Zombies In My Head

As a bit of a treat for my Hubbin, after he was so kind enough to put up with three generations of girls under his roof for two weeks I took him to go see World War Z (mmmm Brad Pitt), which is very loosely based on the book of the same name.  This made me think of a book I just finished reading and some of the obvious comparisons I could make.  Deadline is the second book in the Newsflesh series and differs from the first one in many ways.  I am still trying to decide how feel about it.   As always
SPOILERS AHEAD

When we ended the first book Feed, our narrator and main character Georgia Mason was dead.  She was killed by her brother Shaun when she started amplifying into a zombie.  This book starts several months later and Shaun is searching for a reason to stay alive, he is our narrator this trip.  Shaun and his crew, Rebecca "Becks" Atherton, a top Irwin (somebody who essentially puts themselves in danger for ratings), Alaric Kwong, a Newsie (somebody who does there best to search out and report nothing but the cold hard facts), and Dave Novakowski, another Irwin are in the field trying to get Alaric's field license.  Shaun is out with them when they run into a pretty sever zombie pack, which they barely survive.  Shaun used to love moments like these, using them to boost his ratings, but now he can barely manage to muster up enough energy to run his news blog After the End Times.  Upon arriving back to there secure apartment, they meet Kelly
Connolly, a CDC researcher we met in the last book.  She tells the crew that she in her team have been looking into the unusual high number of deaths of people who have reservoir Kellis-Amberlee condition.  This is where a human has a reservoir of active "zombie" virus in there bodies, in Georgia's case it was her eyes.  She also informs the crew that her team mates have been killed off one by one and that she is only one left. She escaped by making a clone and "killing" it, leaving it behind to be discovered.  Shaun goes to the roof to think things over and we learn that he still talks to Georgia in his head.  His conversations are a bit unnerving because he speaks his responses out loud and even on occasion hallucinates that he could see her. The team discover that Kelly brought a bug in with her unawares and they make a run for it.  Dave sacrifices himself so the team can make it out of the building.  They head to a fellow crew mate, Magdaline "Maggie" Garcia, a Fictional (somebody who writes fiction, poetry etc.) who's parents are owners of a major pharmaceutical business.  With all that money Maggie is able to provide a safe house, complete with beyond top of the line security.  Shaun and his team continue to follow Kelly's findings down the rabbit hole and stumble upon a Dr. Shannon Abbey, a "rogue" researcher who pretty much tells the team that some people with reservoir condition may be immune to amplification of the zombie virus. The kicker to this is not everybody with the reservoir condition is immune, in fact most still amplify and need to be shot.  Shaun and his team continue to do research and finally catch a break when Mahir Gowda, the head of the Newsies learns that each new strain of the Kellis-Amberlee virus is actually man made and that people with reservoir condition are being killed off before each release of a new strain.  Shaun, Becks, Kelly and Mahir decide to make a cross country trip to Memphis which houses the CDC headquarter and try and find out just what the heck is going on.  They leave Maggie and Alaric home to hold down the fort and head off in one of Maggies vans.  They arrive at the CDC, sneak in and are confronted by Dr. Wynne who was supposedly helping Kelly escape, but instead was using her as a means to track down news team.  Dr. Wynn tells the group that the CDC is trying to make a virus that they can manage and people with reservoir syndrome can mess it up.  With this justification of his action he is able to stab Kelly with a pen before he is shot in the head.  Kelly realizing that she has been injected with the live

virus tells the rest of the team to make a run for it while she stays and distracts security.  The team leave and drive home in the middle of a hurricane like storm, they notice that the roads and towns are eerily deserted, but cannot find a radio station or get online to find out what is happening. They arrive home to discover that the virus has mutated and can now be spread by insect bites, significantly upping the amplification factor.  A massive out break occurs and the state of Florida is declared a loss.  Between this news and the knowledge that the government is trying to track them down and kill them, they decide it is best to move on.  As the team races for Dr. Abbey's new facilities they are attacked by zombies and Shaun is bitten.  He is immediately placed into isolation and he is fully prepared to turn into a zombie...but it never happens, seems like Shaun is immune.  During this whole time Shaun is having full on conversations with his dead sister, so realistic in fact that on occasion his friends speak to her like she is actually there.  We end with Georgia Mason waking up in a CDC facility without a trace of her reservoir condition, or any child hood scars. She discovers that she is a clone and a not is sent from a Dr. describing  a PT who was bitten, but never amplified.

This again like the first book was about how people lived after the zombies appeared, but seemed to focus more on the team and their families than the first one.  My two biggest problems with this book was 1) After the whole premise of the last book, Senator now President Ryman is hardly even mentioned.  The complete change in tone from something as mundane as a political campaign to the more harrowing and traditional government conspiracy story was a bit jarring.  I really loved how they combined the mundane day to day living with the constant danger and horror of zombies.  I wanted to at least hear from President Ryman, or at least Rick, who by the way ended up as vice-president. 2) It felt a bit less original and more run of the mill zombie apocalypse book to me. There was more of a "Ah look out behind you" type of feel, vs hey we have been living with zombies our whole live, while annoying we are fairly used to them so lets focus on something else type of feel.  Don't get me wrong, it is still a great series and a page turner.  Clocking in at over 500 pages I still managed to read it in 2 weeks, and that was with psycho crazy life allowing for almost no reading time. The medical stuff seemed to be pretty sound for the most part, but even rereading some of the parts did not quit make it clear what the conspiracy was and what reservoir conditions had to do with it.  I'm not 100% sold on the whole Georgia as a clone thing, hopefully it will work itself out in the third book.  Shaun as a grieving, half-crazy narrator was a weird mix of almost pathetic, to much needed humor.  I also liked getting to know some of the other characters and some insight into how the medical field works in a place like that.  Overall it was a good book, I did not like it quit as much as the first one, but I seem to be in the minority.  I would recommend it to anyone who has already read the first book and plan on finishing the series.  I give it 7 out of 10 zombie dogs. Go, Read, Enjoy.