Deadline by Mira Grant
(Cover picture courtesy of Orbit Books.)
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.
After Feed cured me of my irrational zombie fear, I decided to read the second book in the Newsflesh trilogy: Deadline. I’m really glad I did because it builds on things hinted at in the first book very well. If you don’t want to read any spoilers, I suggest you stop reading right now.
It’s been a year since Georgia died, but since Shaun talks to her in his head constantly, it feels like she’s a major character. Shaun talks to her aloud and accepts that he is mentally ill because he doesn’t want to let go of his adoptive sister. His point of view is very different from George’s because he’s more reckless and unsure of himself and what he’s doing. I guess that’s a natural response to shooting your sister in the spinal column after she’s been injected with live Kellis-Amberlee. Deadline follows Shaun’s quest for the truth and throughout the journey he has a lot of character development as each new, horrible revelation comes to light.
The focus of Deadline isn’t politics like it was in Feed. Instead, it focuses a lot more on the Kellis-Amberlee virus itself. The level of detail Mira Grant has put into her world-building is fantastic and, unlike a lot of zombie novels, she explains what causes people to turn into zombies. Truly, this is science fiction at its finest because it has a fast-paced plot while paying attention to character development and world-building.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
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