Feed by Mira Grant

This was one of the books I saw in England that made me go “hmmm” (but wasn’t attractive enough that I actually bought it). Luckily, the NLB has a copy so I managed to borrow it.

Feed is basically a thriller (political thriller?) set in a zombie-infested dystopian America. I was attracted to the premise of blogging + zombies. So basically, in zombie-infested America, blogging is the new news (there are still newspapers but blogs are dominant now). There are basically three types of blogs - Newsies, for your information needs, Irwins, for when you want to poke a zombie with a stick but don’t want to be there when it happens, and Fictionals, for poetry and stories.

In this world, George (Georgia), her brother Shaun, and their friend Buddy, are Newsie, Irwin and Fictional. When they land a plum job following Senator Ryman’s presidential campaign, they think they’ve found their big break. Instead, they find themselves uncovering a huge conspiracy and have to ask themselves - how far are they willing to go for the truth?

While Zombies greatly influence the world - from the laws to the security procedures and people’s lifestyles, this isn’t really a zombie book (as I understand it. Zombie dystopians aren’t something I have extensive experience with so I might be wrong). There are zombie attacks, but the book isn’t about surviving a zombie attack. Instead, it’s more about truth and politics in a world where zombies are a part of life.

I found that I really enjoyed this. George was a good narrator, and I really liked her relationship with Shaun and Buffy, not to mention the world. The world felt believable - like I could see people reacting to a zombie attack like this, and it was different from most political thriller-type novels.

The book is mainly from George’s POV, with quotes from their blogs beginning and ending the chapters. I found that I liked the quoted blogs, because it provided a good look into their world. I actually wish that I could read more blogs from the world (like can this be a mini site?) because their blogs-as-news concept, with the idea of rankings and traffic, was pretty cool. By the way, the word ‘blog’ in the book covers both the written form and vlogs. It basically means ‘internet content’

The plot also moved along at a fairly quick pace. The tension was consistently high, and I definitely did not predict the ending (which to be honest is a little heartbreaking).

If you’re looking for a different type of zombie and/or political thriller, this is a book that you’ll want to read. It manages to blend the two genres together pretty successfully, although the political thriller element is a bit more dominant.