Feed (Newsflesh, #1) in Fantasy-Faction.com

Apr 27, 2011 Mogsy rated it really liked it

Shelves: horror, post-apocalyptic, zombies, thriller-suspense

It was really tough to rate this one. My initial feelings on it were about a 3, until the events of the last 25% of the book made me decide to bump that up to a 4. In the end, I had a really good time with book. That said, while there were things I really liked about Feed, there were also several other factors that really annoyed me.

First for the good stuff: I love the premise behind the book, the zombies-meets-social-media theme and the world Mira Grant has created where the CDC is the most im It was really tough to rate this one. My initial feelings on it were about a 3, until the events of the last 25% of the book made me decide to bump that up to a 4. In the end, I had a really good time with book. That said, while there were things I really liked about Feed, there were also several other factors that really annoyed me.

First for the good stuff: I love the premise behind the book, the zombies-meets-social-media theme and the world Mira Grant has created where the CDC is the most important organization in the country, where children are trained in firearms as young as 7, where Alaska has been ceded to the infected, where one cannot go anywhere without submitting to half a dozen blood tests, and where the population has come to depend more on social media instead of the mainstream news to get their up-to-the-minute trusted news.

We get to meet a trio of bloggers -- Georgia "George" Mason, our narrator who identifies herself as a "Newsie", or someone who only goes after the cold, hard facts. Her brother Shaun, an "Irwin", who takes on the riskier side of zombie reporting, thriving on danger, adventure, and working up the crowd. Finally, there's Buffy, a "Fictional" whose contributions include writing poetry and serials and short stories for their site. Apparently, people living post-"Rising" are nuts for that kinda stuff, but hey, I guess I would be too if I were cooped up in the house all day hiding from the walking dead.

So at first, the story was good and the characters were good...but only to a point. Initially, I had a hard time getting a feel for the main characters, trying very hard to like them...until I just gave up and admitted to myself that I couldn't. All three characters played to stereotypes: Shaun the goof. Buffy the flake. George the straight up hard-nosed reporter. On top of that, I thought they were all kinda full of themselves. I didn't find them all that interesting, so it was difficult to care.

The story also felt very "telegraphed". As it unfolded, our three blogging protagonists accompany a Senator on his campaign to become the next president of the United States...and of course, bad things started happening. Thing is, I was able to predict the outcome before I even got halfway through the book. Also, because of the whole presidential campaign plot line, there's a good deal of political talk and it can hinge on a bit preachy, so just a caveat if you're not really into that kinda thing.

But like I said before, the second half of the book started picking up for me. Even though I felt it was little predictable, the action and tragedies and zombie attacks in Feed are described extremely well, and these sections of suspense really made up for it. And I have to admit, while I guessed the main plot, I still didn't see the finale coming.

As well, while the characters themselves were still flat to me, their relationships and the way they were handled, on the other hand, touched me emotionally. George and Shaun are not your typical siblings, and though their closeness sometimes borders on a little creepy, Mira Grant conveys their genuine love for each other so well that it's almost palpable, as well as their friendship with their co-blogger Buffy. When things really started ramping up later on in the story, the resulting dynamics were for me the best part of the novel.

Closing thoughts, this was a good book. I like the zombie-genre, but I'm also not a die-hard fan by any means, no pun intended. But if you are, then I'd say this is highly recommended. A must read, even. ...more

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Jan 21, 2011 Anthony rated it liked it

Shelves: horror, science-fiction, seanan-mcguire

The book starts off a bit rocky, in my opinion, with a lot of the world-building info repeated almost ad nauseum not just from chapter to chapter but occasionally from page to page. Most of the first section of the book (which is divided up into five distinct sections) feels like an info-dump. While it establishes the characters of Georgia, Shaun and Buffy very clearly, it also repeats so much information over and over again that you begin to wonder if Georgia, who narrates, is the reporter she' The book starts off a bit rocky, in my opinion, with a lot of the world-building info repeated almost ad nauseum not just from chapter to chapter but occasionally from page to page. Most of the first section of the book (which is divided up into five distinct sections) feels like an info-dump. While it establishes the characters of Georgia, Shaun and Buffy very clearly, it also repeats so much information over and over again that you begin to wonder if Georgia, who narrates, is the reporter she's built up to be. But if you can get past the first hundred pages, the narrative kicks in and the characters spend a lot less time repeating themselves. The baseline information about the world they live in has been driven home through repetition and the story can begin to move. The book gets good when it stops re-explaining how people get infected and what's been done to protect the populace and starts getting into what the book is really about: political machinations and the use of fear as a means of controlling the populace. Georgia and the team get an up-close-and-personal look at the political side of terrorism as well. The action sequences also get stronger, more pulse-racing, as the book goes along; it's almost like Grant knowingly saves her best action-prose for the end, although the fight in Eakly occurs relatively early in the book and contains at least one very tense moment.

