Review: Deadline

Deadline
Mira Grant
Dystopian
Newsflesh Trilogy/Book 2
Orbit/May 31, 2011

*Spoilers for Feed (book 1)

From the back cover ~

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.

This story took me on a long journey complete with bumps, potholes and a long layover. I started reading Deadline at the beginning of July, got about 250 pages into it and had to set it down. The two main problems I was having was the slow moving plot and the narrator's voice. It didn't feel like much had happened in those 250 or so pages. Obviously not enough to hold my attention. After letting it sit for over a month I decided to give it another try. Some might wonder why bother? I hated to to give up, having already read 250 pages. I do like the world Grant has created and I was curious enough to find out what happened next. I just hoped it happened sooner rather than later.

Let's start with the narrator's voice. In book 1, Feed the narrator is Georgia (George) Mason who, while I didn't always agree her views and felt she got too preachy at times, she didn't get on my nerves the way her brother Shaun does, who is the narrator this time around. Shaun is practically wallowing in his grief for George, who died at the end of Feed. It's been over a year since George died and Shaun doesn't seem like he's gotten anywhere close to beginning to heal. He says he wants revenge on the ones responsible but I'm not sure what he's been doing towards that end. Then there's the Coke drinking. George liked Coke, Shaun doesn't, preferring coffee for his caffeine fix. Yet he drinks Coke in George's memory. Lots of Coke. All. The. Time. It got annoying quick. George also talks to Shaun in his head and he talks to her. No one else can hear her and many think Shaun's gone crazy but it's all good since George does give Shaun some decent advice. Was this part of Shaun's coping mechanism? It was more of an example of how Shaun relied on George and still was.

The plot moved slowing, with surprisingly few zombies showing up. There was more discussion of Kellis-Amberlee and it's possible anomalies along with government conspiracies and cover-ups. If you like scientific discussions and conspiracy theories, then this could definitely work for you. For me, I would have liked more suspense and tension in the plot. Based on reading Feed I knew there was a high possibility that not everyone would make it to the end of the book. In fact, I would have been surprised by it. I wasn't surprised. Things do begin to pick up momentum around 3/4 of the way through. Which puts us at around page 430 of a 580 page book. At this point, I had a hard time putting the book down.

There are a number of revelations regarding the truth behind the research of the Kellis-Amberlee virus. The CDC's overwhelming control of information and the power they have to declare an area hazard zone. They have power over who lives and who dies. I found the CDC's abuse of power one of the scariest parts of the story. The zombies are not the major threat to Shaun and the After the End Times staff. It's the CDC that is working to wipe them out.

*Major Spoilers Ahead*

You know when a big shocking revelations occurs in a book and at first you're surprised then the more you think about it and look back, the more you see the signs? That happened a couple of times in Deadline. One of those shockers didn't surprise me for long simply because I found it hard to believe such a strong character was dead. It's George and she's not just in Shaun's head, turns out she's really alive. That's how the book ends but if you read the excerpt for Blackout, book 3, you find out that George has been cloned. Cloning a complete person does happen in Deadline so there is some precedence for it. It didn't surprise me so much that George came back, I just wasn't expecting clone George.

The other revelation was Shaun and George's relationship. They are siblings but they are not blood related. They were adopted by the Masons and raised as brother and sister. Granted, Mr. and Mrs. Mason did not provide what could be called a loving environment, instead using their children as props to get their message out. But the reality is, everyone treated them as siblings. Their relationship was more than that as we find out when Shaun has sex with one of his staff and calls out George's name. Yeah. Adopted and not blood related, it still smacked of incest. I can see how Shaun and George would develop a close relationship given how their parents treated them but I really wish Grant hadn't gone there. It came across as more for the shock than for anything it may add to the story or character development. They could still be as close as best friends and siblings without sex entering into the equation.

So, time for the grade. I did like the final quarter of the book but I don't feel any desire to read the final book. Plus, setting it aside for over a month and considering DNFing it leaves me to think this is not the trilogy for me. I do think if you loved Feed then there's a good chance you'll like Deadline. The science is interesting but can become tedious if that is not your thing. If you're looking for lots of zombies and fighting, then you might want to pass on this.

Rating: C

Books in the Trilogy ~

Countdown (novella prequel, August 2011)
Feed
Deadline
Blackout (May 2012)

Review: Feed

Feed
Mira Grant
Post Apocalyptic/Futuristic/Horror
Newsflesh Trilogy/Book 1
Orbit/May 2010

From the publisher's website ~

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, twenty 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.

Zombies. I was never crazy about zombies when all the multitude of "Living Dead" type movies came out. I do love the Resident Evil movies, but a big part of that is because of Milla and her kickass ways. I don't usually read horror but I picked up Feed from the library because I liked the premise and I was in the mood for some post-apocalyptic drama. The zombies are not as prominently featured in Feed as I expected. Sure, they're there but on the fringe for the most part. The interaction with the zombies is of course as quick as possible for survival reasons but given how the zombies are portrayed, I expected them to figure more in the overall story.

The main focus is on three bloggers - siblings Georgia and Shaun Mason and their poetry loving computer geek friend Buffy. In this new world bloggers are powerful. They are the voice the population listens to after being lied to and misled by mainstream media when the Rising occurred over twenty years ago. Bloggers are celebrities, getting big name sponsors for their blogs. The other focus of the book are the politics of the time. Georgia, Shaun and Buffy are given the chance to travel with one of the top presidential candidates and report from the campaign trail. The political beliefs of the main narrator, Georgia, are front and center. Unfortunately, sometimes it felt like a lecture, with Georgia giving her beliefs in such a forceful manner I couldn't help but hope a few zombies might interrupt her tirade.

What people learned from the George Romero horror movies helped combat the sudden mass of zombies. But not everything went well, millions died and the really bad part - everyone is infected. Everyone. I thought that twist was decidedly wicked. When anyone dies, even from say a heart attack or natural causes, they become a zombie. The virus is dormant in everyone until it is triggered either through death or exposure to the live virus. And it's not just humans the virus infects. Animals over 40 pounds can become infected. This makes for some very heated debates on animal control and going vegan.

Georgia and Shaun have a very close bond that comes from being raised by two media hungry parents that have no qualms when it comes to using their kids to get more exposure for their causes. I loved the relationship between Georgia and Shaun. The love and respect along with the annoyance and teasing that close siblings have, was there in the way they talked to and about each other. Their relationship was my favorite part of the book.

I will say Grant doesn't pull any punches. You get the feeling that no one is safe from exposure and death, and rising, and death again. Hopefully. There are some extremely emotional scenes in this brutal world. In a place where sections of land, cities, heck even Alaska, are left to the zombies, no one can expect to be completely safe. These are not mindless, slow moving zombies, in fact, they exhibit pack mentality when enough of them converge. They have two main goals - feed and infect. One thing I never quite understood is why the military didn't work at eliminating the zombies to a greater extent. There were teams set up to contain and dispose of the aftermath of zombie attacks so why not be more proactive?

Aside from the political lecturing, I liked Feed more than I expected. I think because it had two well developed characters and didn't rely completely on the horror aspect. I did find the mystery of the political saboteur weak, it was fairly obvious who it was. The plot itself was layered with political and religious beliefs that had characters making difficult, life and death decisions with far reaching affects that are not fully realized in this first installment. I'm looking forward to reading the next installment of this fascinating trilogy, just not for the zombies.

Rating: B