Showing posts with label mira grant. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mira grant. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

The To-Be-Read Tag

I have seen this fun little questionnaire pop up on a lot of blogs lately, and while I haven't been tagged specifically, many bloggers have just said that they invite anyone reading it to play along.  I will take that as my invitation to participate!  :)

1. How do you keep track of your TBR pile?

I suppose my only "official" TBR pile is the one I keep on Goodreads.  However, it is OUT OF CONTROL and doesn't even include everything I want to read, because I kind of gave up on it long ago.  I suppose my true TBR pile is rather infinite. 

2. Is your TBR mostly print or eBook?

I'd say mostly print.  But I have a boatload of eBooks on my Kindle waiting to be read...so many, in fact, that I've forgotten which ones I own already (oops).
 
3. How do you determine which book from your TBR to read next?

Changes by the day!  Sometimes I want a classic, sometimes I want a backlist title from a favorite author, sometimes I want to pick from the TBR Book Baggie, sometimes I want an ARC...the list goes on.
 
4. A book that’s been on your TBR list the longest?

If you go by my Goodreads list, The World According to Garp by John Irving has been there the longest.  I've owned a paperback copy from my mom for ages, and have yet to make time for it.

5. A book you recently added to your TBR?

One of the most recently added to my Goodreads list is Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel.  I am excited to get that one soon.

6. A book on your TBR strictly because of it’s beautiful cover.

I don't really look at covers much, to be honest!  I wouldn't say it's beautiful, per se, but I enjoy the eye-catching cover of Mira Grant's Symbiont (book 2 in the Parasitology series)...it's on my TBR list, even though I've heard this sequel is hugely disappointing.

7. A book on your TBR that you never plan on reading.

Probably World Without End by Ken Follett.  It's the sequel to The Pillars of the Earth, which I didn't even particularly like...why is this on my list, then??

8. An unpublished book on your TBR that you’re excited for.

Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town by Jon Krakauer.  It comes out this April.  I would read Krakauer's grocery list, if he'd let me have the privilege.
 
9. A book on your TBR that basically everyone has read but you.

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon.  I get continually reminded by MANY people that I should have read it by now!
 
10. A book on your TBR that everyone recommends to you.

See above answer! 

11. A book on your TBR that you’re dying to read.

I can only pick one?  How about Where'd You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple. 

12. How many books are on your Goodreads TBR shelf?

1078.  I told you it was out of control.

Feel free to jump into this little questionnaire, if you haven't already!  Tell me about your TBR pile, friends!

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Book Review: Parasite by Mira Grant


Title: Parasite
Author: Mira Grant
Publisher: Orbit
Publication Date: October 29, 2013
Source: borrowed from the good ol' public library

Summary from Goodreads:

A decade in the future, humanity thrives in the absence of sickness and disease.

We owe our good health to a humble parasite - a genetically engineered tapeworm developed by the pioneering SymboGen Corporation. When implanted, the tapeworm protects us from illness, boosts our immune system - even secretes designer drugs. It's been successful beyond the scientists' wildest dreams. Now, years on, almost every human being has a SymboGen tapeworm living within them.

But these parasites are getting restless. They want their own lives...and will do anything to get them.


My Review:

If the name Mira Grant rings a bell, it may be because I reviewed the three books in her Newsflesh trilogy for you last year.  Grant did a great job with zombies, so why wouldn't she do the same with tapeworms, amiright?  YAY, ZOMBIES AND TAPEWORMS.  I guess you shouldn't proceed in this review if you dislike icky things?

Alrighty, well, the first thing I liked about this book is the scientific detail.

And then, the first thing I kinda disliked about this book is the scientific detail.

(Let's back up.)

If you've read the Newsflesh trilogy, you know that Grant is really, really good at giving her sci-fi villains (in that case, zombies, in this case, tapeworms) a solid scientific foundation.  This isn't like The Walking Dead where we just kind of have this virus that's turning people into zombies, and you don't get a lot of detail about it, but you just accept the fact that people are now eating other people and YAY NORMAN REEDUS.  Nope, Mira Grant makes sure you know exactly how, biologically, that was possible, and I thought that was a super cool spin on the usual zombie novels that I see.

