Feed (Newsflesh, Book 1)

by Mira Grant

Book Overview

Feed is an electrifying and critically acclaimed novel of a world a half-step from our own that the New York Times calls "Astonishing" -- a novel of zombies, geeks, politics, social media, and the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316081051
• Release Date: May 2010
• Publisher: Orbit
• Length: 608 Pages
• Weight: 0.72 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.5" x 1.3" x 4.3"

Customer Reviews

eh

It was an alright book. I do agree with the reviews that if you are looking for a real zombie book, don't get this one. This is a book with zombies in it - not a zombie book. The relationship between the main character and her brother was widely unrealistic and beyond painful to read. I stayed for the plot, which still left out a lot in this book and no way am I reading the other books in the series. It was okay but wouldn't recommend it.

Great book!

so after i bought this book i was reading some reviews..... was really thinking that i made a mistake with this one.... this book isnt just about zombies but the people's lives that are still fighting for the truth and i agree with some reviews if you are looking for zombie gore that this probably isnt your book - keep in mind im only on page 124 as of right now. i will edit my review after completing the book. I just dont want someone who reads reviews to pass on this book if you like zombie books for more than just the gore UPDATE- I finished the book and I'm glad I went ahead and read the book! Looking forward to the second book to arrive.

One of my favorites!

These are the only books (and by that I mean the whole series) I have read by Mira Grant (Seanan McGuire), but I own so many of her novels SOLELY because I automatically purchase her books after reading and loving The Newsflesh Trilogy. This book and the whole series will hold a special place in my heart. It covers a wide array of topics from social media, politics, familial issues, health, morality, and so on. Yes, I read solely for the idea of zombies, but I enjoyed the whole experience! The writing is amazing, I caught myself laughing at so many parts! I might buy copies just to hand out to people when they ask for one of my favorite books!!

Very well written

this series captivated me immediately. this is something i would love to see made into a mini-series.

Smart, engaging suspense novel, no Zombie gore!

Feed is Seanan McGuire's first novel to be published in the Newsflesh trilogy, written under the pen name, Mira Grant. Grant's writing is well thought out and thoroughly researched providing for a very convincing post-apocalyptic future. In the year 2014, scientific efforts to cure cancer and the common cold resulted in two viral strains that when mixed together, created a deadly infection. The new viral strain known as Kellis-Amberlee, swiftly turned humans and large animals into Zombies and reached epidemic proportions within 24 hours, forever changing the landscape of our world. Grant's world building efforts transport us to a very frightening and believable version of the future. The plot is set in the year 2039 and sensationalistic news reporting is a thing of the past. Blogging has replaced broadcast and print media-- bloggers of the future are considered the only reliable source where viewers and readers can get up-to-date news. Grant takes the blogging world that we know and elevates it to a very plausible future. Georgia and Shaun Mason, twin siblings, run the blog newscast, After the End Times. The infrastructure of their blogging community consists of Newsies, Irwins, Fictionals and Stewarts all of which are employed by After the End Times. George, Shaun & Co. are invited by Senator Ryman, a presidential candidate, to provide exclusive coverage of his camp during the 2040 Presidential Campaign. Much to my relief, the zombies stay in the background of the story. At the forefront, a conspiracy theory develops when Senator Ryman's daughter is killed, the threat of terrorism ensues and George & Shaun become determined to uncover the truth, even if it kills them. The author doesn't deny her characters a sense of humor, regardless of the tension and I personally enjoyed seeing some of the authors own personality shine through. Though I found Feed, a unique story that was a very complete and satisfying read, Grant is a bit repetitive and too much time was spent explaining how the technical gadgets of the future work. I would have liked to learn more about some of the supporting characters, in particular, the villain. I missed the humanity and motivation that would drive someone to unleash such a horrifying plague on innocent people. Things I liked about this book...The action sucks you in on page one, the world building doesn't outshine the character development, electric blue, steel plated VW bugs that look like giant armadillos, poking dead things with sticks, Lois the cat and watershed moments. Most horror novels are written as stand alones--when I think of writers with a successful series in the horror genre I think of Thomas Harris and Jonathan Mayberry. Given the potential for this series, Mira Grant isn't far behind, which is quite an accomplishment for a such a new author. There's no cheesy gore in this book, only well written suspense that is terrifying to the core. I give this book a conservative, 4 1/2 bloody fingers! I ca

wow. homestly.

