Feedback (Newsflesh, #4)

by Mira Grant

"FEEDBACK is a full-length Newsflesh novel which overlaps the events of Feed and covers the Presidential campaign from the perspective of reporters covering the Democrats side of the story. There are two sides to every story ... The year was 2014. We had cured cancer. We had beat the common cold. But in doing so we unleashed something horrifying and unstoppable. The infection spread leaving those afflicted with a single uncontrollable impulse: FEED. Now, twenty years after the Rising, a team of scrappy underdog reporters relentlessly pursue the truth while competing against the superstar Masons, surrounded by the infected, and facing more insidious forces working in the shadows."--

In 2014 we cured cancer, beat the common cold-- and unleashed an infection that unleashed an uncontrollable impulse to feed. Now, twenty years after the Rising, a team of scrappy underdog reporters relentlessly pursue the truth while competing against the superstar Masons. Surrounded by the infected, and facing more insidious forces working in the shadows, they hit the presidential campaign trail to uncover dangerous truths... or die trying.

• ISBN10: 0316379344
• ISBN13: 9780316379342
• Publish Date: 4 October 2016
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Orbit
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 496
• Language: English

Reviews

[clementine]

This one is a bit of a mixed bag for me! I've been a fan of the original Newsflesh trilogy for about six years now and I think Mira Grant is a master of the sci fi political thriller. A lot of the classic Grant spark is present in Feedback - spunky characters, a thorough exploration of the impact of the Kellis-Amberlee virus, and an unflinching ability to kill people off. (I mean, after all the shenanigans of the original series you know that at least one important character isn't going to make it through the novel. I totally placed bets at beginning and got one right.)

Unfortunately I just don't think this novel is as well-developed as the original series. I mean, Grant had big shoes to fill to begin with considering the protagonists of the first three novels are so goddamn delightful. Our team of Aislinn, Ben, Audrey, and Mat are perfectly likeable - but they're no Georgia and Shaun Mason. Or, rather, Aislinn falls pretty squarely into Grant's wheelhouse of badass but vulnerable female protagonists (which, while enjoyable, is perhaps a tad repetitive by now), and Ben, Audrey, and Mat were underdeveloped by comparison. I especially wanted more of Ben, and I understand that he's the straight-laced, responsible one, but that doesn't mean he can't have more of a personality! I thought all the auxiliary characters in the original series were really interesting, but they were also helped along by the fact that Shaun and Georgia are straight up some of the most enjoyable action protagonists ever. Aislinn has a lot of weight to pull here since she's the only character who's completely developed. In addition, the political context also wasn't quite as developed, with more time given over to killing zombies and escaping warlords.

The climax of the novel felt a bit rushed to me. The last 15% was drastically different from the rest of the book, and it was really interesting, and I wish there'd been more time to dwell. Grant did a great job of writing about being a prisoner in the second book in the series, and this just didn't live up to that. It was still interesting and exciting, but I wished she'd pushed it a little further and given the reader more breathing room. And I think, in general, the novel just didn't go as far as I wanted it to. I've seen Grant pull off mindblowing twists time and time again, and I kept waiting for that to happen to no avail. Even the major deaths weren't as impactful as they could have been - maybe because I already know she has no compunction killing people off. Buffy dying in Feed was a shock because I had no idea Grant was willing to go there. Mat dying in Feedback was kind of like, "Well, yeah. Somebody had to."

My final issue with this novel is that it seemed a bit preachy. I absolutely love that Grant is so dedicated to representing diverse races, sexualities, and genders, don't get me wrong. I'm not here to be one of those people who complains about how there aren't enough straight white people in a novel. The issue is that is's so heavy-handed, with her feeding her own political rants into her characters' narration and dialogue. Art is political and I'm totally on board with that - it's not a matter of the content but the execution. It just wasn't integrated well and totally took me out of the novel. But a huge, huge, huge round of applause to Grant for her commitment to compassionate inclusivity and creating characters who are not only diverse but well-rounded and non-stereotypical.

This is a really enjoyable read for fans of the original trilogy, for sure. I pretty much take any chance I can get to spend a bit more time in this world, because it's so thoroughly fun. Seriously, I am not a zombie novel person at all, but I will talk your goddamn ear off about how great this series is if you give me the chance. However, this is a novel for true fans - it just doesn't live up to the original series. It's a long novel and in 500+ pages it never quite gave me the satisfaction I so craved.

