FEED posits a near-future in which the zombie apocalypse fails to bring about the collapse of society. Instead, the living have retreated behind gated communities, where they get the latest news from risk-taking bloggers and obsessively test their blood for active infections.
It’s won high-profile awards, and the ratings and reviews suggest many adore this book. (In fact, it was recommended to me by a source I trust.) So it’s with some embarrassment I confess that, about a quarter of the way in, I abandoned the book. For me, that’s saying something, because I can’t remember the last time I *didn’t* finish a novel.
I never found the characters particularly bright or compelling. I never felt invested in the election they’re covering. And after reading for the twenty-third time the laborious details of how the finger-pricking blood tests are done, I just snapped the covers shut and moved on. (Well, metaphorically — I was, after all, reading the book on my Kindle.)
I doubt readers of political thrillers will care for the youthful, zombie-battling bloggers at the center of this book. I doubt that readers of zombie books will care for the political and technical details that consume so much of this book’s word count. But your milage may vary, and if you like other zombie novels, you might still want to check it out.
Sadly, I can’t recommend it.
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