Book 1), Feed (Newsflesh

Plot Summary: When a zombie epidemic sweeps the world, who are you going to trust? When the staid news outlets ignored the first reports as hoaxes, only the bloggers were out there spreading the word. Nearly a generation after the world is still learning how to cope with the zombie menace, a duo of brother-sister bloggers, Shaun and Georgia, receive their big break when a Presidential candidate invites them to join his official media pool. Their little blog rockets up the internet ratings as they travel with Senator Ryman during his campaign and cover his moments of glory, and his deepest tragedies. When they uncover a story that literally puts their lives in danger, they'll have to ask themselves whether the news is worth dying for.

(Newsflesh Series: Book One)

It's so hard to put Feed in a neat little box, but for the purpose of this review I'm going to try. On the simplest level I can describe it as a post-apocalyptic zombie horror novel, but that doesn't begin to do it justice. It's also about the enormously flawed but absolutely necessary institution that I'll lump under the broad label of "government," and most important of all, it's about the news media in theory and in practice. I've just made this book sound a bit dull, I know, but nothing could be farther from the truth. It's a fascinating blend and Mira Grant did a fabulous job pulling this story off. The world she envisions here is so real it frightened me silly, and reading Feed is like watching a documentary unfold.

I think it succeeds because these terrible truths are stated in such a matter of fact way by the narrator, Georgia (nicknamed George). She is a real cold-fish who doesn't love anyone or anything aside from her brother Shaun, and the truth. Being a "newsie" is her religion, and she treats it with all the solemn austerity of a monk. Shaun is her polar opposite, and he's an adrenaline junkie who makes headlines for poking zombies with sticks while mugging on camera. They're neurotic in their different ways, but there is no chink in their relationship with each other, which goes far beyond typical brother-sister bonds. They way they view the world, they have each other and that's it.

I had a few minor criticisms, but I can't get into it without being spoilerish. Let's just say that I found the villain's motivations to be overly simplistic, and I also wanted to see more of George and Shaun's parents, who treated their adopted children like media pawns.

The story unfolds rather slowly at first, but midway through it starts rolling with unstoppable momentum into a searing finale. It's a horror novel that made me think, and it embroiled me in the emotional fallout just when I wanted to be completely detached. I thought it was awesomely well-done, and I look forward to seeing what Ms. Grant does in her sequel, Deadline (June 2011).

Feed was a Greek tragedy writ large with zombies. The main protagonist was reasonably likeable, very smart, had a very reliable point of view, and the situation was fairly easily understood. The heroes followed the trail of clues to the final shattering conclusion.

Deadline is a VERY different kind of book, which is extremely impressive and a gutsy choice in the center book of a trilogy. Deadline is a morality play stuffed within the tight confines of an emergency. The heroes are terribly damaged as a result of their experiences in the first book and the author plays with the might-have-beens to the point where the reader's psyche also feels a bit damaged.

But she doesn't slow down either. She dumps a tremendous amount of information on us and shows that the events in Feed were much larger and even more dire than we originally understood. At this point I was suffering stimulation overload and considered putting the book down for a few days. But I didn't stop and I'm glad I didn't as the last few pages of the book were simply outstanding.

I have to admit that I didn't like this book as much as I did Feed. My primary problem is that Shaun Mason, the main protagonist, is in such bad shape mentally and emotionally that he almost has more troubles understanding the story than the reader does. I would have personally preferred the story if we had been able to view it from Mahir's point of view.

Furthermore certain standard horror tropes kept popping up in the book like, well, zombies. I can't argue with the author's choice to use them but I personally have never liked suddenly deserted streets and unexplained menacing shadows (both mental and physical) and they grow old very quickly for me.

The reasons behind certain events are left unexplained as well, which drove me nuts. I'm sure they will be explained at great length in the final book but for the moment I'm left with an irritating gap in the story. A few hints, even if they were wrong, would have been greatly appreciated.

So why the 5 star rating? Because the author has always shown a great talent for endings and this is her best work yet. There's also the first chapter from the third book and it ROCKS! Assuming the author can hold it together for the rest of the book (and I think she can), this is going to be a BRILLIANT conclusion to the story.

This book really surprised me. I never thought that zombies and politics would mix. The world and characters crafted in this fast paced, intelligently woven story is pure genius. I have been on a kick of nothing but zombie books for the last year or so and have read some really great stories. This by far takes the cake. Easily the best zombie related book I have ever read. You will not regret it!

