Deadline: The Newsflesh Trilogy, Book 2

I'll begin with this observation: I felt relief when my kindle progress meter told me that I had completed 80% of Deadline. I would soon be finished! Well, all you readers out there know that is a very bad sign. I mean, if it was an Microeconomics textbook I might not be dismayed to realize that I was looking forward to escape. But in a novel that I read hoping to be entertained, it was a bad thing. Now, I can and will intellectualize this feeling, but that desire for escape is really the bottom line. I cannot give a high rating to a novel I wanted out of while I was reading it.I'm reading the Newflesh series because I set myself a project of reading everything Seanan McGuire has published. I like McGuire a lot. In fact, the most recent novel I read where reaching the 80% mark filled me with sadness was her Reflections. Yet so far I have found everything published under her Mira Grant pseudonym a chore to get through. I think I finally understand why now. I will explain below.So, about Deadline. The previous novel Feed ended with Shaun Mason putting a bullet in the brain of the love of his life, his sister Georgia Mason, because she had become a zombie. Deadline is carried on by Shaun, who lives with a persistent hallucination of George. If this is insanity, Shaun doesn't want to be sane. Georgia and Shaun and their colleagues had uncovered a conspiracy of unknown nature centered on the zombies. The investigation of that conspiracy is the business of Deadline.The good things: Crazy Shaun is a sympathetic character -- you feel for his loss. Also, McGuire in this book pulls off what I think of as the characteristic Seanan McGuire move: she uncovers a deep secret that rewrites the past. By the time you reach the middle of Deadline, you will have learned that what you thought happened in Feed is not actually what happened at all. Something entirely different was going on. Revelations of deeper truths are always satisfying. Also, Deadline ends with an intriguing plot twist that I did not see coming, and it interests me enough to look forward to Blackout. So there are some interesting characters and a rather nice plot here -- three stars for that.So why don't the Mira Grant novels work for me? (The following is really more about me and what I want in a book than about Deadline per se, so feel free to ignore it -- that's why I saved it for the last.) Why is Mira Grant? If you look at the Mira Grant biography on Goodreads, it will be immediately obvious to you that Mira Grant is McGuire's horror brand. For instance, in the first paragraph of the bio, derivatives of the word "horror" appear four times.So, horror is the Mira Grant hook. If you are not horrified by a Mira Grant novel, it's not going to work for you. And I am not.My problem here is that I'm a card-carrying biologist. It doesn't bother me that if you cut an animal open you'll see writhing, glistening internal organs. I am not horrified by spiders, snakes, and worms -- in fact, they are things of beauty. I know that one day I will die, and that, if my body were to decay naturally, it (not I, but it -- my body) would become a large hunk of putrefying meat. I feel no horror at the prospect -- in fact, I find it fascinating. (This is one reason why I enjoy Kathy Reichs' novels.) McGuire in her Mira Grant persona tries to horrify with biology, and if you're not horrified by biology, it doesn't work."But...ZOMBIES!!!" I hear you saying. Surely even someone fascinated by real biology can be horrified by zombies! Well, yeah, but for one problem. The science McGuire invents to animate her zombies is so ridiculous that I can't take it seriously. It is as horrifying as a four-year-old child jumping out of the closet in tiger pajamas and shouting "RAWR!".Now, let me be clear about some things. First, most science fiction makes next to no scientific sense. While I appreciate those rare SF authors who have the knowledge and dedication to get the science right (The Martian, for instance), I don't expect it. In pursuit of a good story I'll buckle on my suspension-of-disbelief suit and wade into the swamp. The problem with Mira Grant is more specific -- it's that the farcical science demolishes the edifice of horror she wants to build.Second, my problem is not an aversion to horror per se. 1984, A Wrinkle in Time, and The Pear Shaped Man horrified me. More recently, Charles Stross's Dead Lies Dreaming was a horror treat. But the horror that works for me is psychological torment and terror.

