Zombie Book Review: Newsflesh, by Mira Grant

The best zombie story I have ever seen begins with FEED, set in 2040. It is twenty years after the Rising, the initial and catastrophic outbreak of the Kellis-Amberlee virus that caused the dead to rise again (with an appetite for living flesh). The world survived, but society and culture have been forever altered by fear of the infection.

The novel is narrated by news blogger Georgia Mason (named after George Romero, like many of her generation) and follows the adventures of her crew- her brother Shaun (an unconfirmed Shaun of the Dead reference) and their colleague Buffy (seriously)- on the presidential campaign trail with a surprisingly respectable candidate, Senator Peter Ryman. Along the way, there are zombies, explosions, conspiracies, and witty dialogue.

From the opening scene through the ending, FEED is a captivating, exciting, fascinating, and compelling read.

The best books tell a great story and use it to explore interesting ideas. It's common enough for zombie literature to be used as a medium for discussion of social issues and underlying societal fears, and the Newsflesh trilogy does that brilliantly, taking on not just government control and the trade-off between freedom and security, but tackling the sociology of fear itself.

More overtly, the way that Grant used the fictional post-Rising world to explore the very real rise of online media was unique and fascinating. The books are about blogging and online media as much as about zombies. The focus on bloggers and online news gave Grant's social commentary a fresh, current, and relevant perspective.

In the author interview at the end of FEED, Mira Grant expresses displeasure with zombie stories that offer no further background on the zombie plague than noting that it was a disease. She did her research for this book; if her writing itself did not make that abundantly clear, the long list of highly qualified people in various fields in her two-page Acknowledgments certainly should.

Grant put together a unique, plausible, and utterly terrifying model for the zombie virus. In the vein of The Omega Man and I Am Legend, she worked from the premise that the Kellis-Amberlee virus had been developed as a cure for other things entirely and turned out to have unintended and horrific consequences; in an entirely unique twist, she designed a virus that was endemic in its dormant form in nearly all mammals over 40 pounds but amplifies into active (zombie) state when the host either dies or is exposed to active virus (bitten, for instance). Grant’s idea is novel, and her application of it is incredible.

Sequels occasionally disappoint, but DEADLINE follows through with more of the complex, believably real setting of the United States after the Rising, the intelligent, plausible virus scenario, the dynamic and memorable characters, and the engrossing, well-paced story and compelling, strikingly real characters.

Mira Grant's work has arguably earned its place near the top of the genre, and room on the shelf among the greatest zombie literature yet written.

The first and second books in the Newsflesh Trilogy, FEED and DEADLINE, are available now. BLACKOUT, the third and final installment, is due in bookstores in May of this year.