Author: Mira Gran
Narrated by Paula Christensen and Jesse Bernstein
Running time: 15 hours and 6 minutes
Summary
In 2014, two experimental viruses—a genetically engineered flu strain designed by Dr. Alexander Kellis, intended to act as a cure for the common cold, and a cancer-killing strain of Marburg, known as "Marburg Amberlee"—escaped the lab and combined to form a single airborne pathogen that swept around the world in a matter of days. It cured cancer. It stopped a thousand cold and flu viruses in their tracks. It raised the dead.
Millions died in the chaos that followed. The summer of 2014 was dubbed "The Rising," and only the lessons learned from a thousand zombie movies allowed mankind to survive. Even then, the world was changed forever. The mainstream media fell, Internet news acquired an undeniable new legitimacy, and the CDC rose to a new level of power.
Set twenty years after the Rising, the Newsflesh trilogy follows a team of bloggers, led by Georgia and Shaun Mason, as they search for the brutal truths behind the infection. Danger, deceit, and betrayal lurk around every corner, as does the hardest question of them all: When will you rise?
When Senator Peter Ryman of Wisconsin decides to take a team of bloggers along on his run for the White House, Georgia and Shaun Mason are quick to submit their application. They, along with their friend Georgette "Buffy" M. are selected, and view this as the chance to launch their careers to a whole new level...that is, if they can survive the campaign trail.
Review
Holy moly. For a change, I am going to discuss the ending of this novel first. There is an event that occurs at the end of this story that absolutely crushed me and I still can’t believe that Ms. Grant did it. It was truly epic. For spoiler reasons I won’t discuss the plot twist here but I am in total awe of the author for taking this risk in this day and age of safe urban fantasy fiction. I am still in shock. Let’s put it this way, it affected me the whole day at work as I replayed the events in my head. Wow.
Feed starts off as your typical post-apocalyptic zombie novel and then turns into something more. For me, the book is not about the battle against the zombies but is really about the culture of fear. If you transpose the word zombie in this novel with the word terrorist, thief or murder it would work the same. The people of this future world live in a constant state of fear of being attack and this has lead to overriding personal freedoms for the greater good. What will a society give up to live in safe environment?
The main plot line involves a political thriller that for most part works and sometimes seems a tad unrealistic. Again, the undercutting theme behind the plot is what works best. It shows how far some political figures will go to keep the citizens in line by using fear and that the best tactic against this is a media that has an interest in uncovering the truth.
The really strange thing is that for the majority of the novel I felt as if the characters were really not all that developed. But when the ending hit and it hits hard, I lost all feeling and felt like someone slammed a door in my face. I haven’t been this affected emotionally since reading Stephen King’s The Stand when Larry Underwood is killed.
Again, wow.
Final word:
Feed is one of the best I have read this year. The story will plod along and then it reaches a point that you become so intertwined that you must continue reading to find out what happens next. What puts this novel head and shoulders above the standard zombie novel is the underlying themes that will give the reader something to think about well after you have finished the story. Finally, as a word of warning, keep tissues near by when are getting towards the end, you will need them.
My Rating
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