I loved this series. Absolutely loved it. In a genre where female authors are totally under represented, Mira Grant nailed it. The books are full of these characters who by the end of the series feel like friends you know and have been to war with - the action of the book is constant and takes you in so many unexpected directions that you can't stop reading until you've gotten to the end and can finally have all the pieces of the puzzle. I just really recommend it - some people are turned off by the idea of another zombie story, but this one is totally different - smart, funny, with characters that mesh in hilarious and heartbreaking ways.

I'm posting this review on all three books to encourage people to give this series a try. Enjoy the ride!

Great book! It will grab you from the first page. Especially if you enjoy sarcastic, sassy banter between siblings. The conversations reminded me so much of my own brothers that I could easily picture us in a similar adventure. This book is a good read and you will get hooked on the story. I'm currently reading book 2 in the series!

I have been wanting to read this series for awhile and have not been disappointed. This second book in the series kept me swiping the screen on my kindle at every opportunity. The stakes are higher, the plot thicker and the zombies more plentiful. Can't wait to read the next one. Oh, and talk about a cliffhanger!

Well, the last thing I expected to be reading was a zombie novel....

First, it gets nominated for a Hugo, and then someone in our book club recommends it, so I took a chance on the Kindle version.

We get somewhat traditional zombies (very slow moving, mindless creatures trying to eat you) with a scientific origin (a virus, originating with a vaccine). We also get bloggers, in this case twins Georgia and Shaun Mason, along with their colleague Buffy (yes, a reference to that Buffy). The trio is picked to be the official bloggers covering the presidential candidate of Senator Peter Ryman.

Grant has built a world where humans are dealing with a deadly virus, with all the checks and controls that would be necessary, including a very powerful CDC. Partly because of this, social media rules in 2039.

Bloggers are even slotted in categories ("Irwins" are ones that like to poke things with sticks). The book is first person, from Georgia's viewpoint, with blog posts heading each chapter.

Our heroes deal with politics (infighting for the Republican nomination) and find that what appears to be accidentical infestations might be murder instead. The tension is ratcheted up through the book, and ends with a fairly explosive climax.

There's two more books coming, and I was impressed enough that I have already grabbed the Deadline in a Kindle edition.

An incredible story line, with a super high creep factor. The story was great even without the zombies. Sort of Jack Ryan, meets Jack Reacher in a future with zombies. But even the infected aren't as dangerous as the greedy living!

I didn't find this book THAT gripping and actually the political and blogging stuff was a bit boring to me. Maybe I just don't like zombies enough. I would have awarded it only two stars but the author does something pretty ballsy with the ending and I think she pulls it off. So I'm adding a third star to reward her bravery. Will I read the next book? Meh....

I liked how this read like a good action adventure in the sci/fi realm. The zombies were the background to the issues the characters went through. The relationship between the main characters, brother and sister, was fantastic. I wish I had such a close friend!

So this book came really strongly recommended. Strongly enough that I overcame my aversion to reading a Zombie Book. I am, on the whole, a wimp. I do not enjoy thinking about the post-apocalypse. You realize we probably wouldn't be the survivors, right? And our children would almost certainly not? Yeah, I don't read a lot of those books anymore.

However, many people I know have really enjoyed this book, and so I gave it a flyer.

It's not really a novel about the zombie apocalypse. It's a novel set in the post-shamble era, but it's actually about trust, hope, and faith. It's about media laziness and blogging and free-range parenting.

It's wry and snarky and the narrative voice is excellent and sort of sounds like "us" in the greater blogosphere wry-and-snarky way. I don't know if it would be as resonant and homey to someone who didn't read in the same world. And I shouldn't say blogger like it's a monolith. It's not like the honey and strychnine of the Deep Mothering blogosphere. But I could imagine these reporters in Tunisia and Egypt, in Lithuania and the nominating conventions of our elections.

I once wanted to be a reporter, did you know? I almost declared it as my major. But I gave it up when I realized that I didn't love the news more than other people, that I was not driven to find out the truth. And if I couldn't serve wholeheartedly, I didn't want to be taking up someone else's place. Sometimes I wonder about the might-have-been of that.

I read this book in an enormous gulp, all 560-some pages in about, um, 24 hours. Yeah, it wasn't my most productive weekend, but it was a super compelling story, and it ran on rails, which is a feat I always admire and appreciate. The plot was tight and surprising, but not ridiculous.

Read if: You like thinking about how we get our news. You read and enjoyed All The President's Men. You worry about the radicalization of politics. You'll find it really funny that the crazy-ass stunt reporters are called Irwins, and their award is the Golden Steve-o.

