Review: Feed by Mira Grant

Posted by Jessi (Geo) on November 1, 2013 | 4 Comments


Review: Feed by Mira GrantFeed by Mira Grant
Series: Newsflesh Trilogy #1
Published by Orbit (5.1.2010)
Genres: Horror, Young Adult
Format: Paperback, 571 pages
Source: Library
Buy on Amazon


1 Stars

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 thoughts

Once again, I am the black sheep here. I really thought I could FINALLY find a zombie book I could actually love (so far, there are none), but again, I was wrong.

I just want to say first: I really enjoyed Parasite. I loved the convincing world building, and the concept was so realistic it was almost scary. So, if you agree with me and didn’t like Feed, I still suggest picking up Parasite.

I am very character driven when it comes to books. No matter how good the story or the world building are, if I can’t connect to the characters and thus can’t care about them, I’m not going to enjoy the book. None of the characters felt realistic, nor did they have a their own personality. Georgia was bland, and I couldn’t find anything in her to relate to. She was a Mary Sue. When it switched to Shaun’s POV, there was no difference at all. View Spoiler »

In the beginning, I had many of the same issues with this one that I had with Parasite: I couldn’t connect, the prose felt clinical and detached. Georgia’s POV had zero feeling, she was describing things like she was telling someone else’s story. Yet, it also had some of the things I liked: dates, clippings from the blog, and the science.

That was in the beginning. The more I read, the more I disliked this book. I really should have DNFed when I wasn’t enjoying it after 200 pages. But because of Parasite, I kept hoping I would find redeeming qualities in the last half (this book IS nearly 600 pages). I didn’t. In fact, it got worse. The political bullshit became so thick that I was nearly drowning in it. It got SO political that my brain nearly shut down. I don’t give a crap about political drama, and I sure as hell don’t want to read about it. It was far too much for me, and as a result, I was bored to death. I felt like I was reading a textbook. Spooning out my eyes would have been more enjoyable.

Thus, I was already annoyed, then this happened:

A pile of dead cats was under the hayloft, their multicolored bodies twisted from the brutal abdominal hemorrhaging that killed them. They’d survived the outbreak and the chaos that followed, but they couldn’t outrun the formalin. I spent several seconds standing there, looking at them. They looked so small and harmless…and they were. Cats don’t reach the Mason barrier. They weigh less than forty pounds. Kellis-Amberlee [the zombie virus] isn’t interested in them, and they don’t reanimate. For cats, dead is still dead.

If you know me, you know what I’m going to say here: I have a bleeding heart for cats. Cat killing is NEVER, EVER okay for me in any book, no matter what the circumstance. These cats weren’t killed by zombies. They were murdered by people who sprayed liquid formaldehyde on them. Why the f*ck couldn’t it have been rats or something? One dead cat is bad enough, but an entire PILE of dead cats is simply unnecessary. I was actually going to DNF at this part. Why didn’t I? Apparently I like to torture myself. I was going to quickly skim through the remaining 300 pages, but I saw that despite that, they managed to save one little kitty that survived the chemicals. I should have known better.

In the end, that poor kitty was murdered too, her neck broken on purpose. For no other reason besides the ‘bad guy’ wanted the owner dead. Why wouldn’t they have just killed the owner? What purpose does killing a defenseless animal serve?! None, that’s what. WHY DO AUTHORS DO THIS?! It is not relevant to the plot at all, and I feel like it was just intended to get a reaction. Well, it worked. I threw the book across the room. And it just made me despise the book.

Yes, I still finished it (let’s face it, when you’ve invested 500 pages of a book it’s hard to walk away, even if it is an awful experience), but I skimmed the last 60 pages. View Spoiler »

horrorfactor

1 weak

There were little to no zombie appearances, actually. This was closer to a political mystery than a horror. You’d be more likely to start snoring than to start screaming.

Overall Assessment

Plot: 3/5
Premise: 3/5
Writing style: 3/5
Originality: 3/5
Characters: 0.5/5
World-building: 3/5
Pace: 0.5/5
Feels: 0.5/5
Cover: 3.5/5
Overall rating: 1/5

Jessi (Geo)

Posted in: Book Reviews | Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Subscribe to Novel Heartbeat to get more posts like this!

4 responses to “Review: Feed by Mira Grant

  1. Muhaha, I don’t really care about dead animals in books *I know, that might make me sound horrible, but for me.. it’s just a story. Seeing it on the news or something like that makes me sad though* I’m reading it now, but I’m not feeling the books I’m reading at the moment.. I’m only on page 10, so I guess I need to get into the story – if I will reach that point. Sorry to hear it didn’t work for you!

    • I do. It’s a pet peeve of mine :( Usually just cats, though. Dogs don’t bother me as much, which is kind of sad lol. Well I hope you end up liking it more than I did, it was really a struggle for me to make it through!

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.