zombies can be a love/hate affair. they're fun to poke at with a stick... but they can kill you. Feed takes a world full of zombies, politics,conspiracy, terror, bloggers/internet and creates a world in which blogging news and zombies makes for a dangerous career choice. shaun,george and buffy follow a presidential campaign through the u.s during post zombified america. george and shaun mason, along with buffy, are a blast to follow though their career as bloggers. at times, a little slow, but shaun and george make this book a blast to read. who wouldve thought of using bloggers and zombies? a GENIUS, thats who! thanks to io9 for the reccomendation btw.

Possibly one of the best books I've read this year

Last night I slept with my living room lights on because I couldn't handle sleeping in a completely dark apartment. I knew the dangers going into this when I picked up a book about Zombies, but I plunged in anyways. Yes, the size of the book is a little intimidating, but ...just read it. The hooks go in and you're dragged through this book like being dragged behind a boat on nothing more substantial than a piece of cardboard. It's terrifying and thrilling and we won't talk about the boat-and-cardboard-incident. The Setting -- is post-Rising USA. A combination of two viruses created to cure the world's population from cancer and the common cold have created something else - Kellis-Amberlee, which is what causes people to become what George Romero has been warning us about for ages: Zombies. The USA has become another place; people live inside varying levels of safe zones, going out on a Friday night isn't an option anymore, and you don't keep pets. Well, not unless you want to run the chance of one of them going viral on you and gnawing on you in your sleep. Most of the story is spent on the road, following the news from the perspective of young internet bloggers. Blogging is the setting for the truely reliable news; the stuff that no one censors. The Characters -- are focused on a brother sister team of Georgia (aka, George) and her brother Shaun. George is a hard news, no opinion, I need my facts kind of gal. She's their brains and their planning. Her brother Shaun is the Irwin; those who want to go out and effectively poke zombies with sticks on camera for a good story. Yes, I said he's an Irwin, like Steve Irwin. My heart warmed a little when the beloved animal junkie was given his own feature in these books. I think he would have been honored that his spirit of getting out into the face of things had this sort of presence. The book is littered with three kinds of characters: the journalists (bloggers, hard-copy news, etc), political figures, and the security teams. With that said, I have to say the characterization was awesome. I could picture most of these people in my mind and knew beyond a shadow of a doubt who they were on or off paper. The Plot -- yes, there's a plot to the zombie book! In many ways this seems like a political thriller with the backdrop of zombies, rather than a zombie book. It's written and followed with a type of frank, blogging language that makes the book sound as if George were telling it to you. This made for stretches that could be discerned as info dumping, but in fact felt - like blogging. Rather than the book focusing on an us vs them mentality of the zombies, it turns to the political world. After the Rising has happened and everything's died down, what do people do then? Sure, the initial outbreaks are scarier than a rabbid poodle, but does the world just go on? Or does it crawl to a screaming, drying stop and - zombify? Feed looks at the - what next? In this world where a genera

