Feed

This paragraph is a good example of why I couldn't finish this book: "I'm not sure I believe in ghosts, but I swear we won't do anything to disturb any spirits that might be resting there." I put down the camera she'd handed me and shook my head as I opened the van closet and pulled out the rest of my field gear. I always keep a few pairs of thick denim jeans on hand, the kind with steel fibers woven into the fabric. 'Be prepared' isn't just the Boy Scouts' marching song anymore. "Zombies are enough. I don't need to add poltergeists to the ranks of 'things that want to kill me.'" The sentence about being prepared - why is it there? It adds absolutely nothing to the paragraph and completely disrupts the flow of the story. I take that back, it does add something - it adds snark. And these snarky little sentences are crammed into every paragraph possible. It was completely off-putting in terms of tone and character likability, and killed what could have been an interesting book.

Feed by Mira Grant is not a book for me, but that doesn't mean you won't love it! I was sold on this book when I heard it was about zombies. For some reason, zombies and horror has been a big part of my reading lately (with the pandemic going on... it makes zero sense since I want love and fluffy, but whatever. Brains are weird like that). I had been given a great recommendation of this book too, so I was saddened that this book was more of a political novel than an epic zombie apocalypse book. This book is really well written and I'll give Mira lots of credit for the amazing structure of her writing. Unfortunately, I just don't like politics in my fiction. It always bores me and makes me lose focus, so I wasn't the ideal reader for this book. Because of that minor issue, I became way more critical of this book than I should have been. The ending itself infuriated me (I don't like that type of ending as a reader, so my bad...). I also found some of the characters to be quite strange and unreliable and thus didn't want to read about them. The writing style wasn't my thing, but I know other people will love it. I just didn't vibe well with Mira's writing and I found myself zoning out and putting the book down a lot. I almost DNF-ed it, but I gave it a fair shot. It just took me a very long time. Overall, I can appreciate this book but man was it boring for me as a reader. That being said, I typically go for romance and murder mysteries, so it's not exactly a surprise if you follow my reviews. One out of five stars.

2,5*

I enjoyed the storyline in this book and it was a welcome change to how i usually feel about first person stories. I am excited to read the next one in this series.

** spoiler alert ** I think I wanted to like this more than I actually did. The writing itself was very compelling, but two main things stuck out to me: 1) The worldbuilding tries to have it both ways by claiming that blogging was what saved humanity from zombies by letting information flow freely, and thus it was a trusted and important news source -- but at the same time, not trusted or important enough, since it was a big deal that bloggers were covering a presidential race. 2) I felt like George didn't really do enough actual investigating. They knew after the first outbreak that there had been sabotage and an assassination attempt, but... she didn't even try to guess who had done it or make a list of suspects or ask around about it. It was barely mentioned again until the second attempt, and then, same thing. The mystery was actually solved (or at least the proof was found) by people offscreen doing the digging. I was a little disappointed the intrepid newsie, while she did plenty of reporting, didn't really do much investigating or solving.

*3.5

Something about this one didn't work for me. For some reason it felt really long, there was a lot of filler. Even though there were a lot of exciting points, it still felt like it dragged. I also feel like this could have been a really strong standalone novel, it didn't need to be a series. I may or may not read the next one, I don't feel all that hooked. That being said, I didn't mind the characters and the idea of the world. I didn't feel a lot of connection to the characters, they felt kind of flat. I enjoyed reading about what they do though. A zombie epidemic mixed with a world in which most people survived was cool. I also liked that the MCs are bloggers following a presidential campaign. I don't read too many zombie books so don't have much to compare this to, but this seemed pretty unique to me.

3.5 stars. This was a reasonably entertaining book, despite the surprising lack of zombie action. I found the political framework of the main plot very interesting, but it also left me with some questions. Specifically, I'm curious about the alignment of the parties at this time. Senator Ryman seemed like a centrist candidate, so I'm curious why he was running as a Republican, and furthermore why he chose a far-right zealot as his running mate. Of course, parties evolve and since this is 20 years in the future, it'd be stupid to assume the political landscape would remain exactly the same, but I still wanted more explanation on that front. I know the author has a book that follows a similar group who work for the Democratic candidate, but I don't know that I have enough interest to read it. I suppose I feel like if politics are going to be injected into the book like this, they need more expansion. I also frequently found myself frustrated by Georgia. She gave off "not like other girls" vibes SO much. I especially hated how she talked about the female candidate running, basically that she was a bimbo who used her boobs to get votes. Literally, this is how she's described every time she's mentioned. Since the book is in first person, I attribute that to Georgia's character, however this also says a lot about the author imo. Very frustrating. (view spoiler)[I did get really emotional at the end, though. Not so much that Georgia died, but everyone reacting to her death, especially Shaun. Shaun's grief was palpable and it really tore me up. (hide spoiler)] It wasn't a bad read, I enjoyed it for the most part, but there were just these little things that kept annoying me. I also am not super crazy about the author's writing style, like it's reasonably easy and moves the plot along well, but it reads like a YA book a lot of times when this wasn't marketed as such. I've read one of her other books and the YA vibes weren't quite as apparent. As it is, I probably won't read the rest of the series, but I don't think it was terrible.

