cheerfulI have been anticipating Feed apprehensively for a while now. The fact of the matter is that I am massively afraid of zombies. Under the right condition, talking about zombies can make me have a panic attack and shut down. This happened on last Blog Like It's The End Of The World Day when I had to drop out of the blogging because I freaked myself out. With zombies.
So although Seanan McGuire (writing as her alter ego Mira Grant) is a favourite author of mine because I stalk her livejournal and she's amazing, I wasn't sure I was going to read Feed. This intensified when I had a zombie nightmare after reading Feed's TVTropes page, which I will not link to because I am a merciful being.
However, because I'm occasionally impulsive, yesterday I phoned Audrey's Books, a downtown independent bookstore that advertised Feed in their online catalogue and reserved the only copy they had because the bigass bookstore chain that sprawls over our city like a tentacle on the face of dread Cthulhu did not have it. Then I went and bought it.
People, I do not regret this move. At all.
Yes, Feed was scary. Yes, there were zombies, and yes, they ate lots of people. There were tension, suspense, and tears.
At the same time, it was sort of comforting. People live on after the zombie apocalypse. They have lives and kids and pets (even though that may be considered unwise). They have incredibly detailed hygeine procedures, which I find soothing somehow. Reading about other people's routines comforts me.
I think a large factor of the reason I find this book comfortable is because the zombies are a fact of life. They're scary and threatening, but people are used to them, and it comes through in the text, which is not a bad thing. The situations the characters find themselves in are very very new, but the zombies are just a fact of life.
Anyways, this book is great. The writing is snappy and the characters are funny, fascinating, and believable. If Shaun Mason doesn't pick up his fair share of fangirls, I'll eat my hat. However, my fangirling will stick to Georgia Mason and, uh, also Steve the security guy. *waves the 'I love a minor character' flag*
I just realize that Georgia and Shaun's relationship sort of reminds me of mine and my little brother's, except that we're not quite as co-dependent. Another reason I quite liked them!
I highly recommend this book but anyone who wants me to lend it to them is going to have to wait or find this own copy, because I am rereading it right now.