Do you ever read a book and think: "I just want to be best friends with the author. Can we just hang out and I can soak up her/his brillance? Pretty please?" Other people think this way, right? This is how I feel about Mira Grant. I declare myself a fan girl with pride.Feed was one of my very favorite books that I read in 2011. I loved it, and it caught me largely by surprise, because anything with a designation of horror makes me skeptical, since I'm the biggest wimp ever. However, I was immediately charmed by Georgia's intelligence, sarcasm, and hatred of people. Whenever I love the first book in a series that much, I worry that the next one will be a disappointment. I mean, how can it be as good? Well, just let me say that literally from the quotes before the first chapter, my worries vanished. I knew from the beauty of the writing that I would love this one just as much...and I did.These books are pretty massive, roughly 600 pages each, so they take some reading, even for a speed demon like myself. The world building in this series is freaking mind-blowing. I cannot even put into words how good it is. Grant has so many details, all intricately woven so it never feels like you're sitting back for fifty years of exposition. Well, at least, that's how I feel. I know some readers have been turned off by all of the focus on politics and science, but I loved that, even though science and politics are pretty much at the top of the list of things I hate.Despite the length, I really never felt like the plot of Deadline dragged. I was constantly eager to keep moving and find out what was going to happen next. This book made me cry, made me laugh, made me seriously concerned for the state of humanity, and made me go WTF just happened (Ending, you were cray...why do I not have Blackout now?). You should definitely watch out for Grant's humor, which can be found throughout. She has this great, dark sense of humor that just kills me. For example, she describes grocery shopping in the post-Rising world as "not an activity for the faint of heart" (345). Yes, you do learn about grocery shopping in a zombie-afflicted world. The characters are all vibrant and feel so real. In a lot of ways, her style reminds me of Joss Whedon. Just saying.At this point, I'm going tell all you peeps who haven't read Feed to bounce. Either go read my review for that book or, even better, GO BUY FEED AND READ IT RIGHT NOW. The rest of this review will have crazy insane SPOILERS for Feed (not for Deadline), so I really don't want anyone without any knowledge of book one continuing on. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.Now, folks who read Feed, that ending was insane, right? Talk about a book that stayed with me. I usually forget endings but I did not forget that for sure. WAAAAHHHHH! I love that Grant wasn't afraid to kill off the MC. I mean, that's just badass, but it's also difficult to recover from, which is why you don't often see it. This, too, explains my initial fear of this book; a narrator switch was compulsory and I adored George. Well, thankfully, Shaun totally works as a narrator. You even get some George, because, check it, all those happenings have officially pushed Shaun over the edge of sanity into crazy town. He's now hearing George in his mind, and not just through memories.Usually, this is not a plot line I would be able to handle, but Grant has done it so well. See, the thing is that George and Shaun had only each other for so many years. They are more closely bound to one another than Heathcliff and Catherine, on top of being a million times less obnoxious. Because of this, it makes sense that he can't let her go completely. In fact, the only thing keeping him going is his need for revenge on whoever orchestrated her death, because Shaun's not buying Tate as a mastermind. Where Feed delved into corruption in politics, Deadline focuses on the medical profession, and the truths of Kellis-Amberlee. I don't want to go into any more detail than that, because that might detract from your joy on the journey. Just know that it's amazing.Mira Grant's Newsflesh Trilogy is, without a doubt, my favorite zombie fiction. With complete honesty, I can think of NOTHING that I would like to change about them. I could open the book up at random to any page, any of them, and find a quote I love. For me, the writing, tone, pacing, humor, world and characters are all absolutely perfect.

So the first book was amazing, and this one is off the charts, I am already picturing the movie series and characters and actors playing each character. On to the next book.

UPDATE: Without the shock factor of the final pages, this probably deserves the original four stars, so on re-reading I have knocked this down a star however I will leave my original review unchanged as that was my initial reaction to this book.This was a four star book all the way up to the penultimate chapters. It takes a lot for me to change a solid four into a five, even if it only just scrapes it but Mira Grant manages it with style. I didn't see that coming could be said about a half dozen times in the last seventy odd pages and we finish with a double wow.For those coming in new to the series.Go away now.Go and read the first book.I don't put spoilers in for the book in question and I am warning you now:I am about to give away the twist to the first book.It is essential to the story and the review.It is not a spoiler for Deadline but for Feed.Have you been warned enough yet?Well. Tough.Shaun is the narrator to this novel because his sister Georgia died at the end of the last book. She amplified and she was killed. This was a surprise because no one expects the narrator to die. No one.You can't complain. I warned you.Shaun has lost the plot. He talks to his dead sister constantly and possibly worse yet, she responds. In his head. Of course. He's taken to drinking coke rather than coffee because Head-Georgia wants it even though he hates it. He punches walls and smacks people in the nose for pointing out that his sister is dead. The rest of the team... work around the insanity, after all, his sister died. He's not emotionally stable. At all.But then they find a conspiracy that seems to be running at the deepest of possible levels.And all hell breaks lose.So. Why was this a four star book throughout?The plot is interesting but it's just a little slow and about half way through it feels a bit ploddy. Grant knows how to drop bomb shells on you, we know this. She just chooses not to and it does drag a tad. Not enough to really annoy... but enough to make you tap your fingers in frustration. Secondly, and linked to this, is the repetition; cut out all the references to cans of coke from chapter four or so onwards and you'd probably save ten pages. Again, it isn't a big deal but it grates on me a tad. The same goes for references to Shaun's breakdown; however much I enjoy him trying not to punch annoying prats in the face, it is overdone a tad.However, the storyline is solid. The character personalities are wonderfully grown and even characters who got precious little run time in Feed are true to life, walk out the page at you, wonders. Characters you only see once or twice, or indeed only hear from, make an impression. The threat level is real and obvious; blood tests and retinal scans are a part of normal life. You can go weeks or months without seeing a zombie (unless you're an Irwin as you like poking them with sticks) but the threat is constant and ever present. It is unescapable. And the science. Effort has been put into the science and understanding medical practices and virology.So why the last minute upgrade? This was sitting solidly in four stars after all.The ending. The last hundred or so pages. They made up for all the minor irritations and then some. If the whole book had been of that pace and quality it would be a top five star. As it stands, it scrapes the five. Just. But it manages it.

Seriously, is this sponsored by Coke. It feels like it is, other soft drinks are available and you should really drink water.The annoying roundabout references to incest piss me off. Just say it and finally where are the zombies?I kinda enjoyed the book but it’s really annoying.A boss who punches employees in the face and it’s supposed to be some little quirk of his character? No, you have a gun.

Loved it! This book isn't as fast paced as the 1st but very informative and holds up the trilogy nicely. The ending definitely got me. Can't wait to read the final book :)

Builds on the previous one in the series. Get to know -and care about -the characters even more. Well paced and exciting.

This is a fabulous series with truly great bodybuilding, cracking pace and twists you don't see coming. It seems even more pertinent now.