At first, I was intrigued by her explanation of the whole tapeworm situation in Parasite.  Basically, in the not-distant future, a health care company developed these tapeworms as implants to live in everyone's intestines, because the overuse of sterilization and hygienic cleansing caused us to all be getting sick all the time (a true scientific theory even now), and the tapeworms could be used to deliver medicines and other treatments in order to prevent these infections from occurring.  Okay, got it, I am on board, I like where this is going.

However, in the last third of the novel, as the action picked up, the science got to be a little TOO much at times.  Kind of hard to follow, and more than a little confusing in some parts.  Don't get me wrong, I like some guesswork with my plot twists and such, but this started to feel less intriguing and more frustrating after a while.  By the end, I think I had a pretty good handle on what was happening, but at some points I do wish the science was dialed down justalittle so that I could sit back and enjoy the action a bit more.  I do respect the fact that her scientific detail seemed to be extremely well-researched though.  Can't knock that, because it's impressive to see in a fiction novel these days.

Beyond the whole issue of the science--if you liked the Newsflesh trilogy, I think you will enjoy Parasite too.  The action moves along at a pretty similar pace, there are lots of unpredictable twists, and the characters all have a bit of that spunky nature that I came to expect from Georgia and Shaun in Newsflesh.  I found the protagonist (Sal) to be a little hard to believe at times (she's supposed to be fairly naive because of an accident that she was in 6 years ago, but still manages to be rather cunning when it counts...), but overall it's just a fun cast of characters to dive into.

Final verdict: despite the occasional feelings of confusion that I battled during this book, I'm definitely interested enough in where this is going to be eager for the next installment in the trilogy.  I don't feel as completely invested as I did after I read Feed (the first installment of Newsflesh) but you've hooked me, Mira Grant--I'm in for at least one more ride.

Readers: I think the most important question here is, would you seriously be willing to harbor a tapeworm in your intestines if it cured all of your ills?  Assuming it would never take over your body and try to kill you, of course...
Also, special shout-out if you liked my Norman Reedus mention.

Thursday, January 3, 2013

December 2012 in Review

Ah, December...thanks to Amazon $$ as Christmas gifts, it's the one month of the year where I make it rain (with book purchases, that is).
Liz Lemon grabbed that money and went straight to B+N.
Now that I have shelves chock-full of new and exciting reading material, I hope to have lots of equally new and exciting reviews for you soon!

Let's review December, shall we?  Let's start with my most and least fave books of the month.  The favorite was REALLY HARD to choose, I read a lot of good stuff this month:

December 2012 Favorite: Sad Desk Salad by Jessica Grose
December 2012 Least Favorite: Matched by Ally Condie

Annnnnd let's review the rest of my reading month.

I read and reviewed 7 books (click links for my reviews):
If I Stay by Gayle Forman
Blackout by Mira Grant
Bluff by Lenore Skomal
The Uninvited by Liz Jensen
Sad Desk Salad by Jessica Grose
Matched by Ally Condie
The Intercept by Dick Wolf

I did a full review of one past read:
Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain

I also posted 4 mini reviews of past reads:
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

And I posted 5 new Small Fry Saturdays!
Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney
Merry Christmas, Ollie! by Olivier Dunrea
Santa Claus The World's Number One Toy Expert by Marla Frazee
Suzy Goose and the Christmas Star by Petr Horacek
Jingle All The Way by Tom Shay-Zapien

In addition to all that, I signed up for a ridiculous number of 2013 reading challenges, declared my favorite books of 2012, shared my Christmas book haul, and announced my new domain name (which I'll admit, makes me feel like a certified baller.  Balla?  Baller?  I don't know, whatevs).

Also, the blog has only been up since August, but I already have over 100 posts!  YEAH BOIIII.

Now, in keeping with my new resolutions, I'm working on coming up with some new post ideas, and trying to make sure I keep up with my crazy reading challenges.  Happy January, all!

What's your first read of 2013?

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Wondrous Words Wednesday (10)



Welcome back, wordy friends!

Wondrous Words Wednesday is hosted by BermudaOnion each week. It's an opportunity to share new words you've encountered in your reading, or highlight words that you particularly enjoy.