Skip if: You really cannot handle zombies, or people dying of zombies, or the trope where people have to kill their infected loved ones. Zombie-based harm to small children is unendurable (but I made it through that, and I can't watch LO: SVU or Cold Case anymore, as a metric). You don't have the tolerance for chatty, conscious first-person narrative voices.

On the recommendation of another writer, I bought and bit into "Feed" like one of its subject-matter zombies latching onto a victim, and did so at a rapid pace- I flew through the 600 pages of the Kindle version in four days, and was constantly tempted to keep going back for "just another page". Perhaps it was the fact that this wasn't about helpless suburbanites stuck in a mall, or an endless video-game gore-fest of chainsawed bits flying to comic effect. Instead, what "Feed" gives the reader is smart, realistic fiction about life in a world where the zombie apocalypse happened long enough ago for kids to be studying it in school, and avoiding becoming the living dead's lunch is now just part of everyday life.

Told through the eyes and writings of three young bloggers who join the campaign of a candidate for President in 2040, "Feed" poses (without stating it) a complex question - how do you develop and sustain a purpose in life when anyone you know can not only die early and horribly, but will without question, shortly thereafter reanimate as a mindless, ravenous shell and try to eat or infect their own loved ones? And what do you do when- as this team of journalists finds itself in the middle of - it turns out that someone is trying to use not only the fear of that death and reanimation, but the zombie virus itself to destabilize or destroy the campaign they're covering?

For all that it plays on horror-movie tropes, it's tempting to read "Feed" as a parable of the terrorist monomania that gripped the George W. Bush administration, but that's doing Mira Grant little in the way of justice as a writer. Her ability to build suspense without tedium, create fear without resorting to disgust, and ultimately help us identify with characters whose world we (thankfully) don't share is central to "Feed"'s success.

A friend _really_ wanted me to read this book, so much so that she bought it for me and sent it as a surprise. Even though I had about six-seven other books going (physical and electronic), I made myself finish just one before giving this a try. And then I wanted to stay up all night and call in sick the next day. I managed to do my job and read at normal times, but it was not easy. The moment I finished, I bought Deadline (part 2) and Countdown (the prequel).

I don't usually give out 5-stars - I think a 4-star review is usually fine. This book isn't perfect, but based on how I raced through it, I had to give it all five. Seriously, the market is glutted with zombie books and independent zombie movies, so much so that it's overwhelming and almost (to use my favorite word) ubiquitous. Well, it makes sense, considering the state of the economy. Look where the economy was the last time zombies were popular (when the original Dawn of the Dead came out). So, zombies are popular (as are sparkly vampires). I've been burned by some bad and mediocre ones, enough so that I just kind of gave up, even though I love zombies. I'm so glad my friend was so enthusiastic about this series and introduced me to it!

What's neat about "Feed" is that it's not a straight zombie outbreak story. It's not even about surviving a zombie apocalypse. The zombies are just part of the world - a major part of the world, don't get me wrong - but the real story could _almost_ be told if you replaced the zombies with another monster or catastrophe. I love that this book addresses what comes later. About 25 years after The Rising, how is humanity doing? How are people coping? They've given up all their freedoms, virtually all privacy, and stay inside, locked away and living vicariously through the few who venture out (and blog about it). The main characters - George (Georgia) & Shaun Mason - are smart, clever and likeable. Not perfect, but trustworthy and thinking for themselves.

I just finished 'Feed' last night. I bought the book when it first
came out, as part of my policy to buy books by authors who's blogs
I read and enjoy. The only reason I didn't read it then was I didn't think
a movie about post zombie uprising would be a very happy read. Then
the second one was announced, and the author started posting bits of
backstory/world building as a countdown to 'Deadline'. So it seemed to
be a good time to read it. Finished it off in a few days. So, here's
my mostly spoiler free review. It's a fast read, you really want to know
what happens next. And the history/science geek in me loved the bits of
worldbuilding that would pop up, how people lived 25 years after the
dead started shuffling around, and how the virus that caused it actually
worked. The characters are well done, and have their own voices.
If you're looking for page after page of zombie nightmare, this isn't for
you. While the zombies are always there, there are only a few scenes of
mayhem and flesh eating. So some zombie fanatics may not like the story.
Note, if you tend to get attached to characters, you'll find a few kicks
in the gut. If you like conspiracies, you'll enjoy this book. Also,
unlike a lot of ebooks I've read lately, the Kindle edition didn't have
any typos, well any that I noticed. So points to the editor for that.
To sum up, if you like viruses, zombies and incredibly snarky characters,
this is the book for you.

Mira Grant is an incredible writer. Her zombie books are so different from other types of zombie books. She sets up her characters and makes you feel like you know them. Lots of safety tips with twists and turns. Love it!

