking a zombie with a hockey stick. The point has been made. Lets move on now.


Now, lets talk about The Plot Twist. Well I guess there were two plot twists. Not the first one. The one at the end, with Georgia. A good plot twist you don't see coming. A great plot twist you don't believe it's happening while it's happening. I found myself thinking, No. What they're implying is about it happen, is not going to happen. No way. There's going to be some kind of surprise trickery that makes it not happen. And then it happened anyway, and I had to come to terms with it. The funny thing is it didn't really change the main plot of the story. It ended more or less exactly how I thought it was going to end. But, at the same time, it changed...I don't know. Something. The tone maybe, or the dynamic. I don't really know how to describe it. It changed nothing, and it changed everything. And I absolutely did not like it. Not at all. I know I said I only have one complaint. This isn't really a complaint, per se, it's a..I don't know what it is. I guess it just makes me wonder if I'll enjoy the other two books in the trilogy as much, in light of The Plot Twist. 


Prove me wrong, Mira Grant. Prove me wrong. 


On a scale from Totally Awesome to Horrifically Awful, I'd give it an Awesome. If there are two things I'm a sucker for its zombies and a well written trilogy. I can't wait to start the next one.



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