balancedshelf
6/2/2015
Feed is the story of Georgia and Shaun Mason, a brother and sister team of bloggers who have lived all of their lives in the zombie apocalypse. They get their big break when they are assigned to report on the American presidential campaign, but in reporting the campaign they uncover a conspiracy that threatens all of their lives. The setting of is atypical of a zombie novel in that humanity has adapted its technology and culture in order to (semi-successfully) manage the zombie outbreak. For example, people use a variety of security and field testing procedures to try and prevent the spread of zombification, and only those with the proper permits are allowed into unregulated danger zones.
Like all good zombie-stories, Feed isn't really about the undead rising. Rather, it's about politics, media consumption, and journalistic integrity--all things that combine quite naturally with zombies, really. I have to confess that while I really like the ideas behind focusing on a zombie-ridden Presidential campaign, the plot was not entirely my cup of tea. I find political campaigns to be States to be wearing and drawn out at the best of times, and I found my interest in following a fictional one flagged at times. I also feel compelled to note that Senator Wagman was a really poor choice for the only female Republican candidate to be running - I thought she was a caricature that is demeaning to both female politicians and sex workers.
But these comments aside, I like the way the modern political landscape parallels the zombie apocalypse one--both are, as the opening quote suggests, driven by fear, and the intensity of that fear creates extreme polarization. The strength of that fear-mongering is part of why I usually can't handle (even fictional, apparently) American politics*. Grant's apocalypse is a mishap created by people who, out of fear and entitlement, released a scientific experiment they didn't understand on a grand scale. That potent combination of fear and entitlement are the driving force behind the creation of the apocalypse, and remain the driving force of post-apocalyptic politics.