(Cover picture courtesy of Tansyrr.)

The year was 2014.  We had cured cancer.  We had beaten the common cold.  But in doing so we had 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.

“Our story opens where countless stories have ended in the last twenty-six years: with an idiot—in this case, my brother Shaun—deciding it would be a good idea to go out and poke a zombie with a stick to see what happens.”

When a book starts out like this, you know it’s going to be good.  As many of my readers know, I have a serious fear of zombies that was triggered when I watched Dawn of the Dead at the age of eight.  I bought this book to cure myself of this irrational fear and I truly think Mira Grant’s biting wit (pardon the pun) and excellent characters have cured me.  Zombies don’t scare me any longer, so now I can get on with my review.

Feed is told mostly from the point of view of Georgia Mason—George for short—and she is an excellent narrator.  She is a three dimensional character that is brave, resourceful and protective of her reckless brother Shaun.  And unlike many female characters, she doesn’t fall in love through the course of the story.  In fact, there is no romance whatsoever for the main characters, which is definitely a refreshing change.

I would call Feed more of a political thriller with zombies than a zombie book with politics.  The political atmosphere in a post-Rising world is very different from what it is now, but it makes a lot of sense in the context.  There is much less active participation because of the fear of the Kellis-Amberlee virus infecting you.  And of course the reclamation of zombie-infested lands like Alaska and parts of California is the hot-button issue of the day.  As George and Shaun uncover a conspiracy while on the campaign trail with Senator Ryman, the plot moves along even more quickly than before toward its tragic ending.

I give this book 5/5 stars.

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