Book II of the Newsflesh Trilogy isn’t quite as good as the
first book, Feed, but it wasn’t a disappointment. Georgia Mason is dead after
what transpired in Book I, so her brother Shaun is the narrator. I didn’t find
him as engrossing a narrator as Georgia. Maybe that’s because she’s a more
intelligent and less emotional storyteller. It could also have something to do
with the fact that Shaun’s slowly going off the deep end, believing that his
sister now resides inside his head.
In this chapter, Shaun and his team of reporters at After
the End Times delve deeper into the conspiracy that threatened to destroy
Senator Ryman’s presidential campaign and ultimately killed Shaun’s sister. The
team is in the thick of it when a CDC researcher shows up on their doorstep,
only CNN and other news sources are reporting her deceased. The crap really
hits the fan when someone unleashes a zombie outbreak on the news team’s roof
and the whole building is scheduled for elimination.
Shaun and his team seek refuge in the fortress-like
structure of a pharmaceutical heiress and end up on a variety of road trips
seeking to discover why they’ve been targeted by this global conspiracy. Could
the CDC researcher’s notes on the evolving strains of the Kellis-Amberlee virus
that turns the dead into the undead have something to do with it? And what’s
going to happen to Shaun’s already fragile psyche when he discovers that
certain anomalies in his sister’s blood might’ve actually saved her life when
she was infected with the live virus in the previous book has Shaun not killed
her before she had a chance to transform into a zombie?
Thankfully, this
book gives plenty of ample time some several underused characters from the
first book, like the Brit blogger Mahir. His character steals several scenes. Noticeably
absent from this book was the character of Rick, a newbie to the Mason’s news
agency. He’s gone on to bigger and better things, becoming the vice President
and despite several mentions, not used once in this entire book. An oversight I
hope is fixed in book III.
Also, as you are reading this book from Shaun’s
perspective and it’s clear he’s not a genius like his sister was, it takes a
while to truly grasp the implications behind the conspiracy and the motives of
the CDC. Thus, Deadline started off very slow. I devoured the last 200 pages in less than 3
days. When the team gets caught in the remnants of a tropical storm and the
whole world seems to have disappeared, it got spooky good! At that point, Deadline
began to recapture that energy that captivated me in Book I. I couldn’t put the
book down at the moment. I was craving to know what happened so much, that I
couldn’t stop thinking about it yesterday at work. Once I was home, I tackled
that book and like a hungry zombie, devoured every last bit of it!
By the way, I’m still hungry. Bring on Book III- STAT!
Worth Consuming.
Rating 8 out of 10 stars.
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