Feed

In 2014, the cure for cancer and the cure for the common cold were developed separately. Well meaning protesters stole the cure for cancer and used a crop duster to release it to the general public before it was fully finished. Unfortunately, when the two cures mingled and mutated, the devastating Kellis-Amberlee virus was born. When infected with it, the virus kills its host and reanimates it as a zombie that is only concerned with spreading the infection as far as possible. It has spread so far and wide that every person born after the outbreak is born with a dormant version inside them that will awaken when introduced with the live virus. This is the world that bloggers Georgia and Shaun live in. Blogging has elevated in the world because of the nonchalant way the “serious” news treated the zombie outbreak. Bloggers posted the truth and ways that people could survive while the media was still in denial and dismissing it as a prank. They (along with their tech genius Buffy) have been chosen to follow Senator Ryman on his road to becoming the Republican presidential candidate of 2040. As he gains momentum and followers, mishaps follow the group everywhere and it is discovered that they aren’t accidents, but acts of terrorism using the virus as a weapon. Why are they being targeted and can they (and the senator) stay alive long enough to finish the campaign?

I absolutely love Feed. The back cover description is pretty misleading because, as you can see, the book is complex and kind of hard to explain in such a small amount of space. When I started the book, I didn’t really know what to expect, except for some form of zombie being in it. This book is more about the new formation of society afflicted with zombies and the politics of the time. Some people may be annoyed that the universe is so well established and may complain that there is too much detail, but I didn’t consider it a problem at all. I was completely fascinated by the world and I couldn’t wait to delve deeper into the story. There is still zombie action, but it’s not the main focus of the novel. Although it’s over 500 pages, none of it dragged at all. The pacing at the beginning was a bit slow, but necessary to fully show the reader the type of world that Georgia and her brother live in. After they follow the campaign trail, the pacing is relentless, forcing me give up sleep because I needed to finish the book.

Georgia is a wonderful strong woman and my favorite character. She is one of the most capable people in the novel, knowing when to make hard decisions like destroying an infected friend. Even while people are trying to kill her, she stays calm, cool, and collected, the opposite of the stereotypical horror film heroine who runs around in hysterics. Georgia is also afflicted with retinal KA, which makes her functionally blind in any sort of light and makes her unable to produce tears. Although she seems hard and unfeeling, she has a close relationship with her brother. They trust each other with their lives and depend on each other unconditionally. Their parents adopted them pretty much just for ratings and publicity after their biological son was killed. Georgia and Shaun’s only real connection that they’ve had is with each other. All of the characters are incredibly detailed, complete with their own sets of beliefs and viewpoints.

Feed is an amazing zombie novel that a diverse group of people would love. If you like political intrigue, zombies, dangerous viruses, or blogging, this is the book for you. I would recommend it to just about everyone I know.

My rating: 5/5 fishmuffins

You can enter to win this book in my Zombie Brain Noming Giveaway!

**This post is for Velvet's September Zombies.**

The Walking Dead: TV Show

Did you know the epic comic book series, The Walking Dead, is being turned into a TV show? I am so incredibly excited! I think a television series is so much better to express the whole series because removing vital scenes due to time really wouldn't be necessary. Here's the wonderful trailer:

The zombies in the show look way better than even zombies in movies. I don't know if they had a lot of money or just really talented make up Plus they look extra super creepy. Here's a video about making the "bicycle girl" (the zombie pictured below). The transformation is really amazing.

I can't wait for October 31st!! It looks like it's going to be pretty close to the graphic novel. I'll leave you with some cool screenshots.

** This post is for Velvet's September Zombies.**

Infinite Days

Lenah Beaudonte remembers her life of 592 years as a bloodsucking, remorseless, savage vampire in great detail. She wakes up in a new century in a new place and in a very mortal, human state. Her soul mate and best friend Rhode sacrificed his life so that she could become human as she had always wanted after she tired of her unsatisfying existence. Her vampire coven is compiled of four vampires she made herself because of their utter ruthlessness, unparalleled skill, and detachment from humanity. To become completely human, Lenah must immerse herself in human life and grow new attachments with her fellow classmates at her new high school. Can a centuries old vampire bring herself to care about the trivialities of teenage life? How long will it take her vampire coven to find her? Will she be able to protect her human friends in her weak, human state?