Here are three of my favorites new-to-me words from some of my recent reads. All definitions from Dictionary.com.


1. widdershins. "As if surprised by his rage, the widdershins pressure on the doorknob eased again." (from Dreamcatcher by Stephen King)

adverb
1. in the direction contrary to the apparent course of the sun; anticlockwise.
2. in a direction contrary to the usual; in the wrong direction.

(Apparently this is primarily a Scottish word.)

2. eidetic. "Barry is an eating machine.  And his memory, on this subject, at least, is eidetic. " (from Dreamcatcher by Stephen King)

adjective
of, pertaining to, or constituting visual imagery vividly experienced and readily reproducible with great accuracy and in great detail.

(Can I just say how hard it is to identify new words when you are listening to an audiobook?  This word does not look like it sounds, at least to me. ahy-det-ik)

3. surcease. "Eagerly I wished the morrow, vainly I had sought to borrow from my books  surcease  of sorrow
. " (from Feed by Mira Grant)
verb
1. to cease from some action; desist.
2. to come to an end.

(They used this as a passcode in the book--I think it's from a Poe poem?)

What are your new words this week?

Monday, December 10, 2012

Book Review: Blackout by Mira Grant

Title: Blackout (Newsflesh Trilogy #3)
Author: Mira Grant
Publisher: Orbit Books
Publication Date: May 22, 2012
Source: borrowed from the good ol' public library

Plot Summary from Goodreads :

The year was 2014. The year we cured cancer. The year we cured the common cold. And the year the dead started to walk. The year of the Rising.

The year was 2039. The world didn't end when the zombies came, it just got worse. Georgia and Shaun Mason set out on the biggest story of their generation. They uncovered the biggest conspiracy since the Rising and realized that to tell the truth, sacrifices have to be made.

Now, the year is 2041, and the investigation that began with the election of President Ryman is much bigger than anyone had assumed. With too much left to do and not much time left to do it in, the surviving staff of After the End Times must face mad scientists, zombie bears, rogue government agencies-and if there's one thing they know is true in post-zombie America, it's this:

Things can always get worse.

Blackout is the conclusion to the epic trilogy that began in the Hugo-nominated Feed and the sequel, Deadline.


My Review:

I have already said so much about this trilogy in my other two reviews (HERE and HERE).  If you don't want the trilogy spoiled for you, you should probably start with the other two books first!  Otherwise, do read on.

First and foremost--this was an excellent conclusion to a truly action-packed trilogy.  This third installment does not have a single dull moment.  **Spoilers**   Now that Georgia is back, the book alternates between her POV and Shaun's POV.  This alone made me never want to put the book down, because each Georgia chapter would end on a cliffhanger, followed by a Shaun chapter ending on a cliffhanger, and on and on.  Until their stories intersect in the middle of the novel, you're constantly bouncing back and forth between them, which I loved.  Just like the other two books, this one gets an A+ for action, and the zombie stuff is suspenseful without being gory or overdone.

Also, the world building continues to shine.  The author obviously knows her stuff about virology, and incorporates it into the novel in a way that is easy for the lay-reader to understand.  This adds SO much to the trilogy in terms of believability.

I only had a few small complaints, and one of them will not be new to you (given my review of Deadline ).  I really...really...REALLY do not like Shaun as a narrator.  He constantly reminds us that he's so crazy, he's on the brink of insanity, he's going to punch someone in the face, yada yada yada...it gets very old, very fast.  Having Georgia back as a second narrator was helpful though, because I only had to listen to him half of the time.

The other issues were focused more on writing style.  I would love to count how many times the characters "wince" or "grimace" in this novel.  Nobody winces or grimaces that much in real life, even if they are being pursued by the undead.  And this book (along with Deadline) spends significant amounts of time reviewing things that happened in the previous books.  I don't understand why authors do this, especially in trilogies.  Who is jumping in at book #3 without reading book #1??  All that review stuff is just space filler for everyone who read the other two books.