I keep rereading this series because it's so well written and engrossing. Mira Grant takes a world of zombies and puts the focus not on the zombie vs humans battle but on the reality of a post-zombie world where politics and life still continue - just a little changed. Her characters are realistic, her dialogue delightful and the plot is gripping. If I could vote it higher than five stars, I would.

Great first book in the series! Interested to see what happens in book 2 and onward! I hope everything wasn't completely unraveled! Glad book two is already available, because I plan to read as soon as possible!

Shaun and Georgia Mason are adopted siblings and well-respected bloggers. Georgia's a newsie, meaning that she tells the truth without bias, only the facts. Shaun's an Irwin (as in Steve), which means he likes to poke zombies with sticks. Oh right, did I not mention the zombies? There are zombies. And they do want to eat your brains or any other part of you they can get a hold of. Anyway, back to Shaun and Georgia. They, along with their fictional/techno-genius friend Buffy get selected to follow along on Senator Ryman's presidential campaign, which is super amazing, because the government has never taken bloggers seriously before. They're thrilled, until mysterious and awful things start happening around them.

My description of Feed kind of sucks, but I can't really think of how to improve it. Suffice it to say that there are zombies, mayhem, politics and sarcasm. What more does one need? It really is harder sometimes to summarize a really good book, because they tend to be a little deeper, making it hard to put all of the awesomeness into a summary. Thankfully, I can mention all of that in my review.

Zombies are ridiculous. We all know this, even those of us who rather like to read about them. There's not really any scientific reason to believe zombies possible; personally, I would more readily believe in pretty much any paranormal creature before I would believe in zombies. Unicorns? Sure, my young self is delighted and says they exist! Vampires? Why not? People can be cannabalistic, besides Catholics already drink their saviors blood. Back to pseudo-seriousness, though, Feed has the best explanation of zombie-fication that I have seen thus far. Grant also does a good job of giving a description and then doing the authorial equivalent of shrugging her shoulders and telling the audience to suspend disbelief, but in a good way.

I absolutely loved Feed from the first page. Why? Georgia/George. She is fantastically snarky and grumpy and sarcastic. She's like me, only with worse eyes (mine suck, but at least I can go out on a sunny day). Not every other character feels fully dimensional, but they are all built out in a believable way, to the degree that George understands/cares about them. George is standoffish and only bothers to learn about certain people, so everyone wouldn't be distinct in her world.

The writing is pretty fantastic. I always know an author has talent when he/she can write distinct voices and you can tell who's who without necessarily needing to be told. Grant achieved this. The little snippets from the various characters' blogs so obviously correspond to one or the other, even before you reach the part telling the author's name.

The format was pretty great, too. The bulk of the story was told from George's perspective, with only well-integrated background. The quotes from blogs enabled Grant to put in some more back story, which might not have fit in the flow of a characters every day thoughts without making the novel feel forced.

One thing that really amazed me about Feed was that it wasn't a dystopia the way you would expect. You would generally think that the zombies were the problem, right? Not really. I mean, they are a concern, but society has figured out how to live with the problem. The United States really is much the same as it has ever been, which is why the fact that it's a dystopia is even more of a creepy reflection on our current lifestyle.

In some ways, the society in Feed is the one I would least be willing to live in of all of the dystopias I've read. Okay, only in one way. But still. What's my problem with this rather-better-than-most vision of the near future (2040)? Needles. These people get blood tests approximately 85,000 times every day, to ensure that they are not in the process of becoming zombies. As a person who refuses to get the flu shot every year because I'd rather take my chances, this is not a future I want to be a part of. Needles are the worst.

Oh, and, less seriously, you may have noticed in my less-than-inspired description that there's a character called Buffy. She's actually named Georgette, but she figured, hey, I'm short and blond and cute...what else would my name be? Loving the reference so hard. And I'm fairly certain that Joss Whedon would appreciate it and the book as well. (I could be wrong, but this is my guess.)

This book was only moderately about zombies. That would be fine, provided that the plot was interesting and engaging, which it wasn't. The author spent an inordinate amount of time focused on blogging, bloggers, journalists, journalism, etc. that I was frankly bored. The action that did occur was too little and too late. Shame on me for not reading the reviews before buying the book!

Feed takes the zombie outbreak genre to a new level. Mira Grant has created a world that feels real. The characters are crisply drawn; witty, irreverent, at times flawed, but always passionate and believable. The ending hit me like a physical blow, and I'm still reeling. This is a book well worth the time.