Infinite Days is definitely not what I expected. I figured it was just going to be another vampire romance exactly like Twilight and all its various rip-offs. I was completely wrong and I have never read a book quite like this. I really enjoyed the way the story was slowly revealed. At first, we essentially know very little about Lenah. Significant stories from her past are interwoven throughout the narrative of her present life when she saw or did something that brought that memory to mind. It is an interesting format that reveals a little information at a time that builds up until the reader feels that they really know and relate to Lenah. It also compares what was normal in her vampire life (death, destruction, and laughing all the while) to what is normal in her human life (gossip, classes, and learning to live again).

Lenah is a wholly unique protagonist. She seems rather still and formal at first and has a clinical way of looking at the world. As a human, she still finds herself thinking as a vampire, like how she would have dealt with people that displeased her. She never descends into being emo or the typical brooding vampire stereotype. She accepts her past as just that and doesn’t make apologies for it. She also retains some of her vampiric gifts and slowly loses them as she thoroughly lives her human life. The first two big events that caused some of her gifts to become weaker were solitary experiences. The event that makes them disappear altogether is one of being immersed in the community as a part of a whole and momentarily forgetting her individual identity. This scene is beautifully written and my favorite scene of the novel.

Lenah’s relationship with Justin at first was a little painful for me. He just seemed like a jerk who only wanted things (and people) that he couldn’t have. When he became interested in Lenah, he started ignore his girlfriend and her feelings in his pursuit of another. Then when he opened up to Lenah and he revealed his true self, I was convinced that they belonged together. However, I felt that the way she treated Tony was awful. He seemed to just be a character to acclimate Lenah into society and then he wasn’t needed anymore. He was a good character and I would have liked to see more of him.

I really enjoyed Infinite Days. The writing flowed really well and kept me engaged in the story. I found myself sadly closing the book when I had to go do other things or go to bed. The ending of the novel was absolutely perfect. I especially recommend this to fans of young adult vampire novels that are tired of reading the same sappy story.

My rating: 4/5 fishmuffins

** This isn't a September Zombies post, but still a great book. Posted for the Blog with Bite group review. **

The Walking Dead: Volume 12

*** Spoilers for those who aren’t caught up with the series!! ***

Rick Grimes and his band of survivors are on the move again. In the last book, they encountered cannibals and horrible things had to be done to ensure their safety. Carl, Rick’s son, is dealing with the aftermath of killing Billy, another child who was a great danger to the whole group. The group encounters a lone man on the road named Aaron, who wants them to come with him and live in his safe haven. Rick is immediately suspicious. In the past, another group claimed something similar and it ended very badly. The rest of the group is more enthused to have a stable place to stay and find the newcomer to be trustworthy. They go to this safe haven and find a stable community, headed by an ex-Senator. Everything seems a little too perfect to Rick. Plus they seem to have no safeguards against other human attackers. Is Rick just being paranoid or there really something nefarious going on in this community? Can these survivors who have seen so many horrors integrate back into normal society?

The Walking Dead is an excellent series. This is one in the series that is more a precursor to and setting up of events to come. Action wise, not much happens in this one. However, many important issues are brought up and there is more character development than anything else. The relationship between Rick and his son Carl is especially interesting to me. Carl isn’t a hardened killer, even though he has killed countless zombies. He is still emotionally affected by his first human murder, but he holds it together because it’s needed for the survival of the group. Rick understands Carl’s decision, but wishes he didn’t have to do things like this. He, after all, is still a child.

The other big event of this narrative is the invitation to live in the safe haven. Rick is immediately on his guard and thinks it’s too good to be true. The others start out as accepting, but grow to be more and more suspicious. This situation is the most like life before the zombie apocalypse than anything they have experienced since. Will the survivors ever be able to integrate into a society such as this one? They have been fighting for survival for about two years. Many of their problems have come from humans, such as the cannibals from the last one and the sadistic governor. Events like these take a toll on them and make them into different people.

Although not the most action packed book in the series, I enjoyed the emotional and psychological implications presented. Something big is going to be happening in the next book and I can’t wait to read it!