But just like with Deadline, those complaints just don't matter as much as the good stuff.  The action and suspense is awesome, and I developed a love for a lot of the side characters as well.  I felt invested in all of them.  There are some great twists (weird, but great), and the ending is satisfying without being all tied up with a bow.  If you want an addicting trilogy with some smarts, Newsflesh is definitely for you!

Monday, December 3, 2012

November 2012 In Review

Small Fry demands turkey satisfaction.

November...was crazy.  Reading wise, it was great.  I liked pretty much every book I read (felt a little lukewarm about 1-2, but overall, I'd say I at least liked them).  Some months aren't always like that.  Back in July or so, I felt like I was reading NOTHING but bad books.  Luckily that was before the blog was born, so you did not need to share in my misery.  :)

Just to add a little spice to my monthly wrap-ups, I've decided to name my favorite, and least favorite, book read each month.  Which is really hard this particular month, given that none of my books were very low on the rating scale!  Sooooo:

November 2012 Favorite: This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz
November 2012 Least Favorite: Landing by Emma Donoghue

With that, let's review the rest of my reading month.

I read and reviewed 7 books (click links for my reviews):
Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama
Being Santa Claus by Sal Lizard with Jonathan Lane
This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz
The Light of Amsterdam by David Park
Landing by Emma Donoghue
Deadline by Mira Grant
A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L'Engle

I also posted 2 mini reviews of past reads:
Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane
In The Woods by Tana French

And I posted 4 new Small Fry Saturdays!
Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell
Peekaboo Kisses by Barney Saltzberg
Pajama Time! by Sandra Boynton
I'm A T.Rex! by Dennis Shealy

In the midst of all this, I shared deep thoughts about self-published novels, tried to find ways to read without ignoring my husband, talked about my hotly-anticipated 2013 releases, and hosted another giveaway.

Nowadays, I am gearing up for the Christmas season in a big way.  Luckily, I am nearly done with shopping, so now I can concentrate on kissing under the mistletoe and keeping my toddler out of the tree.  :)  And of course, MORE READING!

Do you have any favorite Christmas-themed reads?

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Wondrous Words Wednesday (7)



Word Nerd Time!

Wondrous Words Wednesday is hosted by BermudaOnion each week. It's an opportunity to share new words you've encountered in your reading, or highlight words that you particularly enjoy.

Here are three of my favorites new-to-me words from some of my recent reads. All definitions from Dictionary.com.


1. rictus. "Kelly looked at me, lips drawing back in a smile that looked more like a rictus." (from Deadline by Mira Grant)

noun
1. the gape of the mouth of a bird.
2. the gaping or opening of the mouth.

2. palimpsest. "'Have to what?' he asked, staring at the dark palimpsest of beard on his head of department's lower face that threatened to seep through the aging surface of his skin and re-form its former glory. " (from The Light of Amsterdam by David Park)

noun
a parchment or the like from which writing has been partially or completely erased to make room for another text.   (really interesting use of the word by the author!)

3. jobsworth. "'What a jobsworth,' Shannon hissed at her.  'A little power and it goes to their head.'" (from The Light of Amsterdam by David Park)
noun
a person in a position of minor authority who invokes the letter of the law in order to avoid any action requiring initiative, cooperation, etc.

What are your new words this week?

Monday, November 26, 2012

Book Review: Deadline by Mira Grant

Title: Deadline  (book #2 in the Newsflesh trilogy)
Author: Mira Grant
Publisher: Orbit
Publication Date: June 1, 2011
Source: borrowed from the good ol' public library

Plot Summary from Goodreads:

Shaun Mason is a man without a mission. Not even running the news organization he built with his sister has the same urgency as it used to. Playing with dead things just doesn't seem as fun when you've lost as much as he has.

But when a CDC researcher fakes her own death and appears on his doorstep with a ravenous pack of zombies in tow, Shaun has a newfound interest in life. Because she brings news-he may have put down the monster who attacked them, but the conspiracy is far from dead.

Now, Shaun hits the road to find what truth can be found at the end of a shotgun.

My Review:

You may remember that I reviewed book #1 in this trilogy (Feed) not too long ago.  To summarize, I loved it--I thought the world-building was excellent, the zombies weren't overdone, and the voice of Georgia as narrator was awesome.  Overall, great start to this series.

