Reread it in preparation for Deadline. I still loved it, it was still as awesome as the first time. But I tell you -- it kind of sucks when you know what will happen and you can't do anything to stop it. My heart broke again. 3

If you have a copy of this book and you haven't read it yet...well, why haven't you?! READ IT.

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Original review at Pinoy Pop

It was a normal afternoon at work. My colleagues and I were preparing to attend a required meeting when the boys started discussing their last Left 4 Dead 2 gaming session. I listened to them talk about how hard it was to get through whatever level they were in and how they blasted the zombies in the game, then I interrupted them with a question: “What if a zombie apocalypse actually happens?”

That simple question started a string of discussions about what could happen if zombies actually walk among us, hungry for our brains. We talked about the zombie apocalypse at length and what we would do: where to hide, how to kill zombies effectively, what weapons to use given our location, how to survive, even what to do if one of us were to get infected. Answers drew from sources of zombie wisdom ranging from movies like Zombieland to games like Resident Evil and even Plants vs. Zombies, all discussed with absolute seriousness, as if a zombie invasion was a real possibility.

Spoiler Warning (Nothing major, and the ending remains unspoiled.)

In Mira Grant’s Feed, the first book in the Newsflesh trilogy, zombies have become a part of the normal everyday existence. In 2014, cures for the common cold and for cancer were developed, from modifying strains of rhinovirus and filovirus, respectively. These cures were made to attack the original virus and cells that caused the sickness, and then lie dormant in the system until the illness threatened to come back again. It was a joyful breakthrough in the field of medicine, but the scientists couldn't have known was that the combination of these two cures would form an airborne virus that could raise the dead. No one knew when that first mutation occurred, but the new virus spread quickly and soon everyone had acquired it, the virus waiting to be amplified through death or direct fluid contact with any of the infected.

More than two decades later, the virus, dubbed as Kellis-Amberlee remains a threat. Instead of the virus wiping out the entire human population, humans have managed to push back with help from the bloggers who first spread the news of what they call as “The Rising.” While traditional media were hesitant to warn the people of the threat because of government ties and a general policy of denial, bloggers fearlessly reported the news in all parts of the world, sometimes even risking their lives to get the story, and this helped people survive.

Georgia Mason is one of those bloggers. Together with her brother Shaun, and their friend Buffy, they form the main team of news blog "After the End Times." Georgia is a Newsie, a stick-to-the-facts news reporter who believes that everyone deserves to know the truth and nothing but. Shaun, an Irwin (named after the late Steve Irwin), enjoys poking zombies with sticks and chasing them around on camera, and Buffy is a Fictional, providing poetry and stories for their site while double-hatting as their all-around tech girl. The three were selected to join the young Republican Senator Peter Ryman on his presidential campaign, a first in the history of all campaigns since the Rising. Ryman remembered being betrayed by the news because they didn’t do enough to warn the people of the zombie threat, and so he wanted to give bloggers equal standing in his campaign, as a way to thank them. In a career where ratings are everything, this opportunity was the team’s big break, and Georgia, Shaun, and Buffy became instant celebrities in the blogosphere. Just as they were starting to get used to their newfound popularity, the campaign and the Senator's family are attacked. Georgia and her team digs deeper, and soon realize the scale of the conspiracy behind the attacks. Georgia and her team stick to their guns – literally and figuratively – and vow to let the people know the truth, despite the risks.

Feed first caught my eye because of the RSS logo on the cover, done in blood. When you’ve been blogging for so long, it’s hard to miss it when something so familiar is reimagined. When I found out it was about zombies, I couldn’t help but exclaim, “Oh cool!” I’m not really a fan of horror, but I sort of grew up with zombies--er, figuratively speaking. I can still remember the first time I watched my brother play Resident Evil 1, and the horror I felt when I saw the first zombie sequence in the game. After that, I started to have this weird fascination for zombies, and I couldn’t stop watching my brother play the game. I love playing House of the Dead and Plants vs. Zombies whenever I get the chance, and while I never got to watch Night of the Living Dead or other zombie movies (it’s either I’m too chicken to do so, or I just don’t have the time), I’ve watched all Resident Evil movies at least twice. While I've never had the chance use them in any of my novels because of my chosen genre, zombies are also a popular plot device during National Novel Writing Month, and they always come up during plotting exercises. So when I found out about Feed, I knew I just had to have it -- so much that I got myself a Kindle app in my iPod and bought the book since local bookstores don’t carry it yet. Bloggers, a presidential campaign and zombies? I'm in!

Overall, the novel had a video game/movie feel. It’s told from Georgia’s point of view for most of the novel, with blog entries and quotes in between chapters to show her brother’s point of view. Being a Newsie, Georgia loves the facts, and she tells the facts straight out. The post-apocalyptic zombie world was described in so much detail that I felt like I too lived in their world. The level of detail ensured that there was never a “huh?” moment in the book. While this did result in a certain amount of wordiness, I didn’t mind, but other people may – the actual book is 600 pages long, and that can be intimidating. The author, however, makes use of a lot of pop culture references that make it easy for people from our generation to read it. From the names (George as in Romero, Shaun from Shaun of the Dead and Buffy as in the Vampire Slayer), to references to reality TV, social networking and of course, blogging, my inner geek was overjoyed because I could relate. For non-techie readers, worry not: Georgia doesn't delve too much into the actual technical aspects of their systems, so any technical talk stops before it gets too complicated, but there’s enough for the readers to know that they have really cool equipment.

Wordiness aside, Feed was actually quite...well, awesome. It’s a political thriller written over a horror backdrop, where the presence of the zombies was used to compare how the living can still do more damage than the undead. There were only a handful of zombie encounters in the entire novel, but each of the situations felt so real, that it gave the impression that the zombies were everywhere. Mira Grant allows the readers to think that everything is going fine…and then throws a huge curve ball that changes the game. It’s a thrill ride in 600 pages: I was intrigued, elated, shocked, horrified and most of all heartbroken all throughout the story, and…for me, that's what makes a story awesome.

Georgia, Shaun, Buffy and the rest of the characters were a treat to read. I never had a problem distinguishing one voice from another, and even the minor characters have their own quirks to make them memorable. I liked Georgia and Shaun’s relationship as siblings, having each other's back until the end. My favorite character in this book is Buffy, though, and I liked that their fiction department head was also their all-around tech girl. Who says tech-geeks can’t be writers?

My only peeve in the cast of characters in Feed is the villain. I don’t know if years of watching crime shows has made me sharper at figuring out whodunit, or if the villain was really just a stereotypical bad guy, but it was easy to guess who it was. There was little flair in how the bad guy was defeated, too – it would have been more exciting if there was a bigger showdown at the end.

The conclusion, however, was definitely surprising, and quite heartbreaking. It took awhile for me to shake my sense of disbelief over what happened, and I admit: tears were shed. No major spoilers but let me say this: I have never read a novel that ended in this way.

Feed gives us a glimpse of how people in the media live, whether they work in traditional or new media. We’re no strangers to journalists being killed in the field, and Mira Grant effectively shows us how much these people risk their lives just to give us the truth. The people always have the right to know. After all, the truth can set people free. Georgia hit the nail on the head with this line from her blog:

The truth is only scary when you think part of it might be missing…if we didn’t have to fear the truths we didn’t hear, we’d lose the need to fear the ones we did.