Feed by Mira Grant Series: Newsflesh #1
Published by Orbit on May 1st 2010
Genres: Fiction, Horror, Dystopian, Science Fiction, Action & Adventure
Pages: 608
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased
ISBN: 9780316122467
Reading Challenges: 2016 Horror Reading Challenge, COYER Summer Vacation
Buy on: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks
Goodreads
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.
FEED is the electrifying and critically acclaimed novel of a world a half-step from our own---a novel of geeks, zombies, politics and social media.
“The difference between the truth and a lie is that both of them can hurt, but only one will take the time to heal you afterward.”
Feed by Mira Grant is one of the first ebooks I bought on iBooks when I bought my first iPad five years ago. I was going through a zombie phase, yet for some reason I never got around to reading this book. Now all of these years later I finally have read it, and wonder what took me so long. Feed, like The Walking Dead, has zombies but is about more than the living dead. It’s about people, and the lengths they’ll go to survive. Some of these lengths help their fellow-man, while others are self-serving. It turns out, there are scarier things than the living dead.
The infection was created when scientist worked to cure cancer and the common cold. What they didn’t know, however, is that when the two cures mix they cause the dead to rise. Now twenty years have passed, and there seems to be no cure for the zombie virus in sight. Georgia and Shaun Mason are bloggers who decide to join up with a Presidential campaign and enhance their ratings. Along the way, they stumble into a conspiracy that just might kill them.
“This is the truth: We are a nation accustomed to being afraid. If I’m being honest, not just with you but with myself, it’s not just the nation, and it’s not just something we’ve grown used to. It’s the world, and it’s an addiction. People crave fear. Fear justifies everything. Fear makes it okay to have surrendered freedom after freedom, until our every move is tracked and recorded in a dozen databases the average man will never have access to. Fear creates, defines, and shapes our world, and without it, most of us would have no idea what to do with ourselves. Our ancestors dreamed of a world without boundaries, while we dream new boundaries to put around our homes, our children, and ourselves. We limit our potential day after day in the name of a safety that we refuse to ever achieve. We took a world that was huge with possibility, and we made it as small as we could.”
I really enjoyed the conversational tone of the writing. It felt as if I was talking directly with Georgia and Shaun, which made the story hard to put down. Readers go on a journey with these bloggers as they search for the truth, and find more danger around every corner. Grant wrote a suspenseful political thriller, and even got a few zombie attacks in along the way. If you are expecting mindless zombies chewing on the living, you’ll get that, but that’s not really what this book is about. It’s about the politics at play that allow some to profit off of this virus, while others suffer. Not only that, but it’s a spotlight on the cult of celebrity.
Georgia and Shaun live in a world where people are addicted to fear and reality. Reality shows, social media, and virtual celebrities are the norm. Bloggers just don’t report the news or their stories anymore. Now they’re licensed to go into hazardous areas, and carry firearms. This is a world where you can die just by getting on an elevator with someone you don’t know. I was pleasantly surprised at how thought-provoking this novel turned out to be, and can’t wait to read the next book in the trilogy.
About Mira Grant
Born and raised in Northern California, Mira Grant has made a lifelong study of horror movies, horrible viruses, and the inevitable threat of the living dead. In college, she was voted Most Likely to Summon Something Horrible in the Cornfield, and was a founding member of the Horror Movie Sleep-Away Survival Camp, where her record for time survived in the Swamp Cannibals scenario remains unchallenged.
Mira lives in a crumbling farmhouse with an assortment of cats, horror movies, comics, and books about horrible diseases. When not writing, she splits her time between travel, auditing college virology courses, and watching more horror movies than is strictly good for you. Favorite vacation spots include Seattle, London, and a large haunted corn maze just outside of Huntsville, Alabama.
Mira sleeps with a machete under her bed, and highly suggests that you do the same.
Mira also writes as Seanan McGuire.
Ohhh this so reminds me of how much I want to read this series! I LOVE ME SOME ZOMIES. Like, um, from a distance. In an actual zombie apocalypse I would probably be dead in a day. But that aside! I really enjoy zombie books and honestly haven’t tried enough of them! 😀 I’m also super keen for the conversational writing style. 🙂
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Cait @ Paper Fury recently posted…Should The “Special Snowflake” Trope Be Retired And Left 20,000 Leagues Underground Or Is It Still Fun?
Another great zombie series is Z. A. Recht’s The Morningstar Strain trilogy. I read the first book years ago, and recently bought the last two during Prime Day. I’ll probably re-read the first one so I can remember what happened, but the story is similar to Illuminae in that it’s told through emails and dossier files.
I did not realise Mira and Seanan where the same person! I bought Feed I think about two years ago, I really need to hurry about and read especially since there seems to be a new book in the series coming out. Thanks for sharing!
Heather @ Random Redheaded Ramblings recently posted…The Sunday Post #56 – 7th August 2016
Oh there is? Well, I guess I need to buy book 2 soon then. Have a great week!