Let me start with all the good things about Deadline (because overall, I did enjoy this installment of the series as well).  First, the action!  I thought that Grant did an even better job building suspense in this book than she did in FeedDeadline deals with a pretty short time period (a week or two), but the suspense is drawn out, and the climactic scenes are worth the wait.  I was constantly wondering who in the group was a double-crosser...I was often wrong, but the suspicion was always there.  And as with Feed, there is a big oh-snap-didn't-see-that-coming (actually, I'd say two of them) right towards the end.  I will have no problem running out to read the last book in this trilogy, Blackout.

Also, as with Feed, the author's grasp of virology is awesome.  Total A+ in the world-building department.  Part of what I love so much about the Newsflesh trilogy is that it's a zombie book with a pretty solid science background.  Zombies in and of themselves are not entirely believable creatures, but with the virological explanations that Grant weaves into her novels, it makes you want to run out and buy a shotgun.  Just in case.

However, I felt kind of bipolar about this book at times.  On the one hand, I was completely addicted to the action, the scientific whys and hows, and wanting to know what happened next.  On the other hand, I found myself completely annoyed for significant sections of the novel.

(Now, HERE THERE BE SPOILERS .  Read on only if you want Feed ruined for you!)

In Deadline, the narrator has switched over to Shaun, now that his sister George is dead via zombie conversion and subsequent bullet to the head.  In my review of Feed, George's death at the end was the "risky move" that I applauded Mira Grant for.  It's pretty ballsy to kill off your protagonist in any book, but especially in a trilogy.  I didn't see it coming, and I thought it was a bold slap-in-the-face to your typical reading structure.  So I was very excited to see what book #2 had in store.

Unfortunately, I was immediately disappointed to see that George isn't 100% "dead", at least by Shaun's standards.  He still continues to hear George's voice in his head, to the point where he carries on conversations with her pretty much at all times (and even hallucinates visions of her occasionally).  This is explained away as Shaun's inability to grieve/let go of George's death, but as a reader, it felt like one thing: the author's inability to stand by her decision to kill George off.  I feel like Grant saw George's death as too risky, too vulnerable to losing readership, so she decided to keep her present as the voice in Shaun's head.  I found his conversations with her to just be downright annoying (along with his repeated threat to "punch in the face" anyone who mentioned said conversations).  Not to mention, they take a turn for the awkwardly-weird when Shaun starts to get romantically involved with another character.

Now, if you've read Deadline, you know that the finale of the novel SORT OF supports George's lack of disappearance from Shaun's mind...and Blackout might give me more information on that too.  But as of now, I am still not entirely convinced that Shaun needed to be hearing her voice throughout the entire novel.  It really grated on me, and was the #1 thing that kept this from being a totally smooth read.

**End Spoilers!**

So overall--I'd still give this book 4 stars on Goodreads.  The narration was super (super super) annoying at times, but the world of the Rising and the action that ensued was too good to make me stay away.  I'll be reading Blackout for sure...and based on Deadline's ending, I doubt I'll be having the same qualms about the narration anyway.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Wondrous Words Wednesday (6)


Word Nerd Time!

Wondrous Words Wednesday is hosted by BermudaOnion each week. It's an opportunity to share new words you've encountered in your reading, or highlight words that you particularly enjoy.

Here are three of my favorites new-to-me words from some of my recent reads. All definitions from Dictionary.com.


1. leachate. "Me and my pathetic little crew hiked over to Morgan Creek and swam around in water stinking of leachate from the landfill..." (from This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz)

noun
a solution resulting from leaching, as of soluble constituents from soil, landfill, etc., by downward percolating groundwater.

2. fulgurating. "Dead now a year and sometimes you still feel a fulgurating sadness over it.. ." (from This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz)

adjective
sharp and piercing.

3. vaunted. "And all our vaunted innocence/Has withered in this endless frost" (from Feed by Mira Grant)
adjective
praised boastfully or excessively.

What are your new words this week?

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Wondrous Words Wednesday (5)


Word Nerd Time!