** spoiler alert ** I dont normally read science fiction books, but Muta Grant continues to suck me into her stories.. the first one I read by her was Into the Drowning deep and I've wanted to read more bumpy her ever since. So when I found this series by her I definitely wanted to check it out. While this book does discuss a zombie outbreak that happened in the past, this is mostly about twins Georgia and Shaun that run a news blog in a world filled with zombies. They have made it big and have been selected to follow a presidential candidate. While following the candidate Senator Ryman around things start to go wrong. First there is a zombie outbreak, right where the senator is... people die, and it is discovered that crucial equipment in zombie detection was sabotaged. Then at the senators home, an outbreak occurs with horses and his oldest daughter. And his wife's parents are killed along with basically every horse on the farm.. finally some major things are revealed when Georgia, shaun, and the other people working for them are shot at while traveling, and two of them end up becoming zombies and having to be killed. This story had alot of twists and turns that were unexpected. I do think it started off a little slow, but it's the first in a trilogy so you have to get past some of the set up before things really start to happen. Things are going down, a dangerous plot is uncovered, and not everyone you have met is going to make it out alive..

Still just as good on the reread for me. Although I have to say that reading a book about a virus nowadays is a little surreal because some of the things in the book hit a bit close to home especially in regards to the political climate.

Okay. Mira Grant's writing. I'm digging it. Always. This story is a bit more political and a bit less horror-ish than I was expecting, but still enjoyable. Very much her brand. Yet I believe I enjoyed Parasitology a bit more... that book had some really creepy moments 😱

At the beginning I was pleasantly surprised with what the book was about. It follows a group of bloggers as they join one of the men running for president, while in a zombie infested world. So it isn't just a survival story. The zombie action is low, but i personally didnt mind it. The first 100 pages were interesting but after that I got pretty bored. It felt repetitive at times and I thought that their personallitys were a bit overdone at certain times. So the middle part was a bit slow. I do think that the ending (or the last 100 to 200 pages) makes up for it. During my read i was planning on giving it a solid 3 stars, but after the way it endend, I decided to make it up to 4 stars. So really my advice is to stick till the end.

EDITED The year was 2014. We had cured cancer. We had beaten 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, bloggers Georgia and Shaun Mason are on the trail of the biggest story of their lives - the dark conspiracy behind the infected. The truth will get out, even if it kills them. ******* When you think about anything that has to do with zombies, it always ends up being people running for their lives, friends dying, and a lot of gun shots. It never lasts long, and it's always the same thing. Take The Walking Dead, for example, good tv show, but repetitive. Now I may be a bit bias because I LOVE zombies, you can never go wrong with a good zombie movie or zombie tv show. Even if it's corny, I will probably still enjoy it. Mind you the zombies have to be portrayed accurately, they can't have any brain function; that means they don't know how to open doors, or climb and especially not run. Feed did an incredible job with this; I loved the idea that the more time someone was a zombie, the less they acted like a human, they were slower and dumber and easier to handle if you were around them. The ones that had JUST turned are the ones to be worried about. Feed also took place 20 years after the initial zombie outbreak, which means the main characters are children of the apocalypse. It was interesting to have a point of view from characters who have known nothing outside of a zombie filled planet. I also feel like if the apocalypse happened, the entire world wouldn't shut down like is it portrayed in every zombie book/tv show/movie. Yes, we would lose a mass amount of people, but the government would have a plan and eventually we would be able to reclaim some humanity back, just like the author made for this story. The technology was amazing in this book. I am such a tech nerd that I found all the information on every single little gadget that they carried around interesting. On that note, there is no way I would continue to stomach having my blood taken a million times in the span of an hour. I can hardly have it done once in a blue moon without wanting to cry and run away. Most of the other reviews put down Shaun in the story, but I liked all the characters in the book, aside from the obvious bad guys. I did find that Georgia's and Shaun relationship to be a bit odd for brother and sister, but their closeness helped you create a bond with them as well. Mira Grant killed me in this book. I was so connected with the story that when the twists and turns hit I didn't know what to do haha. My heart hurt at the end of this book that only shows how amazing it was. I'm glad I picked this series up off bookoutlet during the box sale, totally worth every penny. If you love zombies and looking for a new take on the apocalyptic world, I HIGHLY suggest Feed. EDITED I FORGOT - Mira put in there about what happened to the animals in the world! Zombie stories NEVER talk about the animals and I loved that.

THIS BOOK. Full review to come.

Mira Grant builds a pretty terrifying (and realistic) post-zombie apocalypse world. I appreciated all of her details on how the virus works, how it continues to be a constant source of fear and horror despite being almost 20 years later, and how everyone deals with it. This is what I like about zombie books. I didn't enjoy the actual story about the news reporting and blogging. It was really technical, dry, and didn't capture my interest as much as actually running away from a zombie would. Also, the big reveal of who is after Georgia Mason's blogging team felt rushed and unexplored, especially after trudging through 500 pages. I'm glad I finished, but I'm not compelled to continue reading any of the others in this series. I do give major kudos for this very unique take on a genre that is rapidly becoming overdone.

