Deadline by Mira Grant (review)

I’ve been wanting to review Deadline – the second book in the Newsflesh Trilogy – by Mira Grant (the evil, zombie-obsessed, twin of urban fantasist Seanan McGuire) since the e-ARC landed in my inbox months ago. I’ve read the book around sixty times (it’s the real reason why my iPad has become my constant companion!) and it’s still keeping me terrified at night. The book is set in a world devastated by Kellis-Amberlee, a virus which reanimates the dead, and a world where Shaun Mason, brother of Feed’s narrator, Georgia, is trying to keep his team alive while uncovering the conspiracy surrounding his sister’s unfortunate demise.

Now, normally, you’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover but this is what I did upon spying Feed. Something about that RSS icon smeared in blood translated in my head as ‘news’ and ‘flesh eating monsters’ and I knew even before the review copy landed on my doormat that I wanted to read this book and that it was going to be amazing. The cover for Deadline, makes me think of a flat-lining ECG – in blood. This gives a distinctive impression that the book is shifting, it feels more like a medical thriller – and with just cause, as the bulk of the storyline continues poking at the conspiracy surrounding the Masons with a big stick – and adding a new thread in the form of reservoir conditions, where the virus takes over one part of the body, as it did with Georgia’s retinal KA in Feed.

So, basically, it boils down to this: Feed was a political thriller – with zombies, a whopping conspiracy and the news. Deadline is more a medical thriller – with zombies, a whopping conspiracy and epileptic, teacup bulldogs.

A year after the events of Feed and President Ryman is in the White House, along with Rick Cousins, and  Shaun and his news team are plodding on in Oakland. George is still around, having found a comfy spot in her brother’s head and After the End Times has gone from strength to strength until Kelly Connolly of the CDC shows up and everything goes to hell. Literally. Suddenly Shaun finds himself and his team moving cross country, trying to get to the bottom of why people with reservoir conditions are dying so quickly and also how this fits in with his sister’s death.

For me, the best part of the book is not just the zombies – of which there are many many more – but the post-Rising world. It’s little things like the loss of India and the status of expats like Mahir (who has a proper role in this book over just a cameo), the origins of simple but vital devices like the blood testing units, views on cloning and the complexities of air travel that make the world seem real.

The characters are realistic and it’s awesome to see Shaun take centre-stage this time. His approach to narration is refreshing and a lot more … shoot now, ask questions later than George’s was in the previous book. I loved Feed because of George, this strong, disabled female protagonist who doesn’t let her visual impairment stop her but who also happened to be a journalist (hey, I can relate). That’s rare. I love Deadline because Shaun is clearly insane – after all, he talks to his dead sister and she talks back – but it seems the only sane thing in the post-Rising world. At the same time though, he’s streetwise and likable and dedicated, in his own way.

That said, my favourite character has to be Dr. Shannon Abbey, if Mira Grant is the zombie-obsessed twin of Seanan Mcguire, then Dr. Abbey is how I imagine Mira Grant would be if she ever found herself in a zombie-infested world. She’s scary, smart and not afraid to look beyond what the CDC are trying to make people believe. She even has a mascot, Joe the English Mastiff who is the post-Rising equivalent of a Rotweiller. If ever an author ever placed a large chunk of themselves in their work, I’d say this was a fine example and not just for plot purposes either. Hopefully there will be more of her in Blackout.

Deadline is a great book, it’s well written and genuinely enthralling and I can’t wait to get my mitts on the audiobook which is coming out in tandem with the print and e-book versions. The build up at first feels off with a climatic introduction and action packed first chapters, only for everything to simmer down. That’s until you realise that something big is building and when you finally hit the last act, well the terrible realisation of the sheer scope is palpable. There’s a section where Shaun and co are driving home and it’s like the eye of a storm … the eerie silence before the shit hits the fan.

It’s rare to find a world that is created but where the info you need is slowly revealed. Yes I’d rather some of the clarifications, such as the naming of the Irwins, was left out but Kellis-Amberlee and the post-Rising world are both beautifully plausible, so much so that it makes you think an apocalypse wouldn’t be so bad – especially if you like zombies, scary viruses and medical conspiracies.

However it’s the epilogue and the promise of the final book – Blackout – that really makes you curse the fact there’s over a year until the trilogy concludes. Some questions are answered – and you don’t want to hear them – but there are threads left for the final book, the hows and whys are sidelined but in a good way. The hints are there but when all hell breaks loose and when the world goes to hell – again – it’s the icing on the cake and you really don’t see it coming. Roll on 2012!