To say too much more about the twists the book takes would be to spoil it for anyone who has not read it yet. I can say a few things. The encounters between Team Mason and the zombies start out almost mundane (see how silly we are, poking zombies with sticks to get higher ratings for our blog) and grow deadly serious (a multi-car-wreck has lasting effects on the team) right up to the very last pages. I was pretty sure I had tagged who was behind the terrorism early on, and I'm sure most astute readers will manage to figure it out too. But sometimes, knowing who the "big bad" is and knowing how events will reveal that "big bad" to the characters are two very different things, and the direction the reveal took very definitely surprised me. Each chapter ends, and each of the five sections begins, with quotes from the blogs of Georgia, Shaun, Buffy and Rick; flipping back through the book after I'd reached the end, I was not surprised to find that most of them gained a "you should have seen that coming, gentle reader" tone in hind-sight. If I have any complaint about those quoted passages, it is that they don't seem to have unique voices. For all the characters talk about how Newsies, Irwins and Fictionals approach the news with distinct voices, there wasn't anything particularly individual about the posts of Georgia, Shaun and Rick (Buffy is set apart because she's writing poetry about the events around them, not non-fiction reportage).

I can also say (and I doubt anyone would be surprised) that FEED is the first of a trilogy. I'm not sure how quickly I'll rush out to pick up book two, DEADLINE. I think FEED stands well enough on its own that I don't necessarily feel the need to see the story continued; I guess my decision will rest solely on how much I miss the surviving members of Team Mason by the time the new book hits the stands. ...more

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May 24, 2012 Blodeuedd Finland rated it liked it

Shelves: zombieapocalypse, apocalyptic

I did want more, this is after all Seanan McGuire we are talking about, but then nothing compare to her October books. I love those.

The book was well written, it threw a few punches that made me sit up but for me, yeah, me and thrillers are not exactly a couple. And that is what it was. Lots of politics as they were covering a candidate running for office, political conspiracies and newstalk. Eh, not my cup of tea, and it made some parts of this book frankly a bit boring.

It was still a good book ...more

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Aug 03, 2010 April Steenburgh rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I would like to say the zombies are what makes this book fantastic- after all, it does start with a guy poking a zombie with a stick- but what makes Feed so bloody amazing is the sheer scope of its humanity. The book takes human nature and tears it apart and shows you all the hidden bits you never wanted to know about. It will give you goosebumps. It will make you laugh. It will make you angry. It will make you cry. It is that well done.

It starts with an amazing world build. Humans cured cancer, ...more

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Feb 18, 2011 Benni rated it really liked it

Shelves: sff-horror, novels

After all these years, I'm still in love with zombies, and books like Feed help keep the love alive.

I loved the intricate post-post-apocalyptic world-building--very few zombie books seem to be set so far after the initial outbreak, so this was fresh. (I also loved the shout-out to the eccentrics in Berkeley; go Berkeley!) The technology wasn't as advanced as I'd peg 2040 tech to be, but then again rebuilding would have set things back. The explanations for the virus, the procedures that people ...more

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Dec 27, 2011 Danette Cole rated it really liked it

3 1/2 stars. This didn't have as much gore and horror as most books about zombies. The horror part was more about the people in politics lol. I will definitely read the next one though and would recommend for zombie fans. ...more

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Jul 03, 2012 Adam Shaeffer rated it really liked it

A great read that takes place in a very realistic world. Instead of being shocked by the rise of zombies, people are actually equipped with years of zombie movies, stories, and lore forming a foundation for survival. Consequently, this isn't a story about zombies; it's a story about *people* who just happen to live in a world where zombies exist and are a threat, but have become an unchangeable fact of life. They matter to the story, but they're not the focus, not the enemy that must be defeated ...more

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Mar 05, 2013 Jason Abay-Abay rated it really liked it

Greate twist on a the zombie genre...

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Apr 26, 2011 Neil rated it really liked it

Shelves: kindle, fantasy-faction

Really enjoyed this post-apocalypse zombie tale. For me this book really took off in the last third. The final seen in the van between Georgia and Shaun was simply heartbreaking. Right, off to poke some dead things with a stick…

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Mar 06, 2011 ChristinaJL rated it liked it

Shelves: fantasy, sci-fi, kindle, fantasy-faction-book-club

This was quite an interesting read, but not my cup of tea really as politics can sometimes bore me unless it's very well done and only plays a very small part of a novel. Also parts were a bit repetitive, eg the mention of sunglasses and the constant tests for the virus. ...more

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