My rating: 4/5 fishmuffins

The Reapers are the Angels

Zombies have been roaming the Earth for twenty five years now. This is the only world that fifteen year old Temple has ever known and she’s learned how to survive in it because it’s either learn fast or die. She travels around looking for safe havens and moves on once those places cease to be safe. On her travels, she encounters a variety of living situations, from groups of people living in skyscrapers to a rich family hiding in their house oblivious of the crumbing world outside. When staying with the people settled in skyscrapers, she is attacked by a man there and is forced to kill him in self defense. His vengeful brother, Moses Todd, vows to kill her and follows her everywhere she goes. As she tries to evade Moses and zombies, can Temple ever find a place she can stay permanently and find peace?

The world that Temple lives in is different than most zombie novels. The initial outbreak is long past and our protagonist has never even seen the world as we know it. Most novels of this sort focus on the start of the zombie apocalypse. The only other book I can think of that is similar is Carrie Ryan’s The Forest of Hands and Teeth, but this book is much more brutal than that. The zombies are a constant threat, but there is also a more unpredictable danger from other people resulting from the breakdown of the government and society in general. In addition, the novel takes place primarily in the south, giving it a distinctive flavor.

The writing in the novel is spot on. It’s descriptive enough to give great detail to the world contained in the novel, but not so much that it bogs down the pacing. There are no quotation marks to denote conversation in the entire book, but the writing is such that it’s clear who is talking and it ends up not distracting from the novel at all. It just gives the book a little different feeling to read than most books for me. I read this book so fast and couldn’t put it down. I was so engaged in the story and the characters that I found myself reading in every moment possible throughout my day.

I really like Temple and her blunt honesty. She may be young, but she can certainly take care of herself. She can’t read because she never had a formal education, but she is one of the smartest protagonists I’ve ever read. In her short life, she has seen a ridiculous amount of violence and it takes a strong person to not just break. Although Temple is tough, her humanity remains intact, as shown with her tolerance and treatment of Maury, a mentally disabled man she meets and takes care of. Her character has many dimensions that are revealed throughout her travels in the novel.

The Reapers Are the Angels is now one of my favorite zombie novels. I like and dislike the ending at the same time. It’s realistic and fits the tone of the book, but I wish it didn’t have to happen. I would recommend this to any zombie lover.

My rating: 5/5 fishmuffins

**This post is for Velvet's September Zombies.**

Handling the Undead + Giveaway!

In the summer, there are strange happenings in Sweden that are hard to ignore. First, people have headaches and electrical items refuse to turn off. They can’t even be unplugged and if this is attempted, the person gets an electric shock. When things suddenly return to normal, the unthinkable happens: the dead rise. These zombies seem to just walk around with no capacity to understand or speak or even harm the living. This is only happening in Stockholm which leads the world to ask: what caused this? Why such a small area? While the rest of the world is trying to make sense of the event, the inhabitants of Stockholm are dealing with their dead loved ones with interesting results. David’s wife had died minutes before the uprising, making his wife the only zombie that can speak. Elvy and her granddaughter Flora are both psychic and don’t know what to make of Elvy’s dead husband showing up at their door. Journalist Gustav Mahler and his daughter have been in a stasis since his grandson died and now see new hope in the dead rising. They just have to dig him out of his grave.

This is an entirely unexpected zombie novel. John Ajvide Lindqvist has done for zombies what he did for vampires in his previous novel Let the Right One In; he practically reinvented the genre. The novel is like a slow burn. It moves slowly, but succeeds in being extremely suspenseful and an altogether different kind of horror than is common in the genre. The focus of the novel isn’t the gore or the zombies or the reasons for these strange happenings, but the living people that have close family members returning as zombies. The people focused on are about as different as can be, but they all share in this bizarre experience. Each character is described eloquently, complete with histories that directly influence how they deal with the zombies. Their reactions are realistic and believable, ranging from religious fanaticism to hysteria to anger to disgust to delusions of normalcy. Each chapter focuses on a different group of characters. Lindqvist is skilled at capturing different individuals’ voices, getting into the hearts and minds of each character, and making it all ring true. The most chilling situation is with Gustav Mahler, his daughter, and her young, undead son.

