Feed

Feed

by Mira Grant

SYNOPSIS:

First book in the series:
In 2014, two experimental viruses—a genetically engineered flu strain designed by Dr. Alexander Kellis, intended to act as a cure for the common cold, and a cancer-killing strain of Marburg, known as “Marburg Amberlee”—escaped the lab and combined to form a single airborne pathogen that swept around the world in a matter of days. It cured cancer. It stopped a thousand cold and flu viruses in their tracks.
It raised the dead.
Millions died in the chaos that followed. The summer of 2014 was dubbed “The Rising,” and only the lessons learned from a thousand zombie movies allowed mankind to survive. Even then, the world was changed forever. The mainstream media fell, Internet news acquired an undeniable new legitimacy, and the CDC rose to a new level of power.
Set twenty years after the Rising, the Newsflesh trilogy follows a team of bloggers, led by Georgia and Shaun Mason, as they search for the brutal truths behind the infection. Danger, deceit, and betrayal lurk around every corner, as does the hardest question of them all:
When will you rise?

Read More
10691
4.5
Book #1 in Series

I am used by now to read books that are great in the beginning, ok by the middle, and surprise the hell out of me all through the ending. Feed is that kind of book and even more.

I loved how it started (with such a great adventure), and I loved that feeling I got through the story, like I was part of it, finding more and more information about the world, the virus, the people involved. Yes, at some point it got to be a bit slow, but it was still full of useful information and there was still way too much to enjoy so I never got bored.

What did I expect?
Ahh.. zombies?! Duh!
I mean I am not a zombie fan, not at all, but this book was highly recommended to me so I said “What the hell, I am reading it, and I’m sure I’m gonna love it!

What did I get?
A lot more than that.
Because this story is not really about zombies, you know? It’s like saying that a book is about trees only because some scenes involve the main characters having fun in the park.. The trees are there, right, but the story is not really about them (ok, so maybe this is not such a good comparison because you don’t see many trees trying to kill you in any story whatsoever, but you get my point).
Same here.. There are zombies, and there is this virus transforming people into zombies when they die or get bitten/infected, but the story is more about these 3 characters – Georgia, Shaun, Buffy – and their blogging passion and their need to find the truth (all kind of truths).

(NOTE: please ignore all those scratches – if you read the book you know they are so not suppose to be on their skin.
Later Edit: I’ve updated the image to match the story better.)

The 3 of them were friends, working together in a blog network, and they were so happy to get involved in the greatest adventure of their life, being selected in the position of “pet bloggers” for Senator Ryman’s presidential campaign. What they never knew was how many dangers awaited for them.

Georgia Mason – smart, and honest with herself and the world.
She lived for the truth, she lived for the news, and she was pretty good at it. I like how she cared about her brother, Shaun, how she was always there to ‘rescue’ him when he was playing with the dead, and their adventures were awesome starting with the very first one.

“Our story opens where countless stories have ended in the last 26 years: with an idiot, in this case my brother Shaun, deciding it would be a good idea to go out and poke a zombie with a stick to see what happens”

Shaun Mason on the other hand was a bit childish, but he was also so damn cute, smart and caring, with a passion for danger and for ‘poking zombies with a stick ‘. I loved his relation with his sister because they knew each other so well, and their conversations were refreshing and funny as they kept joking around even in the hardest of the times. Their close relationship was all they both had, being raised by their adoptive parents that only cared about ratings and numbers, it always have been them vs. the world.. but then the world really turned against them, didn’t it?

This was by far the best duo I’ve read about in a while and they also made me want to cry (oh, don’t you EVER make me cry again, do you hear me?!!!).

There was this carousel of emotions (with the highs heavenly high and the lows so damn low) that left me feeling like I’ve been spinning around, and around, and around and.. I didn’t see it coming, no I didn’t.
And you know how you feel when you stop spinning around? You feel lost and confused, you need something to hold on to, and the only thing I know I can hold on to is the sequel, and I need to read it, because I simply need to know what happens next.

Buffy well, it’s hard to talk about her because she was mostly kept into the shadow. She was the one handling all the technological part – image, sound, servers, security – it was all Buffy’s work. I understood when she needed someone next to her, and I cared for her when she was afraid, but I wish I could have known her better. I don’t want to spoil her relationship with the other 2 and her role into the story, so I’ll leave it at this: she did surprise me.. a lot.