Really wonderful. I've been on a run of quality books for a while now and this fits right in. Great premise. One of the few zombie worlds that I really enjoy as it's not that the world has fallen apart, just altered. I love the layout and the characters and am looking forward to the other books in the series.

Whoa, OK so I thought I knew what I was getting into when I started this book (that has been sitting on my shelf for 5+ years), but I really had no idea. I was somewhat expecting The Walking Dead with working tech. What it actually was, was a first person account of a young journalist trying to make it big while dealing with the normal everyday threat that are zombies and uncovering a pretty deep political plot during the biggest break of her career. It was ironic to me that I chose to read this book now, during a pandemic, with political unrest and an election going on South of my Canadian border. It took me a little bit of time to adjust to what this story would actually be about and change my reading brain from being prepared for horror to actually dealing with political conspiracies. It’s a bit hard for my to unpack this one but, long story short, I enjoyed it but will have to be in the right mindset to read the next in the trilogy. Feed managed to make me feel stressed, hopeful, curious and still gave me such a surprise that I did not see coming. Grant was able to make you look one way while setting up a twist that will propel the story beyond the first book and genuinely shock you. Or at least it caught me off guard to the point I had to re-read the passage and think about how I maybe should have seen it coming but was so happy I didn’t. This is really about our two main characters Georgia and Shaun who were adopted by renowned journalists which is a career they both have been working towards. The way that Grant brings the news to a whole new level seems like a natural progression in the light of the events that lead up to where we are at the start of this book. More people are getting accurate news from bloggers and they are all in competition with each other to be the most viewed site. When Georgia and Shaun catch a big break, they know that it was the opportunity their team had been waiting for. I loved how Georgia and Shaun are so different and have their own methods, their own journalistic styles and their own views but they are ultimately bound together in this life and will do absolutely anything for the other. Their relationship was at times maybe a little too close in my opinion but, who knows, maybe that’s what happens when you grow up in a zombie-infested world and your parents only want to use you for hits on their site. Georgia is unwavering in her integrity and wanting to give the people the truth no matter what while Shaun is a bit of a wildcard who wants to run into danger for the views. This dynamic allows you to see their differences as well as their loyalty and I really enjoyed each of their interactions. The other side of this story is following a Presidential election circuit and all of the drama that unfolds. Turns out there’s a lot going on behind the scenes to keep our journalists busy in their quest to have the truth be known and Grant was able to bring you along for the ride in a way that was informative, realistic and interesting. With how events were left at the end of the book, I am very interested to see just how big this story will get and how broken souls continue.

Feed is a zombie novel with an unusual focus. Rather than showing us the onslaught of the living dead, the book takes place some years afterward. Additionally, the plot centers on a political campaign and the bloggers covering it. I'm just not sure what kind of book it is. There is much to enjoy about Feed. The realization of a post-zombie-plague world is very nicely done, carried out in details from politics to personal life. The main characters are journalists social media producers, and the depiction of their new ecosystem is quite credible and enjoyably satirical. The plot's climax is impressive, especially the (view spoiler)[deaths of several main characters, including the narrator. The latter's final blog entry was excellent, nearly Lovecraftian in its terminal perspective. (hide spoiler)] So what's not to like? To begin with, the political plot is surprisingly shallow. We get a nice setup with zombie politics. What issues would occupy an election in a zombified America? However, things drop off after that point. Most other political issues disappear (the economy, foreign policy, red vs blue, Republican vs Democrat!). The election cycle is barely visible, consisting mostly of scenes set for impending violent action, not political discourse. Political action groups, lobbyists, Congress, state political machines are invisible. This helps weaken the novel's ultimate plot, unfortunately, (view spoiler)[which seems to be a conspiracy to... make zombies scary, or something. It's hard to tell. The plot's leader, telegraphed right away, is a cardboard cutout right wing military thug. What he hopes to accomplish isn't clear, beyond the rhetoric. Why anyone would support him is also murky. I realize some of this is setup for sequels, but the novel has plenty of room to simply make this credible. (hide spoiler)] A second major problem is how the main characters relate to other people. The brother-sister protagonists are entertaining of themselves, a nice complement of cranky and gonzo. But with everyone else they become martyr-messiahs from the start, always suffering, always taking the lead, forever solving problems nobody else can see. It becomes cloying after a while. This made the climax perversely satisfying. There's a children's lit/young adult component here, I realize, of showing the flaws of adults so that kids/teens see a path forward for themselves. This aspect is also apparent in the lack of romance and sex - actually, not even romantic possibilities or sexual tension. If we read Feed as a YA book we might also excuse the political limitations. So perhaps my three stars should be four, if I'm making a category error. One final note: the book is interesting historically, as a datapoint about the rise and normalization of social media.