I started this book last week and finished it last week. It took a few days (commutes, evenings, and even sneaking time at work) to read the nearly 600 pages.

Basically, all the negatives are nitpicking, which means this is a good book.

I'm not actually a fan of zombie culture. My husband is. We've watched all the zombie movies. But I would have passed on them if I'd been involved with anybody that was not into zombie culture.

I don't typically read zombie books. I tried to read the Max Brooks books, but they drove me nuts, so they went into my very small "can't be finished" pile. Quite frankly, I've hate-read books before, so for me not to be able to finish a book means it's got problems.

But, anyway, back to Feed. I can say, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Grant knows her zombie culture. All the post-apocalypse kids names were call-backs to zombie movies. Some are directly addressed - George and feminine derivatives of the name being named after George Romero, a hero because of his movies. Some are not. I'm pretty sure Shaun is named from Shaun of the Dead. There are even ones that would be kids named before the apocalypse - Rick for one. I tend to think even that one is a zombie culture name, after Rick Grimes from Walking Dead.

Narrated in first person, you get the viewpoints of other characters through reading their blog entries at the beginning of chapters. It's a good way to get different perspective when writing in the first person. Grant strove very hard for consistency. And she was writing in 2010, so overlooking things that happened between when she wrote, and the summer of the apocalypse are not things I can hold her accountable for.

However, zombie culture was bigger in 2014 than in 2010 - much of which can be attributed to AMC's Walking Dead. Grant could not have predicted the success of that show after only 1 season.

While in 2010, blogging was frowned upon and "traditional" news media was trying to survive in the new online culture and was struggling, I think Grant oversold the dichotomy.

And, of course, I'm offended that her typing of pre-Rising (as she calls it) blogging completely missed science bloggers. They didn't fit into anything she described. Although post-rising, science bloggers may have become some sort of Newsy/Irwin depending on their own personalities.

So, all that aside, again it was just nitpicking. My main irritation was that I came across these books through GeekGirlCon. Seanan McGuire wrote a book I read because of its association with GeekGirlCon back in 2011. I liked her writing, so I put a bunch more of her writing on my wishlist. She was supposed to through misogyny and sexism out of the book. Yet, there were still some sexists tropes and some inherent sexism in the book that rubbed at me, expecting her to have worked around them.

All those things I thought as I read the first 500 or so pages. (Not constantly. The writing is good, the story is good, the characters are good.) And then I read the end. The end is such a tear-jerker and a surprise to me, that I almost was tempted to not write about the things that bugged me in the book. The last 75 pages are that great.

I've got Deadline and Blackout because a friend was so kind to get me a box set trilogy. I'm off to read Deadline. (Truth be told, I already started it.)