Summary: A book that takes place 20 years about a zombie outbreak. It's a story about the survivors and how the world is doing...It's a book about politics...with some zombies sprinkled in...but hey! Wisconsin rep! Blogger rep and disability rep. So that's kind of cool...but definitely not a book about zombies.
4 stars out of 5...still not 100% sure it deserves this rating though...
So, Feed...I had heard about this book MANY MANY moons ago on Erika's channel, ThePerksofBooks. I was able to buy it last year after deciding that zombies aren't THAT bad and sometimes you just need a good zombie book! Plus I was also super craving the feelings I got from The Last of Us (which is a video game if you didn't know), but in book form. I couldn't remember what she had said about it, so all I had to go on was the summary at the back of the book. I also listened to the audiobook who was read by Jesse Berstein and Paula Christensen. I don't have too much to say about them, but I will give them a mini review at the end.
First of all, I had NO idea that Mira Grant is Seanan McGuire's pen name. I about pooped myself with excitement! I had really been enjoying her Wayward Children series and hoped that this book would be just as amazing. In many ways it was everything I hoped for and and many other ways it was a disaster.
The Likes:
In classic Seanan McGuire flair, the world was amazing. She is really great at building an interesting world and giving that world a fully fleshed out history. All of her worlds feel like real places and this book was no different. There was such an extensive history for this world. There was even court cases, political history and ways to make sure that her readers had no way of questioning anything that happened. I really felt like I was there and that I was involved in everything that was going on. At no point in reading this did I ever feel left out. I love how well she explained the virus and how it worked. I like how the virus came about and how it is spread. I really enjoyed reading about her zombies and I could tell she put a lot of work into researching how viruses work.
I liked that this book didn't take place during the start of the zombie apocalypse. This takes place 20 years after the outbreak, so we get to see a world that is used to zombies and how the uninfected and the infected interact. We also get to see how the internet is used to get information to people, especially when it isn't safe to be outside.
I also really enjoyed the characters. They were also really well fleshed out and I felt like they each had their own personality and never did I feel like I didn't know who was talking. They were true to the personality that they were given and I never really felt like they made decisions that weren't in their nature. I can't really say I loved the characters or was super connected with them, but I thought they were interesting to read about and was curious as to what was going to happen to them.
Speaking of the characters, there was also some great disability representation in this book. The virus can sometimes affect people's eyesight and their pupils will fully dilate so they have problems with lighting. Also because the virus is affecting their eyes, they sometimes get mistaken as zombies and their blood tests can read positive for the zombie virus. It was interesting to see how the author handled this disability and at no point did I ever feel like she making fun of the character or that she was making her be wimpy or weak. George was a strong character that kicked ass both on the internet and in real life.
Also, one of the main characters is from Wisconsin. No one EVER talks about Wisconsin, so it was really cool to see my home state represented!
The Dislikes:
This book was HORRIBLY mis-marketed. I went into this book thinking it was about two people who were blogger siblings and they found a news story about what actually caused the zombie virus outbreak 20 years prior. But yeah....that's not the case at all. This was actually a political thriller with some zombies sprinkled in. It was about three bloggers (two were siblings) and how they were following the senator of Wisconsin and his political tour of the country so that he can become the president of the United States.
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Not nearly as exciting as the GIFs look....Unfortunately. Actually, I share Hilary's feelings about the whole thing (that's why I chose that GIF). It was a lot of boring shit that I didn't care about. The senator was cool and it was kind of neat to see how campaigning might work after a zombie virus, but that was really it. If you really hate reading about politics, you are going to be bored out of your mind.
I also really hated the pacing at the end. I thought that a lot of the action was very sudden and with very little pay off. The villain was SUPER predictable...like, I knew it was them the second they were introduced. It was a total "I bet it was the butler" situation (you know...when you say it's going to be the butler, and it is). It was very annoying.
Because I listened to the audiobook, I also have some thoughts on that as well. Most of the book was narrated by Paula. She did a pretty good job and we heard from her the most. There were bits of the book that were narrated by Jesse and that was mostly excerpts from Shaun's blog. My problem with them was that they would forget what a character's accent was and I found it kind of annoying. There were a couple characters from Texas that had a fairly consistent accent, but Wisconsin and England...oh boy....Wisconsin was a hot mess. He got kind of Southern...or maybe Montana? Either way...NOT Wisconsin. It just kind of took me out of the story.
So, was it a bad book? Not really. It just wasn't what I wanted and I had a lot of problems with it. I won't be continuing on with the series. With the way the first book ended, it can be considered a stand alone. Plus, with the events at the end, I'm not really sure I need to know anything else. I just don't care enough. I also looked up some reviews and all of the problems I had in the first book carry on into the next book. So, I'm going to pass.
I would recommend this book, but only if you are interested in the politics. I mean, it's nothing too cerebral, but as it is a book about a campaign trail, it can be really dull if you think you are going to get a lot of zombies.
This was a hard book to review, but I think I said everything I wanted to say. Until next time!!
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