Feed (Newsflesh Trilogy #1) by Mira Grant – Left me hungry for more zombies

In the not too distant future, cancer and the common cold are things of the past.  But in the vain of “I Am Legend,”  the cure to one (or two in this case) leads to an even worse pandemic that will change the course of humanity as we know it.  Fast forward two decades and we see a new world where the infected roam, humans, while maintaining some sense of civilization, are as paranoid and as ever, and the country looks towards leadership to continue the fight to restore the “land of the free and home of the brave” to its former zombie-less glory.  But with power comes corruption, and the brother sister blogging team of Shaun and Georgia Mason are determined to expose this corruption in order to deliver the truth to the people, no matter the cost.

This book was certainly one of the more unique takes on the genre that I’ve seen.  It gets very technical and scientific, but it also gets very political.  The thing is, if the second book is more of the same with practically 20 pages of zombie action among 550+ pages of just about everything else, I think I might pass on continuing down this road. In fact, I’m probably more likely to just read The Road.  I didn’t see the need for 571 pages here and the next books are even longer.  I interrupted my progress more than once by reading other novels because this just wasn’t keeping my interest as much as I would have hoped.  Since this is a favorite of many, I tried my best to muddle through it.  In the end, I need more tension and action in these kinds of stories.  Politics is fine and dandy, but I would have liked to have seen a better balance with actual zombie screen time.  The plot kind of shambled along, like the zombies this book is supposed to be about.  It became annoyingly repetitive at times, from the countless blood screenings to countless references to Georgia’s eye condition.

It did offer an extensive amount of world building that made scientific and technological references believable in the scope of the story.  It was occasionally thought-provoking and there were a few moments that had potential to get me hooked, but ultimately it never really took off.  However, the last 15% was boldy executed and if that intensity was maintained for a larger portion of the novel, I would read the rest of the series without a doubt. In fact, it gained one extra star for that alone.

In the end, I wasn’t scared, the zombies were more like a backdrop to drive the plot (so much so that they could have been arguably interchangeable with some other pandemic, but I doubt this book would have sold as well), and I was mildly intrigued at best for the majority of the book. If I continue it won’t be anytime soon. I’m certainly in no rush.