Book Review: Feed by Mira Grant

Title: Feed
Author: Mira Grant


Stop. Go out and read this book right now. Seriously. I don't care if you read the rest of this review, just go out and get this book.

As somewhat of a zombie aficionado, it takes a lot to impress me when it comes to zombie stories. Feed did more than impress me, it did something few z stories can do: it brought something new to the genre.

Feed follows Georgia (known as George) and Shaun Mason twentyish years after the initial zombie outbreak. Traditional news is dead, having been replaced by bloggers (who are in general less biased, and more reliable). George and Shaun are two such bloggers.

When George and Shaun are picked to follow a presidential candidate during the upcoming election (yes, there are still presidents and elections in the world of the zombie future) they are overjoyed. Things quickly go wrong, though, and as the bodies and undead start piling up, you begin to wonder who is behind it all and if George and Shaun can survive.

Mira Grant does darn near everything right in feed. The characters are vivid, the dialogue is whip smart, and the plot moves forward at the perfect pace. I am pretty sure the people around me thought I was crazy when I actually laughed out loud at some parts, and a few parts actually brought me to tears (it still hurts my heart a bit to think about the ending).

If I had to complain about one thing, it was that who the big baddy was was a little telegraphed, but it is a small complaint, and it honestly didn't take away from the story at all.

Feed is a story with some major teeth. It was just so good and I cannot praise it enough. I would recommend it to any lover of the zombie genre, or anyone who just loves a well crafted book. So what are you waiting for? Go out and read it!

Buy Now!
Mira Grant's Website

Exhaustion

My mother had back surgery this past week, and I stayed at the hospital over Wednesday and Thursday night to make sure she was okay (which she is). If you add the sleep I got together from both of those nights you would come up with a sadly small number. Like a number that is less than the amount of sleep most people get in one night.

This had an unintended benefit though.

Let me explain: I am a shy person. I always have been, and am slowly coming to terms with the fact that I always will be. In most social situations I am the quiet girl sitting in a corner with her nose in a book wanting to be left alone.

That being said, I am part of a book club, and this tends to make things interesting. I joined because my friend started the club and I thought it would be good to read books out of my usual comfort zone (we mostly read YA fantasy with a dash of romance. Not my usual forte). When we meet I normally don't say much, maybe a sentence or two the whole meeting.

What does that have to do with lack of sleep, you ask? Well hold on to your pantaloons because I'm getting there.

So this past Friday was the book club meeting for this month. Despite the fact that I was going on very little sleep or coherency, I didn't want to flake, so I went.

It was like I was a completely different person. I was suddenly a person who could hold down a conversation with a normal person with out stuttering or mumbling (too much) or freezing up. I had the thought of 'this is what it must be like to be normal.'

It's like the sleep deprivation shut off the filter in my brain. I didn't care if I sounded stupid, heck at that point I wouldn't have cared if Cthulhu had risen from the depths and asked me for directions. I just didn't care.

Later Brad made the point that he was impressed, I think I made have made ducky noises back at him (I was pretty far gone by that point). But then he bundled me off to bed, and I woke up my old self the next morning. It got me thinking, if I had the chance would I want to be like that all the time?

I don't think I would.

The world needs quiet people, otherwise who would be there to listen?

Night of the Living Fanservice

While perusing the local library (Which is a fun word by the way, perusing. say it with me 'pear-ooze-ing'. Makes you feel fancy, don't it?) I found a book that I was not sure should exist, but that I knew I had to check out anyways. That book was Night of the Living Trekkies by Kevin David Anderson and Sam Stall.

I first thought of the book like a literary PB&J, two great tastes that taste great together (not that I eat PB&J's, but the simile stands). Then I started reading the book.

Don't get me wrong, the authors are very adept writers and the premise is interesting enough, but instead of a delicious word sandwich, I felt like I was being forced to eat a pound of super rich chocolate. It would have been good in little bits, but taken in one sitting it was too much.

The problem was the fan service. It is one thing to have a little bit of sly tongue in cheek geek references, but it is another to do what the first half of the book does. You don't have to prove you're a geek on every page of a book, because after a few chapters of it I am going to stop thinking it is cute or funny. After a few chapters of it, I am going to start thinking you are having a metaphorical nerd pissing contest with your reader, and that is pretty far from enjoyable.

That being said, once the book got into the swing of things it got better. It stopped being up its own butt, and started being a legit sci-fi horror novel. From that point it started being something approaching great.

I am glad I didn't give up on it, because in the end it was pretty darned good.
Plus the book trailer was pretty funny too.