“Feed” by Mira Grant

This was not what I expected when I went looking for a zombie story to read.

Genre

Sci-fi; Political Thriller

Series

Newsflesh, book 1

Pubbed

2010

Goodreads summary

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

FEED is the electrifying and critically acclaimed novel of a world a half-step from our own—a novel of geeks, zombies, politics and social media. (Goodreads)

My thoughts

“We report the news, we make the news, and we give you a way to escape when the news becomes too much to handle.”

“Every Heart a Doorway” by Seanan McGuire

My mind was in a weird place when I reached for this book, but I was glad to find it the perfect story to satiate it. Every Heart a Doorway tickled my brain cells and made me think of some weird shit; weird because the story is based in our world and it gives credence to the impossible and the fantastic and validates our odd quirks.

Quick overview:

Every Heart a Doorway is a fantasy, young-adult novella that packs a punch. It’s about kids who make it back to the real world after visiting magical ones and how they cope with readjusting to a normal life.

The story is told from the perspective of Nancy, a teenaged girl who recently returned from the Halls of the Dead, as she tries to adjust to her new school, Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children, a boarding school for children who have returned from other worlds. Eleanor West is an older woman who started the school because she understands what such children endure. She provides a sanctuary for them. Of course, she doesn’t tell parents this. Instead, she tells parents and guardians, who often are unaware of the magical realms, that she can help their troubled charges adjust. That she can “fix” them.

Shortly after Nancy arrives at the school, the students’ lives are threatened and Nancy becomes a prime suspect because of her connection to the Halls of the Dead.