Feed (Newsflesh, #1)

by Mira Grant

[empressbrooke]

When my library reserve for this book became available, I wasn't really in the mood for horror and almost didn't read it. I'm really glad I did though, because although it's a zombie novel, it doesn't fall into the horror genre at all. Instead of a bonkers, anything-goes, post-apocalyptic setting straight out of The Walking Dead, Feed portrays a world closer to our own. The author considers how all facets of our society would change if zombies were a constant threat. How would it change our approach to news, socializing, medicine, politics, pet ownership, food, funerals, etc? She approaches the question of how the zombies were created in the first place with much more scientific detail than most zombie stories do, too. I really loved the world she built and the thought she put into it.

My main complaint is that I wasn't a huge fan of the author's writing style. Its tone felt like many of the Young Adult books I've read, and as such I had to keep reminding myself that the main characters were adults in their 20s rather than teens. The dialogue was campy and overwritten at times, and the characters are often "grinning" or "whooping" or otherwise just being loud. Because of that, I was a little surprised that it was nominated for a Hugo, but I suspect that everything I mentioned enjoying about the plot was behind that.