Review: Feed, by Mira Grant

Feed, by Mira Grant

Published: May 2010

Publisher: Hatchette Book Group

Pages: 599

Rating: 

The year was 2014. We had cured cancer. We had beat the common cold. But in doing so we created something new, something terrible that no one could stop. The infection spread, virus blocks taking over bodies and minds with one, unstoppable command: FEED.

NOW, twenty years after the Rising, Georgia and Shaun Mason are on the trail of the biggest story of their lives-the dark conspiracy behind the infected. The truth will out, even if it kills them.

Oh man, I have a feeling we’ll be hearing a lot about Mira Grant in the future. This woman writes like a well seasoned author, and I found myself (numerous times) thinking, “This can NOT be her first book!” In the end, I was very excited to read that this will be part of a trilogy.

Mira Grant creates a world where being a zombie seems completely possible. She’s created a world where (living) humans and zombies can co-exist--aside from the occasional zombie outbreak, and accidentally wandering into hazard zones, life is peachy. Sort of.  They co-exist, but I don’t think I’d be giving too much away to say they don’t live together happily.

There were so many aspects of this book that I thoroughly enjoyed. From the way society has had to adapt to live in a zombie world, to the way the Blogging community is now the source for news. Loved it.

There was great depth to each of the main characters, Georgia and Shaun Mason who were brother and sister. At times I found myself thinking they were a little too close, but in a zombie infested world, I would imagine you would need someone you knew you could rely on. Being siblings, it only seems logical that they would depend on each other so much.

Her politicians were so spot on, it was unreal. I could totally see John McCain (or better yet, Sarah Palin) being the Governor Tate of our world, should there ever be a zombie outbreak….

I will say that at times the book was a bit wordy. Most of the paragraphs are about half a page long, though a lot of that is dialog. These characters just had a lot to say. There were some instances where I felt like there was a little too much explanation going on, and as I started to near the end of the book, I found myself thinking “Okay, can we please just get on with it?” As soon as I finished that thought, however, she threw me a curveball.

This story rolled smoothly overall, aside from the occasionally wordiness. I never really got the feeling that I was missing any information. She managed to keep it suspenseful while telling us everything we needed to know, in order to really understand the world they were living in.

I’ve never cried while watched a zombie movie. Sure, I’ve felt some pity for characters that had to shoot loved ones, or watched their loved ones be attacked by a swarm of hungry zombies, but I’ve never really gotten emotional over it. I’ve never actually read another zombie book, so I can’t make any calls there, but it is a fact that this book had me in tears. I cried like a little baby, and to that, I just have one thing to say.

Well done, Ms. Grant. Well done.