Mandy Reviews: Mira Grant's - "Blackout"

The World Didn’t End When The Zombies Came.

We Just Wished It Had.

Blackout is the third and final book in Mira Grant’s Newsflesh trilogy. And if you haven’t read book one or two – Feed and Deadline – you need to stop reading right here, right now. Because there will be spoilers. I promise. If you’d like to read more about Feed and Deadline, why don’t you head on over and check out my reviews[intlink id=”8508″ type=”post”] here[/intlink] on Burn Bright of those little (or rather large) gems.

Now, if you’re ready to read on and hear about Blackout, one more thing: this is one of those books that kinda crosses over between Young Adult and Adult reading. It’s in a tricky space. Bottom line is, if you’re not so good with the occasional swear, a little sex, blood, brain matter, moaning zombies, mad scientists or – and this could be scariest of all – political conspiracy – then Blackout isn’t for you.

I haven’t scared you off yet? Excellent. Because Blackout is one of the best books I’ve read in a very long time, and a most fitting end to the Newsflesh trilogy. In Feed and Deadline, Georgia and Shaun Mason tell us their stories. Set in the early 2040’s, and around thirty years since ‘The Rising’, when man cured cancer and the common cold and the dead stopped staying dead, bloggers like Georgia and Shaun are how we get our news. Their news site, ‘After the End Times’ is one of the highest rating in the country. By the time we get to Blackout, the world has gone mad. Well, madder than it already was.

If you’ve read Feed, you’ll know that something big and bad happened to George in the final chapters, and if you’ve read Deadline, you’ll know that Mira Grant did some serious messing with the reader’s mind in the last chapter of that one too, again to do with George. The whole ‘is she dead, alive, a clone or just some new breed of sentient zombie?’ makes the reader sit up and take notice. In Blackout, that head-messing continues, so this isn’t really a book you’re going to only pay half your attention to, or hope it sends you to sleep at night. Grant will pull you through her world at break-neck speed, she demands you stay on the ball, use that grey matter (sorry, couldn’t resist) and keep up with both the characters and the science. All our favourite characters are back in their best form (well, the living ones anyway. Actually, that’s debateable…) Angry, sceptical, brave and more than a little bit mad, Shaun and Georgia’s quest for truth again puts their lives on the line, along with their loyal staff. The science of Newsflesh is nicely played out and explained to the reader, though I wouldn’t try multi-tasking while you’re reading. It might prove hard to get your head around.

What makes Blackout and its predecessors stand out from other zombie novels isn’t just the science. Sure, the back-story and the corruption are important, real and plausible; the bones to the story, but it’s not what makes the novels so un-put-downable. It’s the flesh (ahem) that makes these books amazing – the characters and how we care about them. In a world overtaken by the undead, it’s how the living manage to go on doing just that – living – that makes the story so real. Shaun and Georgia share an impeccable sense of humour, although their ‘voices’ are so different to one another. Shaun in particular is more than a little twisted, but his loyalty to George and their band bloggers is without fault. You’ll laugh out loud through this story, be horrified and disturbed and if you don’t shed a tear (or at least be tempted to) then you better check to make sure you’re not entering the amplification stage of Kellis-Amblerlee yourself.

If Feed, Deadline and Blackout aren’t enough Newsflesh for you – don’t despair. Available as e-books are the novellas Countdown and The Last Stand of the California Browncoats. I can highly recommend them both. Whedon fans will love the Browncoat reference – and seriously, a zombie apocalypse set at Comic-Con? Omg.

*Mira Grant is also known as Campbell Award winning author Seanan McGuire.

Blackout by Mira Grant

Published by Orbit

Paperback, 574 pages.

ISBN – 978-1-84149-900-0