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alexiscartwheelIn the summer of 2014, I virus wiped out thirty two percent of the worlds population was wiped out by a dangerous infection. Cures for cancer and the common cold joined forces, resulting in the mother of all side effects, reanimating the dead. Decades after the zombie apocalypse, life in the United States goes on, but things have changed. There's much more fear of being eaten, for one...
I know zombies are really trendy, but I've never been that interested. I've seen Shaun of the Dead (funny) and read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (meh), but that's about it. But after three recs for Feed I realized I had to give it a try. Then I realized that Mira Grant is also Seanan McGuire, the author of the October Daye series, a.k.a. the author who actually made me like a book about fairies. (I know, I know, no zombies, no fairies, what kind of fantasy/scifi stories do you like? Well, I am partial to women with swords.) Luckily, even writing under a different name, she didn't disappoint. Feed really blew me away.
Blogger Georgia Mason, with her brother Shaun and their partner "Buffy" Meissoneur, are selected to join the press pool for presidential hopeful Senator Peter Ryman. The book follows them and the rest of their team as they meet the candidate, attend high-security town hall meetings, cover the action on Super Tuesday, and prepare for the Republican National Convention. Of course there are run in with mobs of angry zombies along the way, but that's not really what makes the great. What hooked me are the characters and the worldbuilding.
The author obviously put a lot of into how a post-zombie world would function. Because of the fear of the virus activating—everyone is a carrier, but death or exposure to live virus leads to zombification—people have given up a lot of freedom. Movement into designated hazard zones is restricted, and constant blood testing is the norm. (Apple is less focused on iPods these days, and has moved into the high end portable blood testing units.) And of course, in a world where the Centers for the Disease Control is one of the most important government units, the political issues of the day are pretty zombie focused as well.
Georgia, the narrator, is a pretty amazing young woman. Though she doesn't like to poke zombies with sticks, like Shaun does, she doesn't hesitate to venture into dangerous areas for the sake of an investigation. As the campaign rolls on she starts to uncover some pretty nasty dealings—that I cannot get into for the sake of spoiling you, which I won't do, because you need to just read this book—but is committed to finding the truth, despite the risks.
One thing I definitely wasn't expecting in a book about zombies was to find such a great depiction of a woman with a disability. Georgia, like everyone around her, carries the Kellis-Amberlee virus, but in her case, it has infected her eyes, making her extraordinarily sensitive to light. Even wearing sunglasses at all times, Georgia often gets serious migraines; without, she could lose her vision completely. What's amazing is that Georgia doesn't fit into any of the usual fictional tropes for disabled characters. She's not a supercrip "triumphing through adversity" or anyone's object of pity. What she is is a woman dealing with a disability in very everyday ways: carrying extra sunglasses at all times, buying special low wattage lightbulbs, and of course, dealing with bureaucratic inconveniences around her disability status. In one scene, Georgia has to insist on her right under ADA to an alternative to a retinal scan, the type of small accommodation that is difficult for many people to obtain.
Don't misinterpret my tangent about Georgia to mean anything about the other characters. Shaun and Buffy share the stage most of the time, but there's a slew of interesting secondary players. There's a lot of humor—I particularly enjoyed Shuan and Georgia's banter—and plenty of action. The book is nearly 600 pages long, but it seems much shorter because of the fast pace. Once I got into it, I didn't want to stop reading, so much that one of my coworkers caught me walking from the bus to my office while reading one morning!
I highly recommend Feed, which is the first in an eventual trilogy of books. I've got the second book, Deadline, on hold at the library. Even better, while I'm waiting for the third to be published, the next Tobey Daye book, One Salt Sea is being published next month!
I know zombies are really trendy, but I've never been that interested. I've seen Shaun of the Dead (funny) and read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (meh), but that's about it. But after three recs for Feed I realized I had to give it a try. Then I realized that Mira Grant is also Seanan McGuire, the author of the October Daye series, a.k.a. the author who actually made me like a book about fairies. (I know, I know, no zombies, no fairies, what kind of fantasy/scifi stories do you like? Well, I am partial to women with swords.) Luckily, even writing under a different name, she didn't disappoint. Feed really blew me away.
Blogger Georgia Mason, with her brother Shaun and their partner "Buffy" Meissoneur, are selected to join the press pool for presidential hopeful Senator Peter Ryman. The book follows them and the rest of their team as they meet the candidate, attend high-security town hall meetings, cover the action on Super Tuesday, and prepare for the Republican National Convention. Of course there are run in with mobs of angry zombies along the way, but that's not really what makes the great. What hooked me are the characters and the worldbuilding.
The author obviously put a lot of into how a post-zombie world would function. Because of the fear of the virus activating—everyone is a carrier, but death or exposure to live virus leads to zombification—people have given up a lot of freedom. Movement into designated hazard zones is restricted, and constant blood testing is the norm. (Apple is less focused on iPods these days, and has moved into the high end portable blood testing units.) And of course, in a world where the Centers for the Disease Control is one of the most important government units, the political issues of the day are pretty zombie focused as well.
Georgia, the narrator, is a pretty amazing young woman. Though she doesn't like to poke zombies with sticks, like Shaun does, she doesn't hesitate to venture into dangerous areas for the sake of an investigation. As the campaign rolls on she starts to uncover some pretty nasty dealings—that I cannot get into for the sake of spoiling you, which I won't do, because you need to just read this book—but is committed to finding the truth, despite the risks.
One thing I definitely wasn't expecting in a book about zombies was to find such a great depiction of a woman with a disability. Georgia, like everyone around her, carries the Kellis-Amberlee virus, but in her case, it has infected her eyes, making her extraordinarily sensitive to light. Even wearing sunglasses at all times, Georgia often gets serious migraines; without, she could lose her vision completely. What's amazing is that Georgia doesn't fit into any of the usual fictional tropes for disabled characters. She's not a supercrip "triumphing through adversity" or anyone's object of pity. What she is is a woman dealing with a disability in very everyday ways: carrying extra sunglasses at all times, buying special low wattage lightbulbs, and of course, dealing with bureaucratic inconveniences around her disability status. In one scene, Georgia has to insist on her right under ADA to an alternative to a retinal scan, the type of small accommodation that is difficult for many people to obtain.
Don't misinterpret my tangent about Georgia to mean anything about the other characters. Shaun and Buffy share the stage most of the time, but there's a slew of interesting secondary players. There's a lot of humor—I particularly enjoyed Shuan and Georgia's banter—and plenty of action. The book is nearly 600 pages long, but it seems much shorter because of the fast pace. Once I got into it, I didn't want to stop reading, so much that one of my coworkers caught me walking from the bus to my office while reading one morning!
I highly recommend Feed, which is the first in an eventual trilogy of books. I've got the second book, Deadline, on hold at the library. Even better, while I'm waiting for the third to be published, the next Tobey Daye book, One Salt Sea is being published next month!
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