Elitist Book Reviews

Full disclosure. I loved Mira Grant's novel, FEED. I didn't think I would because I was a tad tired of zombies, but FEED was still awesome...especially the ending which was absolutely incredible. Sure there were some things that made me say "meh", but I personally thought the characters were fun (specifically in the latter half of the novel when the story got really grim and bleak), and the setting was fantastic. Not to mention, Mira Grant's writing appealed to me with its accessibility and her sense of pacing. If was my personal pick for the Hugo this year. I bought copies of her books and lugged them to WorldCon so I could stalk Mira down for signatures. Yeah, I'm a fan.

After I read FEED, I knew immediately that's I'd gobble up the next book in the series, DEADLINE. But I was worried. WAAAAAAAY worried. If you've read FEED, you know how the book ends. How the heck to you follow THAT?

DEADLINE is told from Shaun Mason's eyes, and the change in tone is really what helps set this apart from the prior novel. Shaun is an angry, angry guy. As the reader, you get to see his grief and complete lack of faith in anything. For the most part this is all executed extremely well. However, during the novel he has a penchant for wanting to punch anything and everything. It gets old, and feels unneeded.

Luckily neither Shaun nor the reader is given much time to dwell on the tragic ending of FEED. Things happen fast and furious to start out. Again, Mira Grant perfectly illustrates that in a world of zombies, the humans are still the biggest danger to humanity.

You may be asking yourself, "Self, why hasn't the reviewer talked about what the book is about?" You see, FEED is still relatively new, and the ending is one of those endings that MUST NOT be ruined. If I talk about DEADLINE with very much detail at all, it will hurt your reading of FEED. Here's what I can give you. Shaun and the crew are investigating a conspiracy that was introduced in the first book. The conspiracy is even bigger than anyone realizes, and Grant does a great job of illustrating the danger our protagonists (not to mention the world) face.

One thing I've noticed about zombie novels in general is how much it bugs me when the world introduced in the novel isn't self-aware. What I mean is that our culture has been exposed to zombie-related media for so long now, that we will have a grasp of the situation when the zombie plague runs wild (note: when, not if). Mira Grant's novels address this so well, that it makes reading other zombie novels that don't take it into account feel unrealistic. This world feels legitimate.

There is one thing that I should mention that did kinda nag at me a bit. Middle novels are hard, and not only is the author trying to set up the third novel in the series, but he/she is also trying to refresh the reader on the events from book one. DEADLINE suffers the effects of this in certain areas. There are certain bits of information that just don't need to be fully explained again. The pacing can get bogged down a bit due to the over-explanation (or repeated explanation) of details that the author feels essential the reader understand completely. This isn't a huge deal for the most part, but it bothered me enough to notice and to bring up.

That said, this book has some moments that are just freaking awesome. And I don't just mean action scenes, though the book does have plenty of those as well that had me giggling with horrific glee. DEADLINE has some terrific character scenes that show just how crazy things are getting for people.

Now, depending on how observant a reader you are, you may catch one of the major twists (there are a few). I caught it very early on in the novel, but it didn't affect my enjoyment of the novel (at least I don't think it did...it's not like I can test it). If you don't catch the twist, the ending is a serious "HOLY CRAP!" moment. Like FEED, it was the ending to DEADLINE that won me over on loving the novel.

Here is the question you need to ask yourself. Do you want to read a zombie novel that pulls in Science Fiction sensibilities without losing the Horror aspect of the sub-genre? Do you want a zombie series that shows just how much more horrible humans can be as opposed to the zombies? How about a series with good characters? If you answered "yes" to any of the questions, you need to pick up FEED and DEADLINE by Mira Grant. If you answered "no", too bad, read the books anyway. They are completely awesome.

Recommended Age: 17+
Language: Lotsa swearing.
Violence: If there WASN'T violence in DEADLINE, it really wouldn't be a conspiracy-filled, zombie novel would it? Of course there is a ton of violence.
Sex: One short, but fairly detailed scene. It's mostly used to show how much psychological and emotional baggage a character has.

Go check out Mira Grant's website:

http://www.miragrant.com/

And in case you didn't know, Mira Grant is a pen name Seanan McGuire uses. Seanan is best known for winning the 2010 Campbell Award for best new writer. She writes Urban Fantasy under that name which I hope is as good as her zombie books.

http://www.seananmcguire.com/

Last note: Seanan is an awesome person. I was able to chat with her for a bit at WorldCon in Reno, and she is one of the nicest people even...when she's not planning to kill you. As an author, being nice is a good thing. It impacts what people think of you and your work. Seanan's personality made me like her work even more.