Great overall idea and good execution. Certainly a novel twist on the oft-used zombie themes. And I really liked the idea of a post-outbreak society that had stabilized. There are plenty of novel twists on zombies here.

I didn't mind how much, or how few, zombies there were. This isn't a zombie apocalypse story, it's more about developing the notion of bloggers and general social media folk becoming a full force in society, after a zombie apocalypse. But there were still plenty of zombies.

However, slightly let down by a bit too perfect of a set up. I kept on visioning "I would have gotten away with it if it wasn't for you meddling kids". Yeah, vans of 20-somethings investigating will do that to you. I also liked how they immediately picked up clues that amateurs like the US Secret Service missed.

Also the villain(s) were just too gratuitously evil. The author tries to have the protagonists express a fair bit of tolerance and ambivalence about social and political parties, but it was let down by how much of cartoon cutouts the bad guys ended up being which made it slightly preachy.

So, a good story if you don't mind some rough angles and if you are not just looking for another standard zombie shooter post apocalypse thriller.

p.s. it also helps to remember that the slightly messed up co-dependent sibling relationship is between 2 adoptees who have no blood ties whatsoever. It feels a bit awkward and sexually charged at times - probably without really meaning to - but they are really not blood kin anyway.

My friend Kelly said "Hey Seanan has this book about zombies, it's really great, and she's autographing copies. Do you want one?" Hells yes.
The main thing that enthralls me about this book is the world building--not just the virology and epidemiology or whatever medical studies she lovingly discussed in the afterword, but the thought that went into 'how does this change the world I'm writing about?'
I've read far too many books where the author is happy with "Well it's just like it is now, except elephants fly". With the 'zombie' uprising, society changed, politics changed, *people* changed. The author actually thought through and said "Well, if I say it works like this, then in response people would probably do this." And I love her dearly for that, if for nothing else.
And then, to find out that it's a zombie apocalypse story that's *not about the zombies*. Gobsmacked. Utterly gobsmacked. And tickled a delicate rosy shade of pink. Once I realised the title had a double meaning, I loved the book a little more. She's not afraid to kill her characters, and given the lethal world she's created, that's necessary or else your dangerous setting feels like Disneyland.
My one disappointment is the antagonist; in a conspiracy plot, he's not just the obvious choice but essentially the *only* choice. At least he doesn't eat kittens--he just beats them to death. His behaviour seems poorly motivated and abrupt, and my hope is that in later books they explain that he was radio-controlled and the connection was faulty.

I'm a total sucker for a good zombie apocalypse. What's interesting about "Feed" is that the whole zombie apocalypse thing is mostly in the background. Zombies are treated by the characters as a fact of life, something that society has had to engineer around. It's an interesting twist on the usual zombie story.

What's even more interesting, though, is that Mira Grant obviously understands the internet, blogs and social networking. The main characters run a blog that combines reporting and entertainment in a way that feels believable and may feel prophetic in a few years. The characters are concerned about page views and where their blog stands among all the others. The book feels smart and sharp.

The writing is good as well. The story clips along, there's a halfway decent mystery at the center of the story (even if the who in the whodunit is pretty much obvious as soon as that who appears), and the characters are likeable and well characterized. The book expects the reader to be smart enough to figure out why some journalists are referred to as "Stewarts" and others are called "Irvins" without ever spelling it out (I'm not going to spoil the pleasure of that particular revelation). Overall, I highly recommend this book to fans of zombies, mysteries and internet media.

I read Feeds and was instantly hooked. Waited anxiously for Deadline to come out and was not dissappointed. Some readers do not like the shift in perspective, and to tell you the truth I didn't either when I first started reading the second book. But not even three pages in I was loving it. There are more "Oh My God!" momments then I can count. When you think you got it all figure out there's a crazy reveal that make you go NO Fraking Way! Mira Grant is one talented author. Deadline is a great continuiation of Georgia and Shaun's story. I know there's more to the book then just the characters, but the characters are what draw you to the books in the first place. As I was reading this, there was not a momment where I didn't root for the crew of At the End Times to make it through and punch the bad guys in the face. I am pre-ordering Blackout ASAP.

This review contains a few spoilers!

Feed, the first book in the Newsflesh Trilogy, is a brilliant near-future story involving zombies, science, bloggers, a presidential campaign trail, and a whole lot of intrigue. What if zombies happened -- and we were ready for them? What if civilization didn't collapse, but just adapted? Full of tension and action, as well as beautifully written characters and a chillingly realistic world, this is a wonderful book I'd recommend for just about anyone.

Seanan McGuire's alter ego, Mira Grant, doesn't just kill people -- she kills them with SCIENCE.