Outstanding

There are zombies. There's some gore, though not as much as you might think. And yes, some people (and animals) die in highly unpleasant ways. Still, I don't think of Feed by Mira Grant as a horror novel. It's science fiction in both the extrapolative and speculative sense, and a fine example of both. A little term definition is in order here. Extrapolative and speculative SF have sometimes been referred to, respectively, as the "if this goes on" and "what if" types of science fiction. An extrapolative story looks at our world as it is today, examines current trends, and makes educated guesses as to what will happen next. A speculative story posits one Big Change, and explores how that change will affect the rest of the world. In Feed, that Big Change is the Kellis-Amberlee virus, an engineered and mutated plague with the nasty habit of animating the corpses of those it infects, and using the time before the body collapses completely to a) feed, and b) spread the infection. Hence, zombies. In the Feed timeline, the first spread of Kellis-Amberlee, and the Rising that followed, occurred in 2014. It's now 2039, and the world is, as you might expect, a very different place. It's a world where the CDC carries the highest level of governmental authority, a world where Alaska has been abandoned, and a world where a bullet to the brain is far, far preferable to death by natural causes, and everyone knows it. The extrapolation? That comes from the protagonists, Georgia and Shaun Mason. They're a brother and sister team of bloggers, and bloggers have become the primary source of news and information for the majority of the remaining population. We see how online news gathering and reporting (among other things) has come fully of age, with a feel for how people and organizations pursue ratings and status, and how those organizations function. We also see the technology used, though for my taste the advances shown there were actually on the conservative side. The structure on which all this extrapolation and speculation is built is the 2040 United States Presidential race. Senator Ryman, a Republican candidate, invites the Masons to travel with and cover his campaign. Beyond that, it's a trip I encourage you to take for yourself. "Mira Grant" is the not-at-all-secret pen name of Seanan McGuire, whose urban fantasy novels have landed her on this year's final Campbell Award ballot. Her greatest strengths under both names are in world building and characterization. The world here is believable and engrossing, and the infodumps are relatively unintrusive. The characters are fully formed, with individual voices, beliefs, and attitudes. I grew to care about them deeply, so much so that at one point I likely would have yelled "No!" if I hadn't been reading on a crowded plane, and at another I had to put down the book for a minute to wipe my eyes. McGuire/Grant's weakest area before now, the one that's been the target of the most criticis

Bloggers (and zombies) have taken over the world

I am reviewing an Advance Reading Copy provided by the publisher. The year is 2039 and bloggers have taken over the world. Twenty five years ago the Kellis-Amberlee virus went live. Infected humans and animals began reanimating after death--some underwent spontaneous change--to become walking feeding machines. With an appetite for the truth as insatiable as a zombie's diet, Georgia--George--Mason and her brother, Shaun, have climbed the ranks of news bloggers around the world. Their ratings have everything to gain from their recent invitation to join a senator's political campaign. Now they're on the road providing coverage of what's promising to be the campaign trail for the next President of the United States of America. There's only one problem: wherever they go, KA begins breaking out, putting the team at risk. Will they survive to see their candidate win the Republican ticket? Feed is Seanan McGuire's third published book, but first under the pen name Mira Grant. Fans of her October Daye books will recognize some similarities between the two series. Mainly, these are minor--writers will invariably develop quirks that nuance their writing. Georgia is an independent, no-nonsense workaholic with a license that requires her to carry a gun and a disease that makes it impossible for her to cry. Clearly Grant likes writing strong female protagonists. They lean toward the flinty end of the spectrum and stop just short of growling when not amused. It might appear at first that the inability to cry is going a bit overboard. It isn't necessary to literally remove a reaction stereotypically associated with the female gender to show how tough she is, but Georgia makes it clear how frustrating Retinal KA really is. She wants access to that human reaction and is frequently reminded of the deprivation, however much reliant she is on it when the situation requires stoicism. Here is a character fighting against two polarities. Her tears were stolen and without the necessary moisture, she can't even "tear up" about it. Add to this being adopted by parents making the gesture for the ratings and Georgia's developed into a very sympathetic character. She's had a difficult life--who wouldn't, growing up in a world where fear of contagion has kept people indoors and glued to their computer screens? What makes her--and her fellow bloggers, Shaun and Buffy--different is knowing when to put fear and terror aside to keep living. How they earn that living is very interesting. When established media proved untrustworthy reporting the first outbreak, the world turned to bloggers. Bloggers spoke for the common good--as much to inform themselves as the frightened public. They helped make sense of the unexplained chaos breaking out across the nation. Enter Shaun and Georgia, sponsors willing to fund their efforts, and After the End Times was born. Grant manages to build a convincing news body which isn't too far from the truth. Some people already rely enormously on the