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.  

My Thoughts: Deadline (Mira Grant)

Shaun Mason is a man without a mission. Not even running the news organization he built with his sister has the same urgency as it used to. Playing with dead things just doesn't seem as fun when you've lost as much as he has.

But when a CDC researcher fakes her own death and appears on his doorstep with a ravenous pack of zombies in tow, Shaun has a newfound interest in life. Because she brings news-he may have put down the monster who attacked them, but the conspiracy is far from dead.

Now, Shaun hits the road to find what truth can be found at the end of a shotgun.
(Goodreads Summary)

Deadline is book#2 in the Newsflesh Trilogy.
This review will contain SPOILERS from Feed only.


Ok. Wow. So. (That's how the end of Deadline left me)

So Feed basically leaves us with the knowledge that the CDC is corrupted. You don't know who you can trust. You learn that there is a lot more going on with the Kellis-Amberlee virus than once thought. The public has been lied to. Shaun and his friends have been lied to. Buffy and Georgia are dead. Deadline immediately picks up where Feed left off.

There were a couple times in Deadline that I felt bogged down with scientific fact talk. While interesting it, at times, crossed over in to eye glazing territory. Things however quickly picked up. Deadline contains a lot of action, but it's a different kind then most readers will be expecting. It's not all apocalyptic face ripping and innard eating violence on every page. Deadline is more about a ragtag group of bloggers searching for answers and trying not to get murdered in the process. The zombies really aren't their biggest concern. That doesn't mean it's not edge-of-your-seat what's going to happen next suspense at times.

To be honest, I was a little worried going in to book 2. Georgia was my favorite character and with her being all dead now I was a little wary about Shaun taking up the slack. Luckily Georgia is still around seeing as Shaun has gone a little crazy and hears Georgia's voice in his head. And can sometimes see her. And feel her. He deserves to indulge in a little crazy, he did have to see his sister get infected and then shoot her in the head after all. So that means Georgia is still very much present in Deadline, through both the crazy talk in Shaun's head and through old blog entries. But Shaun holds his own as a character and I grew to like him quite a bit. As well as Becks, who kinda steps in as a brave, hardcore female character but also has a soft side.

One part of these books I really think adds a lot are the blog entries, both published and unpublished, that the author includes at the beginning and/or end of each chapter from Shaun, Georgia or one of the other members of their group. They give a lot of insight into the characters and how they are feeling about their friends, family, the world as a whole, and themselves.

Things happen toward the end of this book that I absolutely did NOT see coming and have a LOT of unanswered questions about. As soon as I read the last line, I literally put the book down and said out loud, "What the fuck?!?". There's no way I can NOT read the third and final book, Blackout.

Favorite Quotes:
" That was the sort of grief I can handle. Sadly enough, it's the kind I've been on the inside of, because even saying good-bye isn't enough. There's always one more thing you should have had the time to say, or do, or ask. There's always going to be that one missing piece."

"I think that if anything destroys the human race at this point, it's going to be the human race itself."

"I guess in the end, it doesn't matter what we wanted. What matters is what we chose to do with the things we had."

"The truth may, given the opportunity, set us free."

"Sometimes people make mistakes, and sometimes those mistakes are the sort that don't allow for second chances."


Bottom Line: Basically it's simple, if you liked Feed, you should read Deadline. I don't think you'll be disappointed.   4/5

Blog hiatus

Well it seems I've had an unintentional hiatus from my blog, no posts since March, other then my review a couple days ago.
I had a reading lull and would come home from work too exhausted to do anything but fall into bed. I definitely didn't have enough energy to keep up with my blog.
I'm trying to get back into it now, I've missed posting and reviewing the books I've read for my own records.

I've been under a lot of stress recently and there was some illness in my family. I tend to deal with these things in one of two ways, eating or shopping. I went to the bookstore like 6 times in the course of 2 weeks. I have a TON of new books I'm stoked to read.  Slowly weeding my way through them. I don't know about other readers but sometimes I have the hardest time deciding what to read next. I have a lot of books that are the second or third in a series and feel like I need to go back and read the first one, but that's more time away from reading all my new books. EEEEk.

I'm reading Deadline by Mira Grant right now, the second book in the Newsflesh Trilogy. I definitely recommend this series to people who are a fan of zombies. These books give a more realistic feel to the whole zombie phenomenon.  Note to self...find my zombie survival guide and study up on what NOT to do...

My Thoughts: FEED (Mira Grant)

The year was 2014. We had cured cancer. We had beaten 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, bloggers Georgia and Shaun Mason are on the trail of the biggest story of their lives - the dark conspiracy behind the infected. The truth will get out, even if it kills them. (Goodreads blurb)

My Thoughts:
As far as zombie books go, this one was pretty excellent.

Let me start by saying every zombie book I have read so far and tv/movie I've watched depicts the new zombiefied worlds as desolate, isolated and just plain lonely.  In Feed, humanity has found a way to survive, pretty well actually. Sure, there are hazard zones and no access areas, pretty much everyone carries firearms, and you have to have blood tests everywhere you go as well as succumb to strict isolation/sterilization protocols.  BUT because of all these things, society as a whole is still functioning.  There are still laws to be followed and, heck in this book there's a presidential race going on.  All of these things together gave this book a realistic feel and gives a good creep-out factor that something like this could possibly be waiting for us in the future. 

In this world, the only reliable news source you can depend on is that from bloggers. I especially liked that premise. It was through a blog that the public first learned about Kellis-Amberlee virus (Zombie virus) which was caused by a mutation of the two cures discovered for cancer and the common cold. So basically you're stoked because you can't die a slow and agonizing death from the big C. But now, you are constantly on the look-out to make sure you don't get infected or eaten by the big Z.

Feed focuses on one particular group of bloggers who makes it their job to make sure the public gets the unfiltered facts, even if it costs them their lives. Most of the characters were easy to relate to and could be anyone. I especially found Georgia's idiosyncrocies to be quite relatable. Even though this book is almost 600 pages, I had no trouble getting through it. It was very interesting and different from other books I've read.

The end of this book was both expected and unexpected. I didn't like it. But it's an author's job to write things that the reader won't necessarily like in order to keep things moving and set up following books. I'm well on my way into Deadline, book #2 in the trilogy.

Favorite Quotes:
“Every life has a watershed moment, an instant when you realize you're about to make a choice that will define everything else you ever do, and that if you choose wrong, there may not be that many things left to choose. Sometimes the wrong choice is the only one that lets you face the end with dignity, grace, and the awareness that you're doing the right thing.
I'm not sure we can recognize those moments until they've passed us.” 

“…but at the end of the day, there’s got to be somebody you’re doing it for. Just one person you’re thinking of every time you make a decision, every time you tell the truth, or tell a lie, or anything.
I’ve got mine. Do you?”

Bottom Line:  If you're tired of all the same old apocalyptic zombie crap and want a some-what more realistic take on a zombie outbreak, I would totally recommend this book. 4/5