So this book... it gives me a lot of feels. Having finished the trilogy and all the connected short-stories (including FED, which is just painful), I am re-reading it and it's better the second time. The sheer thought gone into daily life in a culture that, as Georgia says, "embraced fear and then forgot how to put it away again" is wonderful, and the tension starting from the first page really starts to draw tight as I realize what's coming.

It's a zombie book where not only are the zombies not the enemies, but the message isn't even "WE WERE THE REAL BAD GUYS ALL THE TIME HA HA" -- it's about the truth, the lies we tell ourselves, and some really eviscerating stabs at current media, security theatre, and the desperate need of some governments to have a convenient easy-to-point-at enemy so they don't need to deal with the usual bread and circuses.

I know what's coming, and I can't stop it, and I don't want to -- and it doesn't detract from the story at all. I know things will be okay. I know things WON'T be okay. I also know it ends, and leaves me feeling like I felt after I realized that there was no more Battlestar Galactica. There's a Newsflesh-shaped hole in my heart, but I am trying to fill it by reading it again.

Downloaded this one to read during some travel - didn't expect a lot so I was quite pleasantly surprised by the quality of the writing (I'd never read any of Grant's work under her previous pseudonym) and the depth of the storytelling. I haven't read anything that I've had so much trouble putting down in many years - maybe since someone handed me a copy of "The Stand" the night before a final exam 30 years ago (I'll never forgive them for that). Riveting.

"Believable" is not typically a word I would use with zombie fiction but Grant creates a near-future world that is not the dystopian wasteland of most examples of the genre. Instead it deals with the psychological effects of a new normal that includes the very real possibility that your mother or your German Shepard might just be the death of you. Good character development, thrills and chills, heartbreak and heroism - I recommend it.

I went into this book with some trepidation after reading reviews that it had very little "zombie" action but it's a great new twist on a world that has had to adapt to the threat of zombies and moved forward. The future technologies for cameras and surveillance was consistent and useful in the news coverage of the future. Well done Ms. Grant.

Zombie as metaphor. Moaning, slavering, death on a stick metaphor.

In the not so very distant future Georgia and her brother Shaun have great news - they're going to be the bloggers following one of the top Presidential candidates on the campaign trail. It's gonna make their lives, unless it makes them dead.

Welcome to a very easily imaginable (thanks to Grant!) future, where life is predicated on what you can do that's least likely to get you eaten. Georgia and Shaun Mason come from a journalist family, which means they carry many weapons, have an armored van, and have plans for what to do when Shaun gets killed by one of the zombies he pokes with sticks for the edification of their online viewers. Life has got to be calmer in politics, right?

Not so much.

This book is almost the perfect read for an election year, dealing as it does with journalistic ethics and the political machinations of big business and big pharma. Almost the perfect scary, scary read. The characters are beautifully drawn, and so real you could find them whispering in your ears. The situations will have you seeing parallels everywhere - and keeping your go-bag packed.

Don't get bitten by the evils that are out there. Don't be one of the shamblers. Rise up while you can.

The year is 2040 and zombies have taken over large swaths of the world. Since 2014 when the dead stopped staying dead the world has changed. People now fear to go out in public, large gatherings are rare anything weighing more than 30 lbs can go zombie so unless it's a small dog or a house cat people don't keep pets. The media has changed too, blogs are the way people get the news, the print media having lost all credibility when the outbreak started. Blogs tend to be either news related with the "newsies" trying to stay above the fray and report the news in an unbiased way, or adventure based -the "Irwins", or fictional blogs. The story follows a trio of bloggers that have their own site Georgia (the newsie) and her brother Shaun ( the Irwin) Mason and their Fictional 3rd Georgiette (Buffy) as they are attached to the presidential campaign of Senator Ryan.

The book is grounded in zombies but the real story is the human story and how even in a world so dangerous to life people are willing to sacrifice others for their own "moral" code and how some choose to live above that. George and Shaun are honest and fearless in the search of the truth. The book gives a unique spin on how the zombie plague started that is just plausible enough to give shivers (all I could think of was 'no good deed goes unpunished' when they finally explained how the zombies were created). It also pays homage to the best zombie flicks of the past and present (with names like Shaun, Buffy and George just for a start) as well as having some of Seanan McGuires (Mira Grant's real name) trademark dry humor and captivating writing.

Definitely a favorite.

What a riveting world this author has created! I love the sub-context of what it's like to live in a world of fear and paranoia, where things really are out to get you. And the ending was pretty crazy ... I can't believe we'll be waiting until next year to resolve the bombshell that got dropped.

