Taste the Books: Review Morsels #55 Mira Grant: "Newsflesh" Series (Part 1)

Intro

Hello beauties!

Welcome again to my own brand of mini reviews! I never thought I'd do minis, until I recapped a few of my long reviews in some digest post in 2014, and then guest-posted some shorties for a blogging event in 2015. And Karen from For What It's Worth started praising my short recs/recaps 😊. Just to be clear,  I'm NOT taking a break from writing long reviews - no such luck LOL (though for anthologies, shorter books or books that I didn't enjoy/I don't have enough to say about, I decided to stick to minis). But while I'm making up my mind about a new book I've read, I might as well give you the short version 😉. Just be warned - this feature will be VERY random!

Note: all the mini blurbs (in italics) are of my own creation.

Feed by Mira Grant

(Newsflesh #1)

★★★★

In a future where the combination of an anticancer trial virus with a cure for the common cold ended up creating a zombie plague, bloggers and adoptive siblings Georgia and Shaun Mason follow a Republican senator's presidential campaign and uncover a deadly conspiracy.

***

I never read political thrillers. I have no interest in zombies (though I'd rather read about them than about political intrigue or espionage, and I did enjoy The Girl with All the Gifts, so there's that). So it's a testament to Mira Grant/Seanan McGuire's capability to engage her readers that I not only read this one, but liked it as well. With a few caveats.
On the positive side: The worldbuilding is creative and interesting, on all counts - not just the zombie one. The plot is intriguing, and evidently fueled by a lot of research. Both the protagonists and the supporting cast are vivid (mostly). Bloggers rule (sorry, not sorry 😉). There are actual consequences to looking for the truth - Grant/McGuire is never afraid to cut your heart open if the story requires a sacrifice or two, or to make it bleed along with her characters' at the very least. There's some disability rep, if specific to the zombie plague. Lastly, even if this installment is the start of a series, it's self-contained.
On the hey-I-wanted-a-tad-more side: Look, I had been spoiled before I read this one, but really, it's not hard to foresee the main twist and to point your finger at the big baddie. Some characters are a bit too cliché*, until they aren't (there's a confrontation late in the story that doesn't feel consistent with a certain deuteragonist's demeanor up to that point). Some plot points are awfully convenient (bloggers uncovering major clue in a place that should have been swept clean already? I understand that the priority had been to kill the virus that was released there, but the site should have been SWARMING with secret service folks or whatever, if in protective gear. Also, the perpetrators were SO LAZY). Speaking of which, an animal's death has no other purpose than to make a plot point possible. There are a few tense shifts whose rhyme and reason is unclear. Last but not least: unlike the so-called-siblings' relationship in Middlegame, I found Georgia and Shaun's to be a bit weird, with their intimacy/codependency and refusal to date (not to mention, the Middlegame siblings aren't exactly human, so if they feel weird to you, they're allowed to be).
On the whole, I did enjoy this one, and I breezed through it - only, there are books by the author that I love a lot more.

*OK, in reality, certain public figures don't shy away from showing us their worst side, but you want more subtlety in a thriller...

Note: this is a finished series that has been around for years now, so I decided to only write mini - or, well, midi 😅 - reviews for its installments, to ease my review burden...

Addendum: alas, after reading Book 2 in the series, I found out that my uneasiness about Georgia and Shaun's relationship was totally justified...the cat is finally out of the bag. I strive to make my reviews spoiler-free, but since this is a sensitive topic, I think it's fair to give potential readers a warning for incest (the protagonists have different biological parents, but they literally grew up together, and that's as close to incest as it gets). If I had known in advance, I wouldn't have read the series...but I skipped the reviews and took a leap of faith, because Grant/McGuire is a favourite author (*sigh*). If you're reading my review, you get to make the choice I didn't have the chance to. I decided to finish the series because I'm a completionist, but I don't plan on picking it up a second time...Also, I wanted to detract one star from my original rating because of the incest thing, but since it isn't spelled out yet in this book, I decided to leave my rating unchanged.

Fed by Mira Grant

(Newsflesh #2)

★★

What if the first Newsflesh novel had ended differently? Picking up with the events of Ch.25, Fed proposes an alternate, even more heartbreaking scenario to the ending of Feed...if it had been a standalone.

***

Uh...no. It's my understanding that this ending had been conceived (and probably even written?) in case Feed wouldn't get the chance to be expanded into a series - also because this is the only time so far that Grant/McGuire has made alternate endings for one of her books available - and if so, I'm REALLY glad her publisher allowed her to continue, because as far as endings are concerned, this one is extra-depressing and morbid, and would have totally ruined the book for me. Also, it would have robbed us of a spectacular (if tragic) chapter in Feed. So...no.

Note: Newsflesh is a finished series that has been around for years now, so I decided to only write mini - or, well, midi 😅 - reviews for its installments, to ease my review burden. Add to it that this one is, in terms of length, a short story, and you have yet another reason for my writing only a mini review for it...

 Deadline by Mira Grant

(Newsflesh #3)

★★

Adopted siblings Georgia and Shaun Mason had their lives upended by what seemed to be your average political conspiracy - except its purpose and ramifications go above and beyond their wildest nightmares, and their small army of bloggers has a much deadlier threat than zombies to worry about...until it hasn't.

***

Rated 2.5 really.

First thing first: I'm going out of my way to make this review spoiler-free (as I did with the blurb), though I guess a look at the official synopsis will give you an idea of what may have happened in Book 1...plus one can dance around the truth for so long. Anyhow, I'm going to try.
One thing I have to warn you about though: if Feed was giving off odd vibes about the Mason siblings' unusual relationship, Deadline finally confirms that they have been lovers all along. Now, I know they have different biological parents, but they GREW UP TOGETHER, for goodness' sake. I still regard it as incest, and had I knew beforehand, I wouldn't have read this series. I'm seeing it through the end because I'm a completionist, but I don't plan on revisiting it in the future. Also, as a longtime Grant/McGuire fan, I feel betrayed. I trusted her not to go for shock value (and not to put sex scenes in her books, albeit brief...don't worry, not a Georgia/Shaun one, but still). On the other hand, this was one of her first books, so maybe she regrets her choices now. I guess we'll never know.
Though - as I've said before - I'm not usually a fan of zombies and conspiracies, this is another solid entry in the series, and there are a few high-stakes scenes that would firmly put it in 4-star territory (though the conspiracy itself is way over-the-top, and I'm not even sure I understood EVERYTHING about it). Too bad for the "small problem" above, plus people talking with dead people in their head/feeling their presence (romanticising psychosis is NOT COOL) and Shaun being a certified and unhinged asshole with abusive tendencies in this one - which not even the events of Book 1 can justify (especially since his experience is NOT unique). Oh, and too bad for the weird cop-out/deus-ex-machina cliffhanger, too, that negates the most visceral scene and impacting event from Book 1. Just because you can, it's not like you should.

Content note: there's some confusion about the timeline, and one event in Book 1 is referenced to have happened in the wrong year. But only one year has passed since then.

Note: this is a finished series that has been around for years now, so I decided to only write mini - or, well, midi 😅 - reviews for its installments, to ease my review burden...

So, have you read/are you planning to read any of the above? And if you have, what do you think of them? Do you post mini reviews? Do you like to read them?