Feed

The Newsflesh Trilogy, Book 1

By: Mira Grant

Narrated by: Paula Christensen, Jesse Bernstein

Length: 15 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

Feed is an electrifying and critically acclaimed novel of a world a half-step from our own that the New York Times calls “Astonishing” a novel of zombies, geeks, politics, social media, and the virus that runs through them all - from New York Times best seller Mira Grant.

The year was 2014. We had cured cancer. We had beat 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, 20 years after the Rising, Georgia, and Shaun Mason are on the trail of the biggest story of their lives - the dark conspiracy behind the infected. The truth will out, even if it kills them.

More from Mira Grant:

Newsflesh

• Feed
• Deadline
• Blackout
• Feedback
• Rise

©2010 Mira Grant (P)2010 Hachette

Critic reviews

"It's a novel with as much brains as heart, and both are filling and delicious." (The A.V. Club on Feed)

“Feed is a proper thriller with zombies.” (SFX)

"Gripping, thrilling, and brutal... McGuire has crafted a masterpiece of suspense with engaging, appealing characters who conduct a soul-shredding examination of what's true and what's reported." (Publishers Weekly - starred review)

the concept of safe areas where no one is safe

Sherry and I participated in Goodreads 2016 TBR Twins Challenge. We chose to read Feed (Newsflesh Book 1) by Mira Grant. It was a very good choice.

When Sherry was about one third of the way through the book, she shared with me, “it's an interesting concept of how the whole thing came to be and about blogging. I kind of like the blogging aspect as now in 2016 you don't see much bloggers. It is like they say, mostly teenagers blogging about their depress/antsy life. I used to do that all during high school.

I thought the blogging aspect was cool. It is a more rounded view of what is happening. Not just one person or one organization. What I really like is that it is a zombie apocalypse where civilization has not totally fallen. There is still a government. Still communication. Still the trappings of a normality. Yet there is this constant threat. If you replace "zombie" with "terrorist", it lends itself to a very good conversation. I grew up during the cold war. While we lived everyday normal lives, there was a threat constantly hanging over our heads but not visible. This book reminds me of that type of threat that is there but not there. I

When Sherry finished the book, her summary was, “I LOVE IT!!!!! I can't wait for book #2. I don't want to spoil it for you but sad ending. I also think it's awesome that society did not fall. In movies you always see humanity fallen, people just savage and live off the grid. I like that it is still organized and civilized.

Once I finished I decided I would give it 5 out of 5 stars. Again the main selling point for me was the uniqueness of a not completely fallen civilization. The ending was sad but left room for so much more to happen. I liked seeing Shawn grow from idiot brother to a fully realized character.

As you can tell both Sherry and I were captivated by a semi-apocalypse. Most post apocalypse books I have encountered are somewhat of a scorched earth, nothing left, no civilization, no infrastructure, no communications. It was so refreshing to read a book that still has government and lights and communication. It sets a totally different feel for the book. As I referenced above, the concept of safe areas where no one is truly safe is probably the most horribly aspect of the book. Sherry and I would both highly recommend it.

I also picked up the Audible version of Feed and found it to be wonderful. The narrators, Paula Christensen and Jesse Bernstein did a fantastic job. The production values were perfect. 5 of 5 stars.

"Zombieland" meets "All The Presidents Men"

The Story:
A journey into a tomorrow with outbreak as a part of current events, Georgia & Shawn are adopted siblings who run a blog site reporting first hand accounts of zombie occurrences until they win the journalistic lottery to cover a presidential candidate.

The story moves through more political and current events, medical as well, that sets up a world worth remembering and experiencing. This undercurrent of tension about contact with the virus, and the great lengths the population, sat with me going through the experience of the story. I had to remind myself on occasion that I didn't have to wory about catching the
"Kelsen Amberly Virus" which turns you into a zombie. The violence isn't fetishistic or overstated, there's a fair bit of humor and care at the same time taken into the cost of this virus. There are few great scenes of intense moments that will give most thrill seekers what they're looking for, don't count on widespread zombie killings in this book. The political conspiracy element has some intriguing elements, unfortunately some are quite cliched. Hopefully the following books will be able to open that political conspiracy into something more believable and take a cue from the stronger "CDC" elements that have a real cost to the population, there's something really interesting there.

The Narrators:
Two voices, mostly that of the character Georgia (Paula), run through the book. The character Shawn (Jesse), his voice is less integrated and feels more tacked on, and his accents leave a lot to be desired. Paula's run through the majority of the book is playful, emotional, & picks up the excitement very well. Her performance was worth taking the journey with.

The Sum:
There's a real sense of what's at risk here which would compel me to continue into at least the second book, as long as those very few cliched villains and dot by dot plot connections stay behind. Overall the story was interesting, timely and off the beaten path from what you'd expect from the genre. Like I said if you want to see a Zombie version of "All The President's Men" this is your book.

Kinda boring =/

This is more a political drama then a zombie apocalypse drama.

There's a lot in this book about election, politics and journalism. Honestly the zombie stuff is so minimal that you could probably easily forget there are zombies in this world sometimes.

Its a slog and i could not finish it. 7 hours in and i just felt nothing that interests me. The rules and world building of a post zombie time was interesting.

