<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

[dsudis]

I'm not actually finished with DEADLINE but I have, crucially, read past page 338 and I need to squee NOW oh my GOD.

(That is DEADLINE, by Mira Grant (aka Campbell-award winner seanan_mcguire), sequel to the Hugo-nominated FEED--if you haven't read them I will soon be doing a pimping post because oh my god this is so on my Yuletide list! There's a pretty

Comments

[dsudis]

The books are set about 25 years after The Rising, which is what they call the two-year period where the Kellis-Amberlee virus went pandemic and started causing people to die and then get back up and want to eat the living. Zombies are sort of the terrorists of Shaun and George's world (but more on the scale of, like, the IRA in Northern Ireland in the 70s than today; they are real and they are around all the time), but the story is mainly about how that world works. Not about zombies. Although the way their world works is mostly about zombies? Anyway, the story is also mainly about Shaun and George and their deeply fucked up love for each other. (Their parents adopted them as an ongoing reality-show ratings stunt! NO ONE ELSE UNDERSTANDS OR LOVES THEM OR EVER WILL. THESE ARE THE IMPORTANT THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND.)

(ALSO THE BOOKS ARE SUPER GRIM. AND YET, CLEARLY, STILL HAVE THEIR MOMENTS OF SQUEE. BUT SUPER GRIM. FAIR WARNING.)

[dsudis]

IDK, I mean--the undead show up as BAD THINGS WE NEED TO SHOOT NOW, so they're there in action sequences? But that's really it. The book as a whole has a much more SF Dystopia feel to me rather than Horror. If that helps. I am definitely not into zombies qua zombies myself, but I love George and Shaun a lot.

[iuliamentis]

I read that paragraph and almost FELL OUT OF MY CHAIR FOR FLAILING.

I HOPE YOU UNDERSTAND NOW HOW HARD IT WAS FOR ME TO ACTUALLY ATTEND ANY OF THE WISCON PROGRAMMING WHILE I HAD DEADLINE TO READ.

*seconds your desire for ALL THE SHAUN/GEORGE FIC IN THE WOOOOOOOOOORLD*

I think it's such an interesting "incest" pairing because it only looks like incest to everyone who isn't Shaun and George. They've certainly been under no delusions about being one big happy Mason family--they know that their "family" is predicated on a ratings stunt. The only thing that has ever been real is Shaun and George's relationship, them against the Masons. They call each other "brother" and "sister" because that's what their relationship looks like, but not what it is.

I AM SO HAPPY THAT YOU'RE READING IT BECAUSE NOW I HAVE SOMEONE ELSE TO SQUEE WITH. IT WAS SO HARD NOT TO SPOIL YOU LIKE WHOA.

[dsudis]

Oh, no, I'm pretty sure it looks like incest to Shaun and George--even if they have shitty, shitty parents, the one actual overriding reality of their lives is each other, and they were raised as brother and sister even if they're not biologically related, even if their parents never loved them. (I mean, they had to go through a process of realizing the Masons didn't care about them; it's not like they were raised in a Soviet orphanage or something.) I just think Shaun and George don't care. Nor should they.

[renenet]

Hi. I have not read these books at all (but I'm dutifully saving this post in my "book recs" memory category), so I am just stopping by to observe that usually a post like this on my flist is my cue to look titles/authors up in CountyCat to make sure that the local library system is on top of important book selection tasks in genres of interest to me and my flist. But, ahahahahahaha, I am so not even cracking a tab open to check this time because I assume you have that covered. If not (or if you need to know who to contact to nudge the acquisition of books of various descriptions), please advise.

*mwah* to you for (however unwittingly) removing this task from my self-imposed "to do" list on the internet. And enjoy the rest of the book you are reading! I will certainly put it on the list I intend to actually get around to creating someday of books I intend to actually get around to reading someday! :)

[dsudis]

Oh no, I'm on it. In fact, I wrote a blurb for Feed to get it into the Reader's Bookshelf or whatever that page of the newsletter is called, a few months ago. :)

[foi_nefaste]

OMG I KNOW, right? I JUST got to that page this morning, and may have squee-ed a bit on the bus. Dignity, I have it.

Incest-fic aside, I absolutely love this book series - it's smart, and interesting, with good characters and dialogue and a plot that I just can't let go of. Brilliant. I may have been recommending it to everyone I know.

(... That said, incest being confirmed, I'm feeling kinda weird about giving the book to my kid brother...)

[dsudis]

I KNOWWWWWW IT IS SO YAY YAY YAY THEM.

They really are absolutely genius--and I want the third one now now now!

(...Maybe your brother won't notice? Or you can just never speak of it? I ... have two of my brothers on my flist, we are kind of champs at never speaking of some things. *g*)

[foi_nefaste]

I KNOW!! OMG, I can't remember the last time I've been this impatient about time!

(Oh, he won't notice, but the kid sister will - she's also the one I link fanfiction to, mind, so maybe that's partially my fault! She was reading Harry/Draco off ff.net when she was 15, though, I had to at least let her know where to find fic that wasn't horrible!)

[anonymous]

What does squee mean?

[dsudis]

Squee has wide-spread usage in fandom as both verb and noun, as an onomatopoetic expression of enthusiasm and joy.