Mira Grant's writing is so sharp -- it's a zombie book yes, but there's so much more going on in terms of plot development, world building and dialogue. It's not a slash-and-burn testosterone fest, by any means, but it isn't so high-brained that it becomes a philosophical exercise on the futility of humanity, or something like that. Instead, it's a great blend of action and story. I love the idea that her world is still well-populated -- humanity learning to live with zombies, rather than being reduced to a few pockets of survivors. That there's still politicking and power struggles going on, even after the world changed, seems very human to me.

I found myself absolutely hooked, and unwilling to leave the world. That made my road trip around the Bay Area (home of lots of plot action) this past weekend pretty interesting, as I looked around me trying to imagine the same vista in Mira Grant's world. And I'll never look at Costco or Wal-Mart the same way!!

Personally, I think this is the best zombie-themed writing since World War Z, which I think still is cream of the crop. If you liked WWZ, definitely give this series a spin.

Really, really well done.

Not the swarming hoardes of zombies we have grown used to; but a new permanent fixture in everyday living.

A brilliant twist on modern mass media coupled with zombies, good character descriptions, action, intrigue and suspense.

Can't decide whether this book is targeted for a younger'ish audience - but I'm 47 and was thoroughly entertained.

One of my favorite books, to date. I love Georgia's POV and Mira Grant does a great job not bogging down the story with exposition, while still giving enough exposition to keep you "in the know".

You never know for sure what's coming next, and that is part of what makes a great horror novel.

This is a zombie novel for the zombie novel neophytes. If you're looking for case after case of zombie attacks, with the undead walking in a comatose-like state, more bullets to the brain than the latest action flick coming to the big screen, and the undead shoved into black hole-sized wood chippers, then you'll probably be sorely disappointed with this newsworthy read. But if you want to take the blogging world by storm and pretty much take over the entire universe (as I plan to do at some not-so-distant point in the near future), then this novel is for you and your grandkids and your grandkids' grandkids.

Mira Grant may not know how to write zombie encounters with lyrical prose and wit, but she sure can suck every last bit of flesh off the newsworthy bone. Her powerful prose and attention-to-detail would have the blogging world doing the wave and possibly even executing a well-timed backflip. But the zombies felt about as realistic as Freddy Krueger coming back from the grave. And that's where this novel failed a bit, during the so-called action sequences that Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Statham, and Sylvester Stallone would have laughed at, while flexing their biceps and kissing the stacked heroine with the mile long legs.

In fact, I actually set this novel aside, even though the voice captured my attention more readily than a flesh-eating zombie standing six inches from my face, right around the motorcycle flip on page 15 or so. It had a great opening, and then there was the first zombie encounter, and then it fizzled faster than a soda with the top popped standing out in the heat of the New Mexican desert. But I came back to it, and I trudged onward and upward, with my Apple XH-224 test kit, laptop computer, and .40 handgun. And man am I glad I did. With the world building, political aficionados, northern California terrain, beautiful blog entries, and a politician named Kirsten "Knockers" Wagman who needs no further introduction, this novel stands on its own two legs and then proceeds to kick its own butt.

Sure, it's easy to argue the characters were a bit thin at times, and FEED does have more than its share of political mumbo jumbo, fueling the political train that's headed straight off the cliff, and carrying the last remnants of the Kellis-Amberlee virus along with it. But I actually enjoyed the political bastardization of the entire American nation, and an inside look into partisan politics and radical fat cats and nitwits, where bloggers reign supreme and congressmen and governors bang on the used drum set in the corner.

I may just have to carry this trilogy all the way to the end, but I won't read the synopses for either DEADLINE or BLACKOUT before I do. And if you want to keep your spoiler-free world intact, I'd suggest you do the same.

Robert Downs
Author of Falling Immortality: Casey Holden, Private Investigator

I bought a copy of this book with the expectation of reading about a zombie apocalypse (what's not to love already, right?). What I discovered is that the walking dead that plague the planet are only the canvas on which the picture of this story is painted; to me, that is a GREAT story. I found the characters well developed, and their relationships with each other realized down to habits and personal rituals. Their flaws define them as much as their strengths, and it is so easy to identify with them. So much that it made my wife cry when she read it.

The world building is also well achieved and paced throughout the book (the sheer volume of blood testing that occurs is just staggering). This looks a lot like our own society only emptier, with shambling corpses, and a thick dripping coat of paranoid terror. The way people interact, communicate, and stay informed (as well as stay alive) is revolutionized, but is far from unbelievable.

5-stars to Mira Grant for this one, and I look forward to her future works!