That said, I maintain that this series would make an excellent screen adaptation (television, preferably) and I think this particular novel would be even more enjoyable onscreen. It is rife with zombie-killing and that's something that will always be more fun to watch than to read about. Somebody make this happen, and by somebody I mean an awesome woman who will do these complex, strong female characters justice.

[celinenyx]

I'm afraid that I have to agree with what other reviewers have said about this book. Feedback is a companion novel to the Newsflesh trilogy, one of my favourite series of all time. Mira Grant/Seanan McGuire is a wonderful writer in my opinion, it is simply that the setup of Feedback does not work very well. This book follows a different blogger team on the other end of the political spectrum.

Again, the team consists of an Irwin, two Newsies, and a Fictional. The issue is that the reader already knows what's going on in the background of the story - and I definitely would recommend reading Feedback AFTER completing the main trilogy, because it contains spoilers for the main novels - and there is little mystery. No matter how many zombies one throws at a cast of characters, no matter how lovely the diversity rep is in this book, in a way it feels like I had read this book before. And while I enjoyed the new characters, their dynamics weren't complex enough to keep me interested.

Feedback deserves a massive cheer, however, for being the first traditionally published book I ever read that has a genderfluid person as main character, who is consistently referred to as "they". It's one little step towards normalizing non-binary gender, and I love Ms McGuire for taking it.

---
Trigger warnings: violence, death of loved one, blood, captivity, assault.

[empressbrooke]

I'm waffling between 2 and 3 stars for this one. It's not unpleasant, but it's also not necessary. It's sort of a companion novel to the original trilogy, following a separate news team on a separate political campaign. It suffered from not bringing anything new to the table. It felt like the author took the basic outline of Feed and dropped in some different characters, except the new characters mostly reacted to the news from the original trilogy rather than making anything happen themselves.

[Melanie]

My review and an extended sample of the audiobook are posted at Hotlistens.com

I started listening to Mira Grant’s Newsflesh trilogy last year, so I was very late to the party. That’s really good news for me, I didn’t have to wait for her to decide to tackle the other side of the campaign.

The first three books in this series follow Sean and Georgia Mason as they follow Senator Ryman’s presidential campaign. There are three books and an anthology devoted to the characters. In the continuation of the series (this could’ve also been marketed as a spinoff series), we follow Aislinn (“Ash”), Ben, Mat, and Audrey as they follow Governor Susan Kilburn’s bid for the same presidential campaign. This book’s timeline is the same as book one, Feed.

So, this world is set about 20 years after “The Rising” when the dead decided to get up and keep walking. While things with zombies are bad, there is government, technology and systems in place to help keep the outbreaks down. Zombies still exist, but they aren’t the problems you’re used to seeing in most zombie books/movies/TV shows. People have learned how to live with them. The other interesting thing about this world, animals turn into zombies. People had to give up their dogs or risk them “amplifying” and attacking you. The same is true of livestock. Very little meat is eaten anymore, aside from eggs, chicken and fish, as larger animals can amplify and contaminate the meat.

So, this story is narrated by Ash. She is an Irish woman who fled Ireland, which isn’t as easy as it sounds. To do so, she married Ben, who is nothing more than a friend and now a co-worker as they work on the same blogging team. Ash is the Irwin (Irwins are named for Steve Irwin because they never saw a zombie they didn’t want to poke with a stick). Ben is a Newsie. Newies tell the factual truth and basically replaced journalists of our day because they lied to the public about the zombies during The Rising. Then there is Audrey. She is the team’s Fictional, which is exactly as it sounds. She is also Ash’s girlfriend, remember how I said Ash just married Ben for the greencard. She is a lesbian. Ben is okay with this infidelity because they were married in the legal sense only. There is a love between Ben and Ash, but it is the love of two really close friends. Last, but certainly not least, is Mat. Mat is genderfluid and the team’s techie. Mat also has a great following as a makeup artist. Mat prefers pronouns of “them” and “they”.

This team of bloggers isn’t in the big leagues of the Mason’s, whose parents started the whole blogger as journalist thing. They just want to be able to make their way in the world. Ben really wants to fix up the house that was left to him and protect his sister. When they get asked to go on the campaign trail following Governor Kilburn, they had no idea what was in store for them. This story is filled with as much plotting and political intrigue as Feed, as we watch our bloggers try to stay alive while also reporting on the news of the political campaign.

