Blackout (Newsflesh, Book 3)

This is the third book in the Newflesh series. See my other reviews here: Feed ° Deadline

Blackout (Newsflesh, Book 3) by Mira Grant

Book description: Rise up while you can. -Georgia Mason

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. The 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.

Final books in series make me sad. I know this is the end, and I’m going to miss the characters and the world. And the zombies. I can never get enough of the zombies.

The other thing is, third books are rarely as good as the two that preceded it. No exception here. The plot was not near as compelling and there were a lot of things that only make sense if you don’t think about them too hard. On top of that you still have  the fact that the author tends to tell you the same things over and over. YES, we get that Shaun is crazy. We get that the rest of the team ignores that he’s talking to himself. Seriously, we get it.

I did like that we got Georgia back as part time narrator. That was one big plus to the book. I missed her in Deadline, and really enjoyed the parts that from her perspective. Not that I minded Shaun’s parts. I’d gotten used to him as narrator, but he is not nearly as interesting as George.

Then there was the ending. In the first two books, the ending made the books.. I know that  you can’t have some big surprise cliff hanger ending in this type of book. But we’re chasing a conspiracy here! You want to be blown away by the big reveal. When we finally got there in Blackout I was underwhelmed. I found myself thinking, Wait, that’s it? That is the reason for all the hoopla? Seriously? It just seemed like there would be much easier ways to keep that secret. I guess half of the reason was enough to kill and hide, the part that would make it harder for people to "pull the trigger" on the zombies. But the other thing? I don’t know. It was just kind of ...meh.

Book 3’s are why I shouldn’t, logically, like trilogies. But so help me, I do love them. I’m glad I read the series, even though the ending was a bit disappointing. I loved the world, I loved the characters and I loved the zombies. A few loose ends and a less than stellar conspiracy are not going to change that.

On a scale from Totally Awesome to Horrifically awful, I would give this book a Good. It wouldn’t be able to stand on it’s own, but as a final book in an excellent trilogy, it works ok. It wasn’t a bad book, it just could have been so much more.

Deadline (Newsflesh, Book 2)

Deadline (Newsflesh, Book 2) by Mira Grant

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. 
    -from Amazon.com

I knew, before starting this book that I wasn't going to like it as much as I liked Feed. I knew I'd like it, but I wasn't going to love it the way I loved that first one.

Over all, it had a lot of things going for it - a bigger conspiracy, more at stake and more zombies. One thing it didn't have was Georgia Mason as the narrator. I really liked Shaun Mason in book one, but I liked him a lot better through his sister's eyes. Also, like in the first book, there was this habit of reiterating facts in more or less the same way, much past the point that they need to be repeated. Like the fact that Buffy was a technological genius, and no one could hold a candle to her talents. It needed to be said once or twice, sure, but it seems like it was said every single time she was mentioned.

The repetition wasn't bad enough to ruin the book, nor was the narration from Shaun. They were just minor annoyances in an over all good book. While reading it, I had a pretty good idea of what my opinion of it was - good, but not great.

And then the ending happened.

Holy crap. The ending. It came out of nowhere and it's awesome and confusing. It made me sad that Blackout isn't released until the end of next month. I want to know what the hell is going on and how this insane event could possibly come to be. And I want to know now, damn it!

On a scale from Totally Awesome to Horrifically Awful, I'd give it an Quite Great. Zombies, characters I already care about and an over all good book with an incredible ending. 

Feed (Newsflesh, Book 1)

Feed (Newsflesh, Book 1) by Mira Grant

I have a thing for zombies. I know, this is shocking news. That being said, there is a lot of media - and I mean a lot - in the genre I really despise. Poorly written books filled with unoriginal content. Terrible movies filled with bad acting that are also full of unoriginal content. Awful, awful, awful. Even so, I'll give anything zombie related a chance to wow me. Or even just not make me stop watching/reading a few minutes/pages in.

Within the first few pages of Feed, I knew I wasn't going to hate it. That was very promising.

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

It turns out, I didn't just not hate it. I loved it. I loved the characters - they were interesting and varied. The zombie back story was interesting and bordered on originality without going too far (and thus becoming unbelievable). The future tech is not so far advanced that you can't imagine that we'd make those kinds of advances in 20 years, but still manages to be new and interesting. All in all - very well done.

It also gave me my new favourite insult - Bright as a Box of Zombies. 


I really only have one complaint, and it's a minor one. It's the description of Shaun's style of reporting from Georgia. Not the actual description, but the repetition of it. We get it, Georgia. Shaun likes to poke zombies with sticks. You've told us 12 times (note: not actually, but I believe this number to be close), and the book started out with Shaun poking a zombie with a hockey stick. The point has been made. Lets move on now.


Now, lets talk about The Plot Twist. Well I guess there were two plot twists. Not the first one. The one at the end, with Georgia. A good plot twist you don't see coming. A great plot twist you don't believe it's happening while it's happening. I found myself thinking, No. What they're implying is about it happen, is not going to happen. No way. There's going to be some kind of surprise trickery that makes it not happen. And then it happened anyway, and I had to come to terms with it. The funny thing is it didn't really change the main plot of the story. It ended more or less exactly how I thought it was going to end. But, at the same time, it changed...I don't know. Something. The tone maybe, or the dynamic. I don't really know how to describe it. It changed nothing, and it changed everything. And I absolutely did not like it. Not at all. I know I said I only have one complaint. This isn't really a complaint, per se, it's a..I don't know what it is. I guess it just makes me wonder if I'll enjoy the other two books in the trilogy as much, in light of The Plot Twist. 


Prove me wrong, Mira Grant. Prove me wrong. 


On a scale from Totally Awesome to Horrifically Awful, I'd give it an Awesome. If there are two things I'm a sucker for its zombies and a well written trilogy. I can't wait to start the next one.