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Sick of politics right now? Feel like blowing someones or your own brain out? Well read this book and be absolutely blown away and giddy and crying and whooping ....chewing the inside of your cheek till it bleeds..and being ok because at least your following a presidential campaign which makes you feel almost proud to be an American..despite the fact it resides in a fictional and alternate future.

Zombie genre though this maybe labeled, but do not mistaken it for a zombie book. This is not about zombies nor is it even about a zombie apocalypse. This is a story about us and our world climate. It is some of the best writing and story telling I have read this year ... hell in decades. This is piece of political, sociological, psychological, anthropological and fictional art. It is something worth putting down the book you are reading, whether you read zombie books or not, and start reading now.

I recommend this to anyone who has a brain and has ever thought hmmm what if. Because folks, this is completely feasible, and Mira's absolutely relentless attention to detail and facts on virology and political climate makes its a book for the ages.

The first chapter of Feed implies that this series is an exciting, fluffy, brainless, and extremely derivative story. The three main characters, George (named for George Romero), Buffy (named for Buffy the Vampire Slayer), and Shaun (named for Shaun of the Dead), run a blog in a zombie-filled, post-apocalyptic United States that at first seems fan-fiction of Zombieland.

These bloggers are chosen to follow a Presidential candidate through this very changed world. At this point, Feed stops being a zombie book. Feed becomes an exciting and intelligent political thriller (with zombies), as if Robert Ludlum had written a novel for a world very different than our own. The world and the characters are meticulously constructed, and the politics and changes to society are well-thought out. The zombification is not just a reference to Ophiocordyceps, but a well-thought out and essential part of the story -- especially in the second book, Deadline.

The books have a weakness: they are very tied to today's world. The author makes dozens of entertaining references to pop culture of the last twenty years and very few references to any culture after 2010.

Even with this weakness, these books are intelligent, fun, and well worth reading.

Viewing the story of after life in an zombie world thought the eyes of the News Media while they also work with a president candidate was very interesting. It was a real good story line and sure to read again because I'm sure to have missed some thing.

I loved the first in this series, but was concerned that the second book would fall short, seeing as though the main character died at the end of the last book. But I was absolutely proved wrong. Shaun is a compelling and ultra-human character with strengths and flaws, and the always present George is reassuring both to Shaun and to the reader. The other characters introduced and developed are also intriguing and fun to watch. The book moves at a fast pace and more action is always just a page away.

Mira Grant created a great series which is invigorating and scary, sad and poignant, and sarcastic and hilarious, all in the right places and amounts.

CANT WAIT FOR THE THIRD!!!

I really find zombies distasteful. And I loved this book. Great story. Great characters. Buy it and read it. Now some general spoilers about the world in the story but not the story itself are in the rest of my review.
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I didn't give this a 5 because of some technical nits: It seems to me unlikely that the meddling kids would be the first to see some of the connections. The Secret Service or the general media should have been all over some points instantly. Also a brief discussion of gun control when grandpa might die in his sleep and then infect the entire family made me laugh out loud (and I'm a real world anti-gun liberal). Also I'm not sure why the death penalty is an issue when we have the double-tap. In fact, I found myself devising combo continual testing/decapitation devices for prisons... and then thinking whether they would get applied to Nursing homes... or the general populace, and then thinking more work could have been done there fleshing out how the fear so crucial to this story would show itself. I would imagine there would be no homeless people, for example, and in general it seems like it would be very harsh for the old and the weak. But these nits aside, what a great book!! She makes us feel like we know even bit-part characters with a few sentences. She paints a few strokes and a character becomes real to the reader. What a gift. Yes, the good guys are Good and the bad guys are immediately visible, but the book was so gripping I forgave it. And you know, sometimes people's motivations really are that simple.

The notion that all humans carry the virus in a dormant state... that is freaking FANTASTIC. Truly chilling. Nowhere is truly safe. Ultimately, this book was so beautifully written that it didn't matter to me that the emotional stuff was heavy handed. It's 100% worthwhile to read. I still haven't read the next two; this book was so good I almost feel I should stop now. Even now, a week on and a few books later, the idea of living in such a society still grips me.

I very rarely leave books unfinished, but I just can't bring myself to finish this one. I absolutely love dystopian fiction and the story behind this one sounds appealing. However, something about the writing style seems forced and frankly, annoying. Instead of liking the main characters, I thought they were pretentious. I can't imagine suffering through the rest of this book, much less two more.

Action, adventure, fast paced thriller that grabs your attention immediately. Throw in a great back story and hold on for a epic ride! Can wait to read the next one in the series. This is third author I gave 5 stars because it was THAT GOOD.