One thing that I really enjoyed is the presence of the rest of the world in the novel. Many other zombie books and movies are just focused on one country with no reactions or events from other countries. Newspaper articles, television interviews, and radio broadcasts from all over the world are placed in between chapters through most of the book. It lets the reader know that this is an isolated incident and what other countries think about it, as well as giving the story a sense of realism.

There are only a few things in the novel that are flawed. The cause of the uprising is never revealed. I don’t find this a flaw, but I think other fans of the genre would. This isn’t the focus of the story, so it essentially doesn’t really matter what caused it. The ending of the novel is pretty much unresolved. I feel like it could have been tied together a little better. I wouldn’t be surprised if he wrote a follow up novel to continue the story.

Although it has a few flaws, Handling the Undead really blew me away with its originality and eloquence. I can’t wait to see what John Ajvide Lindqvist will do next.

My rating: 4.5/5 fishmuffins

I have one ARC copy to give away! Just leave a comment with your e-mail address and you're entered to win! If you'd like 5 additional entries, you can post your very own pro-Team Zombie post and enter Velvet's super awesome Zombies vs. Unicorns Challenge. Show your Team Zombie pride! Open internationally. Contest ends 10/15.

**This post is for Velvet's September Zombies.**

Passing Strange

Karen DeSonne passed as a normal, happy teenager when she was alive. In actuality, she was suffering from depression and ended up committing suicide. After she reanimated and became differently biotic, she is still passing, but this time, as a regular living, breathing teenager. She works at a store in the mall and no one suspects that she is anything but normal. The reason why she is passing is because of all the anti-zombie regulations passed in Oakvale making it illegal for zombies to be in public without a parent or guardian. They aren’t considered citizens or even people under the law and it’s completely legal to reterminate them on sight. This legislation was passed because some of her friends who are also zombies were framed for a murder, causing everyone to assume that all the differently biotic are violent and dangerous. As she passes as human, Karen is approached by Pete Martinsburg, the boy who killed Adam Layman and got away with it, and pretends to date him to uncover the plot to frame the zombies for a murder that may have not even been committed. After a while, Pete starts to trust her and reveals that he wants to kill Phoebe and frame Adam to create more and more fear and hatred towards zombies. Can Karen keep her cover and gather enough proof to allow the zombies to live freely or will she be caught and reterminated?

I have read all of the Generation Dead series and I have to say that this is the best in the series so far. The first two mostly focused on Phoebe Kendall and her relationship with two differently biotic boys. Now we get to see what it’s like on the other side, from the point of view of the zombies. Karen was my favorite of the minor zombie characters in the last books and I’m so glad that there’s a whole book almost exclusively in her point of view. Karen is an undeniably unique and compelling character, being the only zombie known to come back after suicide and have the ability to heal. Her motivations and thought processes are equally as compelling as her physical abilities. When she died, she killed herself out of depression that still plagues her in her present condition. It stems from denying a part of herself that I won’t divulge, but it was definitely a surprise. She’s also not afraid to take risks and put herself in harm’s way to help the people she loves. She dates Pete Martinsburg, a truly unhinged individual with a hatred for the differently biotic, in order to gather enough evidence to prove her friends’ innocence. At the beginning of the book, I felt that she was wary to reveal too much information about herself, but warmed and revealed more and more about herself along the way. I grew to like Karen more and more through her honest, unfiltered narrative.

Although this is a novel that focuses on love and typical young adult themes, it also deals with the very real issue of human rights and the way people treat those not protected under the law. These zombies could be murdered in the street and nothing could be done about it. It reminds me of the way women were treated in Ancient Greece: as property and not as people. The main message of the novel is that everyone, no matter their race, religion, sexual orientation, or beliefs, is entitled to the same human rights. It’s mind boggling that this message needs to be reinforced in our modern society, but there are still those who want to take rights away from people that have a different lifestyles or belief systems.

I really enjoyed Passing Strange. Karen’s transformation from a cryptic, mysterious girl to a free and honest one made her an engaging and realistic character to read. I love that this book deals with real issues that people of all ages are effected by. I would recommend this to fans of the rest of the Generation Dead series and to those looking for a great, insightful, well written young adult novel.

My rating: 5/5 fishmuffins

**This post is for Velvet's September Zombies.**