Wondrous Words Wednesday is hosted by BermudaOnion each week. It's an opportunity to share new words you've encountered in your reading, or highlight words that you particularly enjoy.

Here are three of my favorites new-to-me words from some of my recent reads. All definitions from Dictionary.com.


1. cenotaph. "Thousands of gravestones and cenotaphs on both sides." (from This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz)

noun
a sepulchral monument erected in memory of a deceased person whose body is buried elsewhere.

2. pulchritude. "...but unlike your average hood hottie Pura seemed not to know what to do with her fineness, was sincerely lost in all the pulchritude ." (from This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz)

noun
physical beauty; comeliness.

3. tropism. "The human tropism toward illusionary time-saving devices has been the topic of a lot of studies since the Risinig." (from Feed by Mira Grant)
noun
an orientation of an organism to an external stimulus, as light, especially by growth rather than by movement.

What are your new words this week?

Thursday, November 1, 2012

October 2012 In Review


Me, Instagramming October.
October, in addition to just being one of my favorite months (gotta love the changing of the leaves), was a great bookish month for me.  Lots of reviews, my first giveaways, and I've bumped into some fun new book blogs along the way.  I feel like October was the kickoff to what is going to be a very busy holiday season.

I tried to focus more on scary/suspense books this month, and I kind of succeeded.  Genres are difficult for me to stick to.  I start reading one thing, and then all of a sudden another book grabs my attention like a shiny object.  "Oooooh David Levithan new release MUST READ THAT NOW!"  So I did jump around a little.

I read and reviewed 8 books (click links for my reviews):
The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn  <--this book still blows my mind, you MUST read it
Every Day by David Levithan
Rogue by Mark Sullivan
Feed by Mira Grant
The Mistaken by Nancy S. Thompson
'Salem's Lot by Stephen King
Coraline by Neil Gaiman

I also posted a full review for 1 past read:
In The President's Secret Service  by Ronald Kessler

And 2 mini reviews of past reads:
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe

AND I started a lil new meme: Small Fry Saturdays!  Join in anytime if you have favorite children's books to share.

In the midst of all this, I met Junot Diaz, completed my first two giveaways, and took part in my first blog tour review.

November should be an exciting month, with election season, Thanksgiving, and the beginning of Christmas shopping (gahhhhh)!  Plus, it's my husband's birthday--woohoo!

Last month I asked if people had any good recommendations for Halloween reads (and there were TONS), but now I wonder if there are any good ones for this less-written-about holiday.

Do you have any favorite Thanksgiving reads?

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Wondrous Words Wednesday (2)



It's Vocab Nerd time again!

Wondrous Words Wednesday is hosted by Bermudaonion each week.  It's an opportunity to share new words you've encountered in your reading, or highlight words that you particularly enjoy.


Here are three of my favorites new-to-me words from recent reads.  All definitions from Dictionary.com.

1. tintinnabulation. (This was used as one of the character's passwords in Feed by Mira Grant)
noun
the ringing or sound of bells.

2. temblor.   "I sucked in large gulps of air in an attempt to still the temblor erupting from within me."  (From The Mistaken by Nancy S. Thompson)
noun
a tremor; earthquake.

3. crepitate.  "A minute later the Marsten House loomed ahead of them, dark and crepitating, and Royal felt the first thread of real fear worm its way into his belly."  (From 'Salem's Lot by Stephen King)
verb (used without object),  crep·i·tat·ed,  crep·i·tat·ing.
to make a crackling soundcrackle.

What are your new words this week?

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Book Review: Feed by Mira Grant

First off--apologies for not being a very good comment responder the last few days.  I'm home with a sick little boy, so things have been crazy around here!  I promise I will come back to Earth soon.

Title: Feed
Author: Mira Grant
Publisher: Orbit
Publication Date: May 1, 2010
Source: borrowed from the good ol' public library

Plot Summary from Goodreads :

The year was 2014. We had cured cancer. We had beaten 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, bloggers Georgia and Shaun Mason are on the trail of the biggest story of their lives - the dark conspiracy behind the infected. The truth will get out, even if it kills them.

My Review:

First and foremost, I will take this opportunity to share a zombie joke.

What do vegetarian zombies eat?