At this point, even the most rabid zombie fiction fan has to be thinking, "Okay....seriously...I'm getting kind of tired of all the zombie stuff..." We are included in that group. Yes, even Steve. So when we picked up FEED, by Mira Grant, we began reading with trepidation and skepticism. After all, no matter how much you eat a food you love (this is not in reference to the dietary habits of zombies), if it is a course often served, you will get tired of it. This is how we approached FEED. Not very lucky for poor Mira, who could have, easily, been subject to one of our hate reviews.

Lucky for her, and for you, and for us, FEED isn't just a flavor of the month (Or rather, flavor of the year. Seriously. It's time to move on to something else. Give zombies a break. Well...first give Vampires a break, shortly followed by a brief respite for the zombies. Brief, because they ARE undead after all. Is this the longest parenthetical you've ever read? Shall we try for a record? No. You're already going to have to go back to remember what this sentence started as.), it is a pretty unique take on zombie lore.

OK, confession. Unique is a somewhat of a misnomer, because the zombies do adhere to just about every Romero trope. In fact Grant references Romero so much, even two of the main characters are named after George Romero, that we wonder just how many times Grant was watching the Romero's movies while writing this book.

The plot centers around three young blogging news-people, Georgia, Shaun, and Buffy (please note the name-relations to other slayers of the dead). They are, respectively, the hard-line journalist, devil-may-care sensationalist (think Bear Grylls, only with zombies), and the technophile/attention seeker. These bloggers get chosen to be a part of the campaign entourage for a Presidential candidate, Senator Ryman. Things basically devolve into the zombie nom-nom-nom-fest that is necessary. However, while Kellis-Amberlee (the reanimatory virus) and zombies are the basis of the story, they aren't the focus. Which was refreshing. The focus of the book is the campaign for election and the uncovering of a conspiracy.

Not only was the delivery and focus of a zombie story fresh, but the setting was pretty rad. Everyone in the world is infected with KA, but in a 'dormant' state. When certain circumstances are met the virus goes live and zombifies its host. This gives us an interesting way of life where constant blood testing is necessary. Quarantines, hazard levels, safe zones, and danger zones are all commonplace. In fact the blood testing is so common (and a point is made about how they are painful on purpose, because loss of pain sensation is a sign of virus amplification) that we wondered why the main characters fingers and hands weren't hamburger from all the abuse they take.

The characters are all very likable, except for Georgia, who is the 1st person PoV character for the book. Georgia is aloof, and not personable at all. Being inside her head only makes this more noticeable. It distances the reader from her, which is a bummer. There were times when we wondered what it may have been like to have the 1st Person narrative from one of the other characters.

While just about everything is fresh, well-written, and fun, the story falls apart the minute Grant actually gives us a glimpse of what the main character's blogs look like. We can understand Buffy's being bad, it's supposed to be kind of trashy. We can even understand Shaun's entries being somewhat sensationalist. But Georgia, who in her first blog entry we see talks about keeping opinion out of it, is just not believable as the "only the facts ma'am" kind of reporter she touts herself to be. The premise that these three are chosen out of so many to follow a presidential candidate and give the news about it is beyond ridiculous. We had an easier time believing that, should we put the book down, open the drapes to our front yards, and have a look around, there would be real, live (Or is that real dead? Real undead?) zombies out there, than believing these three kids have garnered the kind of attention depicted. Grant makes an issue of how these three bloggers have achieved readership that succeeds porn and pirating sites. With the bland blog entries we are shown, we can't believe that.

Besides. It's common knowledge that when (note: not if) bloggers are chosen after a zombie apocalypse (it WILL happen), the first bloggers chosen will be us.

"Oh quite being such sticklers about belief. You're reading a zombie book." You say? Well it is common knowledge that zombies do exist. What are you talking about, 'belief'? Steve is going to send zombie ninjas after you, if you don't wise up. Anyway...onward...We talk about believing these characters, because we have already suspended belief so much to accept this post-zombie-apocalyptic setting. Though, to Mira Grant's credit, it didn't take THAT much suspension to believe it, her setting was that well crafted.

FEED was a fun, and unique, ride through the flavor of the year. If we could choose a zombie book to recommend as a final foray into the zombie tropes, it would be FEED. We enjoyed it immensely, despite the failed blog entries. We see why Grant wrote and included them, we just didn't like them. It was such a small gripe when compared to just how fun the rest of the book was though, that FEED is firmly entrenched in the Books We Like category.

Thanks Mira!

Recommended Age: 18 and up. Its pretty gruesome at times, and there is adult content. But mainly, the political aspect may bore younger readers.
Language: Yep. All cuss words. It isn't ridiculously prevalent though.
Violence: No more dumb questions... It's a zombie book.
Sex: A few jokes here and there. Nothing actually ever happens though.