Blackout (The Newsflesh Trilogy) [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

This was fantastic! The best in the series. I just finished and I am shaking. I don't think there will be anything this good for me, ever again. This is not a review, lol, I will be back to write a more coherent and better put together thoughts. Mira Grant is a brilliant writer.

**
I was in love with this book from the beginning. I should say upfront, I liked Feed but not as much as Deadline, which I loved and not as much as Blackout, which is my favorite. For me, Mira really hit her stride with Blackout. The alternating points of view were very effective and I loved the blog posts from the various team members. The way Mira tells her story, both in first person point of view from various characters and in a journal format via quotes and blog excerpts, really worked for me. It gave the story a multi-layered feel.

Blackout was non-stop struggle, fight and chase from the beginning. The action never stopped but it was my favorite kind of action. I skim or close my eyes during fight scenes and car chase sequences but the action in Blackout had me hooked. I did not miss a word. I wondered about people's motives, I worried that there would be unresolved issues and I worried about my favorite characters. I shouldn't have worried. Not everyone can live or survive in a world like this one, but the characters are dealt with fairly and I was satisfied with the outcome.

A book about a zombie plague that affected the world's mammal population and a future dytsopia setting is bound to have its unbelievable moments, but for me this never happened. Mira Grant writes this book in such a way that it is believable. A lingering question at the end of every zombie book is -how did the zombie plague happen? Well, in Newsflesh Mira Grant lays it out for the readers. We know why it happened. She provides enough detail to readers so that the science is acceptable. Her world building is not just in boundaries and political alignments, but is is also done with science.

Political plots can be a real yawner. Ther are some books with political plotlines that I liked (Kushiel's Dart and Game of Thrones are some examples), but I prefer an action based plot or a character driven plot -- Blackout manages to have both and has politics intertwined and somehow is still. There is political intrigue, backstabbing and power hungry grabbers. But there are other political elements as well. One of the political themes that I picked up on, is the idea that citizens should not trust a government or authority that derives its power from fear. Mira touches on this theme very subtly and effectively but does not hit the reader over the head with it. But what I thought was interesting, but questioning the government on the issue of fear and safety, she is calling into question the premise of the world she has constructed. Are those multiple blood tests really necessary? Necessary or not, they play a key role in the books but there is a hint that these blood tests may be used as a method of pacification and mollification rather than simply a safety measure.

While reading the first two books I often wondered -- what about the people who live off the grid? Was that even possible? Mira takes the readers off the grid in Deadline; we get to see people who have walked away from the fences and the government protection. While the first two books had more of a dystopia setting feel by showing us the off-the grid folks it was evident that the apocalypse was still going on. And that is downright scary. It really isn't under control but what the government is doing to maintain the problem isn't working. There are so many issues addressed in this book -- power, greed, love, desparation .....

Ugh, I am so sad this trilogy is over. I would love to have more stories about these characters. I am hoping Mira Grant considers returning to this world. She has created something so unique in the zombie genre that deserves to be revisited.

I just finished Blackout after staying up all night to read it. While not as good as Feed, Blackout is miles ahead of the mediocre offering of Deadline. The return of 97% cognate Georgia Mason is much needed and welcomed even though her scenes at the CDC are sometimes hard to wrap your brain around. There are some recurring problems throughout the trilogy that prevent me from giving Blackout five stars.

1. Repetition of details. I'm assuming this is a problem with the editor because I don't understand why some details were allowed to be repeated ad nauseam. Thankfully, Coke is only mentioned twenty times in this book (as opposed to at least fifty in Feed). However, we still get several mentions of Shaun's craziness and of Georgia's aversion to white walls.

2. Length. This book did not need to be 600+ pages. My mind started to wander a bit during Shaun and Becks road trip. Although a zombie bear is somewhat amusing, I felt like the book took too many unnecessary detours.

3. Rushed reunions and ending. The most disappointing thing about the book was that I wanted more one on one scenes with Georgia and her team, and I didn't get them. George and Mahir barely got to spar. Also, I was really looking forward to a showdown between George and Becks. The ending Becks did get was a bit too convenient and allowed for George and Shaun's unique relationship to go unchallenged.

All in all, still a pretty good read and a mostly satisfying last installment to this trilogy.

Here's the problem with BLACKOUT: the readers needed Georgia back. The plot didn't.

This wouldn't be such a huge problem if, say, Shaun had found some way to bring Georgia back. He was motivated to do so, should the means have presented themselves. But it wasn't Shaun who brought Georgia back - it was the villain of the series, insofar as a government agency can function as a villain.

Now, I actually follow the logic that led the CDC to their state of villainy pretty well. They can't afford a partial cure of Kellis-Amberlee. They see the inevitable result - "Maybe this person can recover from amplification, maybe I shouldn't shoot them in the head, oops, now I'm a zombie too!" - and it is awful. I can see a "cold calculation" (to use Mira Grant's phrase) there, where the CDC believes their way will save more lives in the long run. And it makes sense that once an organization has chosen a direction that requires a lot of lying and secrecy, it will foster a pretty toxic environment where the wrong sort of people will thrive.

So, in a general sense, I get it. And in a general sense, the plot here hangs together pretty well: the After the End Times crew has discovered that the CDC is at the center of a massive, evil conspiracy. They want to end the conspiracy by making it public, making it news. The CDC is strongly motivated to prevent that from happening. The After the End Times crew makes progress. The CDC keeps trying to kill them. Eventually, we have a winner and a loser.

And I thought the first half of the book was pretty awesome. We see Georgia again! She's narrating chapters! Man, it was great to have her back. She is one kick-ass reporter. And all the chapters recounting her captivity at the CDC facility are beyond chilling. The creepy doctor in charge of her, Dr. Thomas, made me want to vomit. Georgia's struggle with her own identity - she's not actually Georgia Mason; just a very close copy - was perfect.

Meanwhile the After the End Times crew hits the road, with Shaun on his way to Florida to save Alaric's little sister from the mosquito-ridden hazard zone the state has become. They run into trouble on the way, and eventually - thanks to an extremely bizarre coincidence that needed a lot more explaining than we actually got - meet up with Georgia.

I loved Shaun's reunion with Georgia. I loved seeing the rest of the crew react to her reappearance. So great. The coolest thing about it? The way that Shaun's behavior in this book cleared up the issues I'd had with DEADLINE. I'd been really uncomfortable with the idea that Shaun communicating with Georgia by magic, and I couldn't figure out how else he could be having such lucid conversations with her. But the answer was, for me, just right.

Unfortunately, after the team is all back together again, the plot completely falls apart. I don't want to spoil anything, so I can't really explain. I'd like to pretend the whole episode with the Monkey didn't exist. And the final blow out scene? Answered none of my questions, struck me as unrealistic, and, the kicker: proved to me that glad as I was to see her, the plot did not justify bringing Georgia back to life. They could have done it all without her.

On the one hand, I loved BLACKOUT. I love the Newsflesh world, I love the smart, almost brutally no-nonsense writing, I loved having George back, I loved seeing Shaun and George together again - one of my favorite moments in the whole book was when they did their "one, two..." blood-testing routine together for the first time after seeing one another again. That was really moving. I'm so glad they got a happy ending.

On the other hand, the second half of this book was a mess & if it weren't for the first two books in the series, how invested & emotionally wrung out I was by them, I doubt I'd think very much of this one at all.