Feed by Mira Grant

Story Line - 5

Writing Style - 5

Characters - 4.5

Excitement Factor - 5

Believability for type and topics - 5

Similarity to other books - 5

Cover art - 5

Title Relevance - 5

Goodreads users gave this book a 3.91. I think it was more deserving of a 4.94.

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Published in 2010.

Pages: 571.

Number of books by author: 18 Novels; This is book 1/3 in the Newsflesh Trilogy.

Genre: YA Sci-Fi.

When George and her brother Shaun get the opportunity of a lifetime to be members of the press for Presidential Candidate Senator Paul Ryman, they think they've got it made from here on out. But what they don't realize is that someone is out to kill members of their team. When people start dying, they start investigating - and they can't believe their ears.

You may like this book if you like the following sub-genres:

• Politics

• Journalism

• Zombie Outbreak

• Futuristic Stories

Let's just say I find the whole, zombie apocalypse thing to be a joke. This book? Definitely NOT a joke. I loved this book. It wasn't as "zombified" as I thought it might be, which helped me to power through.

The story line was really great - you've got a small team of journalists who have, to this point, mostly followed local news and the zombie apocalypse as they know it. But they get the opportunity to follow Senator Ryman on his Presidential campaign, and trouble ensues. Now, maybe it seems a bit basic, but this book is action packed - from the first pages to the last (which definitely leave you high & dry... which means you have to buy Deadline to feel any sense of closure). I anticipated this book to be super sci-fi, but Grant did a great job of explaining how someone (or some animal) becomes a zombie (a man-made infection that develops at time of death). The infection was made as an act of terrorism - and most countries teamed up with the US to ensure that the threat of a zombie outbreak stayed out of their country after the US was wiped out. Every single day these journalists are with you, they're fighting some battle. And given that we're a few months out from an election, it probably made things more exciting (especially because one of the candidates in the book wanted to make America great again... I kid you not, they predicted Trump's idiocracy).

The characters were almost spot on. The one discrepancy throughout the entire novel, which drove me insane, was that they stated earlier on in the novel that Shaun & George didn't need a lot of sleep. But then we hear constant complaining, mostly about George, that she didn't get enough rest. It was something so small, but it really was annoying to re-read it throughout the novel. Otherwise, the characters were really well done. The sarcasm was well felt; the sibling rivalry and protection was done really well. The secondary characters - Mihar, Governor Tate, Emily - all these people still had a very distinct personality. Grant did a great job of displaying Senator Ryman as a real candidate who know about politics (which leads me to believe that maybe Grant has some background in poli-sci or is a politic buff) and how to be a crowd pleaser. I was impressed, overall, with the characters. The 'rents role was interestingly executed; it's not something I would've thought about, but then I started thinking about to shows like SVU & Criminal Minds where we've seen this parent/child dynamic play out. I was a bit

lost on why they played such a crucial role in the beginning but we never heard from them for the rest of the novel; which was very different than their helicopter parenting style. There's no way these "kids" would've gone off and had zero contact from these parents.

The characters were written in a way that made you feel close to them. Which is how I ended up in [almost] tears when one of the characters has to leave us. The writing style was basic, but very detailed. I felt in some places it might've been a bit too detailed (mostly when we were being told how the virus manifests and grows and how it came about). I'm not a big science person, but it was night that we had that information... if it was boring for me - I think someone who enjoy sci-fi novels would've been all over these sections. The writing was propelling us, because as great as the story line was, if the writing was done poorly, this book easily could've ended up on my #discard shelf. But the writing made you feel like you were on this campaign journey with the team. But it was exciting - and not like, pedal to the medal the entire book, but you were always in a build up for the next thing. You'd climax in a section and then you'd descend down into a calm moment before the next thing started to pile up in your face. Which is how life is - and how I would assume a campaign works... you're up and down all the time. I don't read a lot of sci-fi as I've stated before, but I can't imagine that another book combines this level of political involvement with a zombie outbreak. It, for me, was a unique read. I've not heard of any sci-fi novels doing this.

The title originally confused me. I was thinking about a news feed -- like on Facebook or Twitter. I didn't think of it as in a blog feed, which is exactly what the RSS symbol was doing. The blood mixed in with the grungy cover art was really powerful, especially at the end of the book because you finally understand how important their blog was, and how important it was to the story line.

This is hands down a series that I'm excited to add to my TBR and finish up.

#trilogy #thrillerthursday #womancrushwednesday