Review of Feed

Title: Feed
Author: Mira Grant
Published: 2010
Pages: 608
My Rating: 3/5

The year was 2014. We had cured cancer. We had beaten 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, bloggers 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 it it kills them. 


My Review:


I stumbled upon this book randomly when searching for another book with the same name on Amazon. The cover caught my eye, and I was immediately interested as I love zombie books. I haven't read a huge number of books outside the YA gene, and thought this would be a nice change.

This book was not what I expected at all. First of all, when in came in the post, I was expecting a large relatively thin book, but instead it was a small very thick book of 600 pages. Of course that isn't really a problem, but just something that struck me.

It wasn't what I was expecting because the zombie story to it was merely background information. I was expecting a good old zombie action novel, when really there was minimal zombie action at all.  The focus of the book was more centered around the political terrorism conspiracy, and the main characters journalism as they follow the campaign. But I actually found that aspect very interesting, and didn't mind that the zombie story was pushed aside.  This future world that the author created was very well thought out and believable.

The factor that really let this book down was the fact that it didn't need to be 600 pages long. It was so overly drawn out in places. There was too much background information given almost constantly in pages at a time, drawing away from any real plot that was going on. Some of the information, although well thought out as I said, just wasn't needed. Some of it was actually very repetitive and I was having a hard time drilling through all the techno-babble at times. There were also a lot of unnecessary scenes and conversations between characters that drew it out even more.

But in saying this, there were parts of the book that I really liked. The characters for one thing. I really liked that it wasn't your predictable boy-meets-girl, or run-of-the-mill character pool, as I'm sadly used to. I found them all interesting and complex. I also liked how the story played out. It was believable with with great plot-twists, and some really exciting, dramatic scenes.

Overall, I did like this book. It was a very interesting to see journalism and zombies thrown together. The only thing letting it down was the length.

February Round-up!

Here, I'm just going to do a little roundup of all the books that I read in February. I would also put the books I brought, but I've lost count of when I brought what! So just the read books for now. I also linked them to my reviews:

1. The Enemy  by Charlie Higson
2. Inside Out by Maria V. Snyder
3. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

I'm actually shocked that I've only read three books in February! Especially considering I read 9 during the course of January.

I started reading a book at the beginning of the month and couldn't get on with it and exchanged it for City of Bones, which is quite a long book. I'm also just about to finish Feed which is close to 600 pages! Now that's a lot for a slow reader like me.

I plan to read a lot more next month, especially with some long awaited books coming for my birthday, which is on Sunday!

Top Ten Tuesday!

This meme is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish! Today's Top Ten is:

Top Ten Books I just HAD to buy....but are still sitting on my shelf.

Now, before I start, I would just like to say that I don't have quite as many as ten in the fiction department as I like to read books I buy before getting any others to save money (this doesn't work so well though). I also have a few WW2 non-fiction related books as I am very interested in that area and went through a huge WW2 phase last summer. I have linked them all to their Shelfari pages if you are interested! 

1. World War Z by Max Brooks

I got this on my love of zombie books, and also part of a 3 for 2 offer, but just haven't gotten around to reading it.

2. Where the Hell have you been? by Tom Carver 

One of my many WW2 memoir related books that I got during last summer's WW2 fest and haven't read yet. 

3. The Shining by Stephen King

Surprisingly, I haven't actually read a Stephen King book yet, and thought that this would be a good start, as it's a classic. Still haven't read it yet though obviously. 

4. Incarceron by Catherine Fisher

This is one I got relatively recently, but I predict that it will be sitting on my bookshelf for a while as I have plenty of other books I'm a little more in a hurry to read.

5. Eragon  by Christopher Paolini 

I got this in a cheap book shop with the second book for something like £2.99, so I thought I might as well. It looked like a good book to have, but I 'm still in no hurry to read this.

6. Eldest by Christopher Paolini

Part of the first two books of the Inheritance Cycle as I said above.

7. Lament by Maggie Stiefyater

Again, this is another recent buy, and I actually hope to get around to this soon. 

Drop a comment and a link to your Top Ten Tuesday, I would love to see what everyone has! 

It's Monday What are you reading? (1)

This is my first Monday What are you Reading, and this meme is hosted by Lisa's World of Books! I thought that this would be a great opportunity to plan out my books, as well as sharing them! I've put the books' links to their Shelfari page, if you are interested in learning more. And the links of the Read books to my review!

Read:

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

Reading: 

Feed by Mira Grant

 Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder

Hoping to read:

 City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare

The Replacement  by Brenna Yovanoff

Follow my Book Blog Friday

I know I'm a bit late for this, but I've seen this put in with a lot of other Book Blog Hop posts, so I thought I might as well do this as well! It's hosted by Parajunkie if you are interested in joining.

The question this week is:

Share your current favorite TV show?

Band of Brothers! 

To be honest, this is always my favorite TV show. It's based around a true story of a company of paratroopers during WW2. It follows them from training until the taking of the Eagles Nest. I've always loved/been interested in true life combat memoirs from WW2 (I've read a lot of them), and in my opinion, Band of Brothers is one of the very best war portrayals, and unfortunately, it's highly underrated. It's also along the same wave-length as Saving Private Ryan and The Pacific, which just came out this year. As they both co-created by Tom Hanks and Steven Speilberg. 

I could go on for ever about how much I love this mini-series, but I think I'll stop there! 

Book Blogger Hop

So I decided I should join in with this Book Blogger Hop as I really need to find some more book blogs to interact with. And it just looks like fun!



And the question this week is:

Do you ever wish you had named your blog something different?

Well, I've not had mine too long. My blog wasn't initially meant to be a book blog but it just turned out that way. I don't mind my name really. Ramblings of one in a Billion still pretty much sums me up.

In My Mailbox (1)

So I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon and do my first In My Mailbox, this week hosted by The Story Siren. Especially considering I got loads of books this week (from shops and the library).

I'd previously bought two books off Amazon weeks ago, and they had only just come. But by then, I hadn't got any other books, and was itching for some more. So when I went on my trip to the beach, I specially saved up my money to do a big book shop. Though in the end I had to take one book back (The Body Finder), because I didn't have enough money for lunch or the bus back, haha!

For me, this is quite a big haul, and I probably won't be getting anymore for a while, as I need to read through these!  

Bought in the shops: 

City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare

I enjoyed the first book a lot so I'm looking forward to reading this.

The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff

I'd heard of this book coming out, so I was pretty excited when I saw it in the shop. Though I really don't like the UK cover. I think when covers have models like that, it really commercializes a book. I like the US one with the pram and the knifes hanging over it.

Lament by Maggie Stiefvater

I hadn't heard anything about this book before, even though I'd heard a lot about the author (I know she's written Shiver and Linger which have no appeal to me because of how much it gets compared to Twilight). But Replacements was in a Buy one, get one for a pound offer, so I got this seeing as it was a pound and looked quite interesting. 

Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder 

I was interested in reading this after I read Snyder's newest novel, Inside Out. Even though I was a bit meh on the book, I liked her writing style and was interested in reading this book. I was lucked out when I walked into a cheap bibs and bobs shop and saw this selling brand new for £1.99! So of course, I had to get it.

Bought off Amazon:

Feed by Mira Grant

Incarceron by Catherine Fisher

From the Library

Numbers 2: The Chaos by Rachel Ward

Revolver by Marcus Sedgwick