Reading Challenge Complete! / Newsflesh Trilogy Review
First of all, I really want to pat myself on the back. I challenged myself to reading 12 books this year which is 2 books more than last year. The only rule was that I read them, there was no rule about how long they were, or what genres they were from. Be that as it may, for a personal goal, I really believe that I pushed myself in the right direction.
If there had been a goal for say, minimum number of pages in the book, I would have overachieved with A Feast For Crows and A Dance With Dragons. Honestly, I'm just proud of myself that I got through those two books in a timely manner. They are not short by any stretch and the fact that I was able to read other stories around them means the world to me. I was able to takes break from the characters and distance myself and recover from their stressful adventures.
One such series that I discovered on this reading journey was the Newsflesh Trilogy by Mira Grant. I still can't believe that I made it through the entire story this year. In a good way it feels like it took me longer than that. I feel like the characters have been with me for a very long time I my life. Realistically I've only known them since March as I started reading the first bookon my trip to NYC. And now my main journey with them is over.
There are definitely going to be spoilers so if you still have not read this series I would stop here and just go read the books!
On to the review:
Even though I've reviewed the books individually on GoodReads I just cannot let things to.I can't let the characters go. I can't let subject matter go.
I had never ventured into Zombie literature before. I wasn't sure what I was going to find. Gore? Images that would haunt my dream? Would I be so grossed out that I couldn't pick the book up again? I didn't find any of that. Instead I found a book with zombies that focused on the survival of the human race. The Rising wasn't happening. The Pandemic was already over. The human race was at a spot where they were dealing with the threat of zombies.
But it dealt with so much more than that. Government conspiracies, advanced medical technology, suspension of disbelief, family, politics. I also love the backstory about how zombies came into existence - the cure for the common cold combined with the cure for cancer. Two ideas thought to save humanity end up giving us a whole new problem to live with. The threat of becoming a zombie or getting infected reached new levels as well. The obvious means of spreading the plague (so to speak) were there - biting, scratching - but there was a constant threat because the virus was a part of everyday life. Everyone was exposed because it was airborne, but only key factors triggered a person (or animal over 40lbs) to amplify. The whole process was intricate and that detail brought the book to a while new level.
I also love the angle from which the book was presented. Reporters, reporters with technology that would give any cyberpunk novel a run for its money. Being a huge fan of cyberpunk books I was hoping the level of detail for describing the technology was a little better, but I had to keep reminding myself that snot what the book was about. Espionage-futuristic-tech will always excite me. Needless to say Buffy was one of my favorite characters.
The story also dealt with some things that just as a rule make me a little uncomfortable. The main two bullets here are incest and cloning. I won't go on a tirade on my standpoint on both, but I'll cite some key reasons why both those topics bother me. Me, as an individual human being.
The idea of incest creeps me out because I have a brother. I love him as a brother and a friend but nothing more. The idea that some people choose to take it to another level - I'm not really ok with that. You can argue that I've read the Game of Thrones books and you can throw the relationship between Cersei and Jamie in my face. Ok, fine - yeah, that happened. Doesn't mean I approve of it. I dealt with it because it's supposed to be. A medieval book and that sort of thing happens more often than not in that sort of setting. This is in the future and I still don't approve of it. Sure maybe the main characters go tested when they were 16 to make sure they weren't biologically related - they were each adopted from different orphanages, and they were about 6 weeks apart in age, but in the eye of the public they were related and that's still not OK! *shudder* Alright, I'm over it.
The other topic that was introduced in Deadline is human cloning. Georgia died in the first book, the. She was resurrected at the end of the second. The third book of course dealt with her realizing her limitations of being a clone. It just creeps me out. I've told my husband I don't ever want to be cloned should we get there in our lifetime. I have a hard time dealing with anything artificial about me - cavities, implants (not that I currently have anything of the sort ) but the whole idea creeps me out. I think this minor phobia stems from conversations with the dentist about how to solve the problem of the gap between my teeth. Mind you, this will always be a source of discomfort when talking to me as I think it still makes me look horrid and it hinders my smile, but the big scary dentist terrified me when I was young that the only way to fix it was to file my teeth down to numbs and give me a whole new set of artificial teeth. What happened to braces like other normal kids? So I'm scarred for life from most artificial things and the idea of a whole new body with only 97% of my experiences wigs me out. As George started coming into her own with her new body she was always reminded it was on borrowed time and she wasn't the woman she was before she died. Even Shaun felt the same way. The muscle memory wasn't there, the experience she knows in her head or remembers - her new body doesn't know those feelings and that frightens me to some level.
Ugh. But as with most Science Fiction/Fantasy books you have to take a leap of faith when traveling in a made up world. I didn't have a problem doing that and the books are 100% recommended to everyone on the planet. And don't get me wrong - because the book deals with "incest" and cloning doesn't mean it discouraged me from continuing this epic journey. I'm just saying that that for me, that was the worst part of the book in the absence of the gore and horrible deaths that could happen in a horror novel.
Grade: A++
I'm fortunate enough to have found an amazing series to read this year, and I'm really bummed that the main storyline is over. I'm now researching all the novellas and supplemental reading that was written for this world that Grant created. It's probably from a combination of not being able to let go and and wanting something more. Let's see what i find :)