Graaaaaaaaaaaaaains.

Okay then.  Now that you've survived my poor attempt at humor, on to the book.  I love zombies.  I'd heard good things about this novel (the first in the Newsflesh trilogy) for a while, and with Halloween coming up, I figured I could use some zombie-chomping goodness in my life.  However, despite what the description sounds like, this is not a book about the zombie apocalypse, per se.  It takes place 20+ years after the zombie horde has arrived--so the world has already had ample time to fight and contain the infection.  That's not to say the zombies aren't a threat anymore (because they are...oooooh yes they are), but the world's survivors have had time to figure out how to live around it.  There's an entire generation that never even remembers going about their lives without zombies.

That's the generation that Georgia and Shaun are a part of, and they come equipped with a cynical worldview to match.  Georgia is the primary narrator, and I quickly took a liking to her voice.  She's persistently sarcastic and skeptical, which is a POV that could easily get annoying as the sardonic one-liners start piling up.  But I thought that Grant wrote it well, and I appreciated Georgia's humor paired with her overall bitterness towards...well, everything except her brother, and the pursuit of truth.

On top of that, the world-building in this book is phenomenal.  Grant thought through every part of what this post-infection life would include, from the virology behind the disease, to the social ramifications of its containment.  I got caught up in it early on, and it's a big part of why I'll be looking for the next two Newsflesh books soon.

As for the action--DUH, there's zombies.  Biting, moaning, flesh-hungry zombies.  So you will get your fill of that.  But there's also political corruption, media wars, and conspiracies.  (Oh, and fellow bloggers will be happy to hear that bloggers have taken over the media in 2040, so there is hope for us yet!)  It's important to realize that the zombies are not always center-stage in this book--they are the reason for everything that's happening, but the actual story here goes far beyond that.  I could see how that might throw people off, given the description.  But I liked that Grant took the often-done zombie idea and put a new spin on it.

There is one ginormous "OMG, WTF" twist that had my jaw hanging open and my eyes glued to the page.  I don't want to give anything away, but I think Grant did something very risky there.  I'd love to chat about it with anyone who's read the book.

Overall, this one was a win in my book.  Great narrator, non-stop plot movement, and a dystopian world that's believable enough to suck you in within the first few pages.  I'm excited to see what the second book of this trilogy has in store!

What are some of your favorite zombie reads?

(And hey, don't forget my audiobook giveaway is still going on, HERE!)

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Wondrous Words Wednesday

Time to hit you with some knowledge!

Wondrous Words Wednesday is hosted by Bermudaonion each week.  It's an opportunity to share new words you've encountered in your reading, or highlight words that you particularly enjoy.  I run into new words while I read ALL THE TIME, so I decided to start keeping track and sharing them with you.  #vocabnerd!

Here are three of my favorites new-to-me words from recent reads.  All definitions from Dictionary.com.

1. uxorious. "Men capable of being uxorious."  (From Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn)
adjective
doting upon, foolishly fond of, or affectionately submissive toward  one's wife.
(That's a great word!!)

2. ungulate. "Assuming you're talking about the incident last August and I didn't somehow miss an ungulate attack?"  (From Feed by Mira Grant)
adjective
1.
having hoofs.
2.
belonging or pertaining to the Ungulata, a former order of all  hoofed mammalsnow divided into the odd-toed  perissodactyls and even-toed artiodactyls.
3.
hooflike.

3. petards.  "There will always be people for whom hate is easier when it's not backed up by anything but fear.  And I will always do my best to hoist them by their own petards."  (From Feed by Mira Grant)

hoist by  with one's own petard:   hurt, ruined, or  destroyed by the very device or plot one had intended for  another.

What are your new words this week?

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Teaser Tuesday!

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.  Here's the rules:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
•  BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
My Teasers:
“It's always best to question the survivors before they can start deluding themselves about the reality of what they just went through.  After the adrenaline fades, half the people who survive a zombie attack turn into heroes, having gunned down a thousand zombies with nothing but a .22 and a bucket of guts, while the other half deny that they were ever close enough to the undead to be in any actual danger.”

I can't wait to give you my full review on Feed later this week!
 
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