Review: Deadline by Mira Grant

Last year I read and really enjoyed Feed by Mira Grant...I still think it's one of the smartest zombie worlds I've ever read about and the ideas Grant explores in her zombie-fied world are some of the more interesting to be explored. It's less about raw survival and costly moments of kindness, and more about the way fear dominates our lives, the importance of truth, the corruption of government, etc. Additionally, the dominance of bloggers in this post-rising but still very civilized world is still one of my favorite things about these books.

She continues to explore these same ideas in Deadline, but takes it to a new level. I cannot discuss Deadline without mentioning major events from Feed, so if you have not read Feed and plan to read these books please do not read any farther!

The presidential campaign that Shaun and Georgia were following is obviously over in Deadline. Shaun is still coping with George's death and not doing it very well. He still talks to her as if she's alive and in his head. His sole reason for living at this point is to discover who killed his sister and why. He's no longer on the field as an Irwin, either. His grief is a huge part and motivator of the story. When someone from the CDC shows up with information, though, things get intense fast and Shaun and his team are forced to make hard decisions about just how far they are willing to go to uncover the truth.

Grant's world is incredibly detailed and as such very believable. At times there are huge exposition dumps, for example there were three pages describing what the showers were like and occasionally that bothered me a bit, but for the most part the story still moves incredibly quickly. There are a lot of surprises as well. One thing that surprised me about this book was the nature of Shaun and George's relationship. Even though I guessed that romantic feelings between them could exist since they were adoptive siblings, I didn't feel like that was strongly indicated at all in Feed. I just thought they were very close and trusted each other more than anyone else in the world. But this story, told from Shaun's point of view, was very clear that Shaun was in love with George. Not in any way that was spoken between them or even really acknowledged by him for awhile, but it was clear that she fulfilled that role in his life. I'm not exactly sure how I feel about this development.

For the most part, I really enjoyed the progression of the story. It's different from Feed, it raises the stakes of the zombie virus, and the conclusion is somewhat stunning and I'm definitely looking forward to the third book coming out next year! Also I really liked the new characters introduced, especially Dr. Abbey.

Have you read Feed and Deadline? What's your favorite zombie book? I also caught up on The Walking Dead this past weekend and it was so freaking good I kind of feel like escaping into zombie stories for awhile.

Rating: 4.25/5
Things You Might Want to Know: Some profanity, a little sex. Also zombies.
Source of Book: Bought it
Publisher: Orbit (Hachette)