My Thoughts: Blackout (Mira Grant)

Rise up while you can. -Georgia Mason

The year was 2014. The year we cured cancer. The year we cured the common cold. And the year the dead started to walk. The year of the Rising.

The year was 2039. The world didn't end when the zombies came, it just got worse. Georgia and Shaun Mason set out on the biggest story of their generation. The uncovered the biggest conspiracy since the Rising and realized that to tell the truth, sacrifices have to be made.

Now, the year is 2041, and the investigation that began with the election of President Ryman is much bigger than anyone had assumed. With too much left to do and not much time left to do it in, the surviving staff of After the End Times must face mad scientists, zombie bears, rogue government agencies-and if there's one thing they know is true in post-zombie America, it's this:

Things can always get worse.

(Goodreads blurb/link)


Source: Bought
Cover: Matches the other two.
Why I wanted to read this: To complete this zombified trilogy.

My Thoughts:

Blackout is the third and final book in the Newsflesh trilogy. This review WILL contain spoilers from Feed and Deadline.

Blackout starts off with the knowledge that Georgia is somehow alive.   The knowledge of how this is possible is given to the reader within the first 30 or so pages.  And that how is completely baffling. The whole subject it presents is incredibly mind-boggling.  Shaun and Georgia are reunited and this in itself presents something to the reader that there has been hints about in the past. Something that I, to be honest, could not completely wrap my head around.

Blackout was my least favorite of the three.  This is not the kind of book you can read with any kind of distractions because you will get lost and you will be confused.  I still found myself constantly questioning what the heck is going on here.  It kind of made my brain hurt trying to keep everything straight.

That being said, I was so glad to have Georgia’s “voice” back as a narrator, and not just the one in Shaun’s head.   The blog entries the author gave continued to be an excellent source of information that not only helped expand the characters further, but also the story itself.  President Ryman finally makes an appearance and I’d been wondering what the heck happened to him. His election and connection with Georgia and Shaun in book 1 made me question where he had been all this time.  It's about time the reader find out what he's been up to.

I did not like how this book ended. It didn’t feel complete to me. Georgia and Shaun are such a large part of this trilogy and I felt the way the author went with the conclusion was a bit of a cop-out.  I don’t appreciate vague endings or ones where a side character makes the closing statement. 

There was a lot more zombie action in this book.  More scientific facts.  More death and betrayal.  More corruption and lies.  It also makes you think about our own government system and how much of the things that happen in this trilogy could happen in real life.  Let’s face it; the government has a lot of power.  And there will always be people to corrupt that power and use it for their own gain.  It’s important that to counterbalance that we always have people to constantly question the way things are and not be afraid to rise up.

Favorite Quotes:

"I spent too much time living in the past, and I didn't need to encourage the part of me that would be happy to stay there forever."

"I was tired of being a haunted house," he said. "Thank you for coming home."

Bottom Line: Blackout was my least favorite, a bit confusing and I didn’t like how it ended. 3.5/5 

As a trilogy I give this one a 4/5.  It’s a very different take on the zombie apocalypse that overall, I think is definitely worth reading.