This story has diversity in spades. I applaud Grant for creating a diverse book. Ben is black, married to a lesbian Irish white girl, who’s dating an Asian woman. Add in Mat, and that is an extremely diverse group of bloggers all working together on this campaign. There is also meetup with another candidate on the trail who worked as a stripper at one point and used her beauty to win over the people of Nevada. She worked hard to legitimize the sex worker trade and to get them better working conditions.

I loved this story. I was so glad to get back into the Newsflesh world. The characters that Grant has created as just wonderful. Those characters, paired with a very unique zombie world, that has made this series so great in my mind. If you’re a fan of The Walking Dead or zombies in general, I can’t recommend this series enough. You can start with this book if you want, but you must know, that because this book takes place during the same time as Feed, you will learn some spoilers about Feed if you choose to go back and read it later.

Narration
If there is anything I could fault in this series, it is the fact that each book has different narrators. The original trilogy has both male and female narrators for each book, which is not the case here. We have only one narrator for this story, Georgia Dolenz. I started this book not having any idea who the narrator would be. I will say that they picked a great choice for this book. Since Ash is our main storyteller and is from Ireland, this narrator must be really good as Irish accents. I can say that she nailed it. She did a great job with not only Ash’s voice, but with all the voices of this story. There are a lot of voices, both male and female, and she did a great job with all of them. I will be on the lookout for more books by Dolenz.

**I like to thank the publisher for providing me with a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

[kimbacaffeinate]

Feedback introduces us to Aislinn (Ash), Ben, Mat and Audrey. In Feed, the Masons are the news team for Senator Ryman and our new motley crew is reporting for Democratic hopeful Governor Susan Kilburn. Zombie attacks, politics and the crew itself took us on a wild and crazy tale filled with danger, truths, lies and loss.

"It's not what's truth that matters. It's what people remember when the dust dies down"

I really enjoyed the diverse dynamics of this team. First, we have Ben Ross the Newsie. He is straight-laced and the leader. Next, there is Ash North the Irwin who teases zombies and follows her hunches. Mat Newson who is the group Techie and a makeup artist. Rounding up the group is Audrey Wen a Fictional.

Feedback is told through Ash, a saucy, redheaded kick-ass Irwin. Ash is complicated, refreshingly honest and showed all the complexities and human factors of the team, world and events that unfold. She would bait zombies, worry about her bottom showing in her sundress and mentally hash out immortality all at the same time. I loved her; she is the feminine version of Shaun with Georgina Mason's attitude.

"Some people liked to stay on the phone with their friends and loved ones as they fought, thinking it was better to have the company. I had never wanted that. One day, I was going to die in the field. Maybe I was going to die in this one. If that happened, I wanted to be remembered smiling, not screaming. That was why I always ended my videos with a grin and a wink, no matter how tired I was. Every entry could be the one that went up on the Wall. I didn't want the last thing I did to be sad. Dying was sad enough without helping it along."

The tale is riveting and full of all the twists, danger, zombies and conspiracies one could hope for. In addition to the tale we get the crews stories and I loved how diverse and complicated they are. The synopsis refers to them as scrappy underdogs and I loved that. The relationship between them particularly Ben, Ash and Audrey is unique. Mat is not gender specific and is referred to as they. Looking for diversity? This team has it all! Their pasts hold secrets and each has a completely different personality but as a team, they work. Their friendship and emotional attachments felt genuine.

"You know what we're capable of. Maybe we're not as fancy as Senator Ryman's pet blog team, but what we lack in prestige, we more than make up for with viciousness."

As the group follows Governor Susan Kilburn, there is rise in zombie attacks. Ash and the team begin to suspect these attacks are not coincidental. The more Ash digs the more complicated and dangerous things become. Grant delivered intense scenes,and revelations that kept me emotionally invested.

Reader beware, while Feedback takes place during the same timeline as Feed it is full of spoilers for those who have not read the trilogy. For fans, hoping to see beloved character, we do hear mention of Masons and other beloved characters but this is not their story.

Copy provided by publisher. This review was originally posted on Caffeinated Book Reviewer