Deadline (Newsflesh, #2)

by Mira Grant

[ibeforem]

*FIRST BOOK SPOILER ALERT*

I wasn’t sure how I was going to like this book. After all, George was the best character in the first book, and she’s dead! Would I feel the same way about Shaun?

Turns out I didn’t have to worry, because George is still a very large part of this book, if only in Shaun’s head. Rather than being focused on national news events, such as the presidential campaign, this book is focused on the disease that causes the zombies. Turns out, things aren’t quite as they appear, and George’s death may have been orchestrated by more than just one crazy politician.

The events of the first book left everyone in this one more than a little shell-shocked, and the trauma affects many of their actions. I liked that this book gave us a little more of an idea of what things are like in the rest of the country, away from the big cities, when you’re not surrounded by security and RVs.

One of the more interesting aspects of this series is the author’s imagined evolution of bloggers and blogging, where they become the real truth tellers of society. I think it’s become an even more compelling vision in light of what has been accomplished (good and bad) with social media in the last couple of years.

There were big doings at the end of this book, and a major cliff-hanger. I’ll definitely be reading the third.