Cannot be Bored Reviews and discussion on books, movies, video games and food

Book Review: Feed

Feed

by Mira Grant

I find myself unable to pass up a good zombie novel. This turned out to be one of the best I've read, though it's not really about zombies.

Feed tells the story of Georgia "George" Mason and her adopted brother Shaun, a pair of news bloggers who join a presidential candidate on the campaign trail and uncover a vast conspiracy. Unlike most zombie books, the story does not take place at the beginning of the outbreak but rather 20 years later. This puts a unique spin on things. Zombies are something people have more or less learned to live with. They are not the antagonists of the story, people are. Rather than a collection of chase scenes, disembowelments and zombie head shots, the book focuses on the characters' pursuit of truth and how that truth is spread in the post-apocalyptic world: blogs.

When I picked up this book I was concerned about the blogging angle. I'm a bit old-fashioned and I don't appreciate having social media shoved down my throat. However, I found the use of blogging as large element of the story quite palatable because there was a good reason for it. Knowledge represents both power and survival. The mainstream media failed when the zombie outbreak happened; they were too slow to believe rumours about the walking dead and give people the information they needed to survive. Since then, people have turned to instant, uncensored blogs to get the news. It makes sense. Each chapter was punctuated with a blog post by one of the main characters which was a nice touch.

One of the real stand-outs in this book was the explanation of how the zombie outbreak occurred. Most books and movies gloss over the subject or attribute it to something completely outlandish. In Feed it is a virus that turns people into zombies, this isn't a new idea but the detail given about how the virus came about and how it replicates was quite extensive and almost believable.

The post-apocalyptic world the book takes place in was very well-drawn. The influence of the zombie infection is seen throughout the book: fences and security checkpoints are everywhere, vehicles are armoured, people are subject to constant blood tests to prove they aren't infected, everyone and their little sister carries a gun. More interesting than the environment is the way the people are portrayed. Even the strongest of the characters has an innate sense of sadness and fear about them. The narrative really drove home the fact that everyone would become a zombie one day. You could go your whole life never coming into contact with a zombie, but one day you would die and immediately wake up with a hunger for flesh. It's a rather frightening thought that each character must live with everyday, and it's obvious how it affects them.

I found the book quite captivating; it seemed much shorter than its 600+ pages. It moved swiftly from introducing the characters and the world to uncovering the conspiracy that would become the focus of the story. I enjoyed all the characters. What I particularly liked was how they reacted to all the terrible events happening around them (and to them). It was realistic and that elicited a deeper reaction from me.

The book did have a few negative points. The plot fell apart a little when I found out who the "bad guys" were. There seemed to be a disconnect between their motives and their actions. There was also an event near the end of the book I found rather unnecessary and cheap, but I won't go into specifics for fear of spoilers.

Overall, I really enjoyed Feed. It was a fresh take on the genre with compelling main characters and a terrific setting. I look forward to reading the next book in the series which should be out in 2011.

Rating:

You can buy Feed at Amazon.com.