Bookalicious

Review: Feed (Newsflesh 1) by Mira Grant

From Goodreads: 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.

So if you read my blog often you will know I really don’t care for zombies. The whole eating of brains and infection freaks me out and the thought that labs somewhere could be working on a virus that causes this if some scientist forgets to close the door after he comes into the office really makes me paranoid.

I have to say I devoured this book faster than a virus infected zombie finishes his meal of brains. I was in awe of the world building set in the not so distant future and the fact that a lot of the story took place in the Bay Area where I happen to live gave it an added bonus, for I am a visual reader and it’s easier to imagine places you have been.

The characters were written fantastically, the different viruses how they reacted, the different ways people reanimated. The fanatic religious element, betrayals, the mystery and the story line had me hooked. I am dying to get my hands on the next book. I need to know what happens next, and in a good way not in a “ARGH open ending way”.

The book cover shows an RSS icon and I was wondering why? It made no sense to me until I opened the book. When the original outbreak of the virus happened the news agencies were playing it off as college kids joking around. Only the bloggers of the world had the means to tell the truth. The bloggers reports along with the lessons learned in George Romero’s movies is pretty much what kept people alive. Who ever thought George Romero would be a national hero? That was an epic bonus to the book.

I am going to add a few quotes from the book here, and this novel has the most awesome website for a book I have seen this year. The Feed Book.com

pg. 96“Do you remember the guy who tried to kill George Romero with Zombie Pit Bulls?”
“That’s an urban myth Buffy. It’s been disproven about ninety times”.

pg. 192 “I like having sufficient lung capacity to run away from the living dead,” I replied deadpan. “I’m serious, cigarettes won’t give you cancer but they cause emphysema, and I have no desire to get eaten by a zombie just because I was trying to look cool.”

If you like Carrie Ryan books, George Romero movies, or zombies in general you have to grab a copy of Feed.

Tags: brains, buffy, feed, feed newsflesh, george romero, georgia, infected, kellis amberlee, mira grant, rick, senetor ryman, shaun, virus, zombie

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 13th, 2010 at 9:39 am and is filed under Fiction, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Review: The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

People have recommend that I read Carrie Ryan’s” The Forest of Hands and Teeth for some time now. I was always hesitant stating the fact that I dislike zombies, and flesh eating, and rotting corpses and really anything undead that isn’t a vampire. Finally in search of a great book to read and after watching the trailer 50 times over the past few months (this book should really be a movie) I ordered the book and it came in the mail yesterday. I was immediately swept up in Mary’s story and feeling claustrophobic with her as she lived her life fenced in her small village ran by religious zealots.

Carrie Ryan created a world many generations after the zombie apocalypse (hey we all know its coming with all the wonky stuff they are doing in labs now) and what life is like for the few who survived the initial outbreak.

Mary’s Mother told her there was an ocean with water full of salt as far as you could see. No one else in the village save for Mary believes these tales and when Mary is forced with the decisions pressured on her by her circumstances. Who to marry, to become a sister, or to run on a new path to find the ocean she is hit with many hardships with all her choices.

I gave this 4 out of 5 stars only because I wish we would have learned more of the secrets along the way. So many things were hinted about but left open. Maybe that is resolved in the next book which seems to pick up with Mary’s daughter possibly from the description.

THE DEAD-TOSSED WAVES

Coming March 2010

Gabry lives a quiet life, secure in her town next to the sea and behind the Barrier. She’s content to let her friends dream of the Dark City up the coast while she watches from the top of her lighthouse. Home is all she’s ever known, and all she needs for happiness.

But life after the Return is never safe, and there are threats even the Barrier can’t hold back.

Gabry’s mother thought she left her secrets behind in the Forest of Hands and Teeth, but like the dead in their world, secrets don’t stay buried. And now, Gabry’s world is crumbling.

One night beyond the Barrier…

One boy Gabry’s known forever and one veiled in mystery…

One reckless moment, and half of Gabry’s generation is dead, the other half imprisoned.

Gabry knows only one thing: if she is to have any hope of a future, she must face the forest of her mother’s past.

Tags: carrie ryan, Teen, teen fiction, the forest of hands and teeth, YA, ya fiction, zombie

This entry was posted on Friday, November 20th, 2009 at 12:16 pm and is filed under Fantasy, Reviews, Teen. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.