“She listened to all kinds of music, even the stuff that sounds like static and church bells. She played guitar really badly, but she meant every note.”

Now, the part that I didn’t like that much, was the one involving politics.. that part was so hard to get through. Of course, it was there to deliver more information about the settling, about the world, about how things worked.. not to mention that it was crucial into the story, with the 3 bloggers following the senator in his campaign, but at some point there was just too much settling and too little action and it made me yawn a bit and I put the book down a few times.

There would be some more things I loved or hated, but no, I can’t talk about them because they are all spoilers. But I loved the characters, the story, the writing is great too, so if you want to try it I don’t think you could possibly be disappointed. Really, you’ll like it (even love it) 🙂
… Oh, I’ve almost forgot to tell you how much I HATE needles. Oh yes I do! And I think that if you were a journalist and you were suppose to take those damn test every time you entered/exited a room, your hand would look like a sieve, just saying o_O

Happy midnight reading!

ro Note: The Romanian version of the review can be found here.

PS: Great, great cover.. Love it!
PSS: I love(d) all the blog posts inserted into the book.. where’s the follow button when you need one?

Alternate ending

Didn’t you like how the story ended? Well, it could have been worse – see below:

This is another way the end of Feed could have gone: it picks up with the events of what would originally have been chapter twenty-five.
It is not what happened. But it could have. We came very close.
Rise up while you can.

If you are not able to see the embeded short story, please click here.
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LEAVE A COMMENT

6 responses to “Feed”

  1. Anonymous says:

    To be honest, I never came across this book until I saw you were reading it but I don’t know why since it’s sounds pretty good! (it’s always the hidden gems;D)

    Paranormal is not my biggest suit because I do prefer romance & contemporary over anything else but I would like to expand my horizons and this seems like a good one to go with. I’ll probably read it before the 3rd book comes out (I hate waiting for releases, they kill me!) and you’re right, the cover is the coolest creepiest thing ever!

    by the way, I totally admire/ I’m jealous of you! You just finished this & you have already written & posted your review! I’m such a procrastinator I write my reviews a month after I finish a book X| can you lend me some of your self-discipline?

    As always, great review!

    -thank you&come again.

    • Ari says:

      If it wasn’t for two of my GoodReads friends that talked wonders about this book, I wouldn’t have read it either, but I am so glad I did. I don’t want to think about how much I’ll have to wait for the last one (no, no, no) I will just enjoy the second book in the series – it will probably take me another week as these books are pretty long and my time is limited.

      BTW, don’t be too jealous, I am still behind when it comes to writing reviews, but I try to write them down after I finish a book or 2, just to have them fresh in my mind. It’s hard to come back to a book when you don’t remember even the names of the main characters, LOL.

      PS: for when you decide to read this book: stay away from the spoilers, and stay away from the second one (as it contains spoilers even in the book description)

      • Anonymous says:

        Time limit *sigh* I feel you!! I’m just going to drop out of school and do what >>> I <<< want. No need to waste time on an education that I'm getting nothing out of…

        Exactly! and I know that fact but I still put off writing reviews, I don't even like writing reviews or blogging that much honestly. I just like talking about books with people and blogging is the easiest way to go about that.

        Oh don't worry, I don't even read reviews when before I read a book, only a few people's review that I know will match mine so I won't go to a book completely blind and hate it lol and if you say you like, I probably will too;D

        -thank you&come again.

        • Ari says:

          I do that too, I have a small number of GR friends that usually have the same preferences when it comes to books and I follow their lead – this happened with this book too, and I am so glad… really, this series is mind-blowing!
          I loved this first book, but the second one… is there a stronger word than “adored”?
          If you don’t know what to read in June 2012 (yeah, because you definitely plan your readings half year in advanced LOL), put this series on your list :)))
          Oh, how I wish the last one came out sooner!

  2. Noël Figart says:

    For what it is worth, I never read Zombie stories, either, but the Newsflesh series was recomended to me by someone who really knew my reading tastes. I fell in love.

    Have you read the others yet? I really enjoyed them.

    And yeah, I did zero in on the scratches in the pic 🙂 Still, love it.

    • Ari says:

      I figured it was time to update the image accordingly, so I took off the scratches, LOL!

      I am happy to find other people who love this story as it was amazing! I didn’t read her other books, but I plan to (started one, to be honest, but it felt even slower than Feed and I kept telling myself that I would come back to it eventually. *sigh* I actually should do that soon. )

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