The reason i guess i found it sorta boring is it wasnt really an apocalypse. It was more like a zombie event. Zombies sickness happened, it didn't destroy the world, just changed it very slightly. Which is a new take i guess but really kills the drama.
You could seriously just replace zombies with any other weapon and it'll be the same book. Like a bombing happened and now theres increased security.
So a zombie event happened and theres increased zombie testing.

Its soooooo mild.

I would skip on this, this is the sorta book you can listen to loosely in the background though.

Nothing new

Any additional comments?

This book did not work for me. I feel that the characters acted very juvenile for their age. They were supposed in their 20s. The plot does not hold any surprises; there’s not much character growth. I’m not impressed with the first book of this trilogy.

Solid book, Not your Typical Zombie Book

Solid book, Not your Typical Zombie Book. Nice plot with lots of great and entertaining characters. The whole series is great

Was it worth it?

I loved this story. The ending was so sad I didn't think I'd want to continue the series but the preview of the next story drew me in and I'll definitely be reading the rest. Great series!

Different take on a zombie series

If you like political thrillers with a zombie apocalypse backdrop, this is for you. The story and writing are great.

Sweet Zombie Tale

I have to say that I almost gave up on Feed before it took off. The introduction to the main characters was in my opinion weak. After the first hour, I was less than impressed. But I kept going because of all the rave reviews & all I have to say was after the intro, the story took a 180 and became magic.

I have read a lot of zombie stories. None of them are even remotely like this. Feed is a unique take on the genre.

Mira Grant is a good writer. Her prose pulses off of the page. The story is very cool. It takes place around 20 years after the zombie outbreak. The main characters are 2 bloggers that are tagging along on a presidential campaign. Grant combines a mystery, zombies, politics from a post apocalyptic world, and interesting young characters to form a story that churns along with a satisfying grace.

This is not a grim dirty end of the world story. Instead its snappy. I wasn't expecting that. This is a good story. Worth a credit.

Freaking Loved It!

Listened/Read for Fun (Audible/Paperback)
Overall Rating: 5.00
Story Rating: 5.00
Character Rating: 5.00

Audio Rating: 4.00 (not part of the overall rating)

First Thought when Finished: I freaking loved Feed by Mira Grant!

Overall Thoughts: I swear I thought I had read/reviewed this before but clearly I had not (I didn't remember the end). Now I need to read the rest of them (which I also thought I had already read/reviewed). I freaking love Feed. The world, the blogginess, and the zombie uniqueness. I highly recommend it :)

Audio Thoughts:

Narrated By Paula Christensen, Jesse Bernstein / Length: 15 hrs and 10 mins


Just going to say it: Well worth the 15 hrs it took to listen to it :)

Part of my Read It, Rate It, File It, DONE!

An exciting thriller set in a dystopian future.

What made the experience of listening to Feed the most enjoyable?

The alternating readers (male and female) did a great job of capturing the fear and excitement throughout the book and had me wanted to listen more each time.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Georgia and Shaun Mason. They are so closely united that they are almost one character.

Which character – as performed by Paula Christensen and Jesse Bernstein – was your favorite?

Georgia and Shaun.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

"Reporting the news on the dead wouldn't be so bad ... if the dead didn't fight back."

Any additional comments?

I read the second book in Mira Grant's "Newsflesh" series a few years ago when it was in the voter's packets for the Hugo award. I had liked it enough that I wanted to experience the whole series. I selected the series through my Audible subscription and made this my commute listening material. I really enjoyed it!

While the series features zombies as the horrific obstacles, like most stories worth reading, this is a story about people overcoming those obstacles.

In Feed, the humans we follow are brother and sister team Georgia and Shaun Mason who are popular bloggers in a world that is trying to survive the zombie apocalypse. The zombie outbreak occurred 20 years prior ... a virus (Kellis-Amberlee) that takes over the victim's body and gives it one direction: feed.

This isn't the plot ... this is the setting, the world that Mira Grant has created.

The Masons are bloggers, or at least what we would call bloggers today, but in this world they are journalists and they are able to get real-time stats on their reports and follow how many times a story is shared. In this way, the story is quite believable. As is the fact that despite the immediacy of the format and the far reach that bloggers have, blogging is still not always considered 'legitimate.'

And so, when U.S. Presidential candidate Senator Ryman invites the Masons to be on the campaign trail, it is unusual (showing Ryman's progressive attitudes) and it is a chance for the Masons to get a serious position in the blogging field. What could go wrong?

Did I mention that there are zombies?

What if someone were to use the Kellis-Amberlee virus to put an end to Senator Ryman's campaign? Or to go after those following the campaign? And would anyone possibly believe a pair of young bloggers if they uncovered such evidence?

This book is an absolute marvel in story-telling. The world-building is believable (even if it does contain zombies) and the characters are fresh and real and it is easy to get attached to all of them. The plot, as a political thriller in the future, is full of action and excitement with more than just a little death and destruction.

The Audible edition is narrated by two readers: Paula Christensen and Jesse Bernstein. They both do a really great job of creating characters and letting the listener really feel the story (sadly, this is not always the case with Audible books).

Not being a big zombie person myself (though I have watched the first two seasons of The Walking Dead) I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this, but I think it's because it's not about zombies, but instead is a political/medical thriller involving progressive journalist/bloggers.

Looking for a good book? Feed, by Mira Grant, is an exciting thriller set in a future with zombies. The Audible edition will really pull you in!