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Shaun Mason can't seem to get rid of his sister. Even though Georgia died during a zombie outbreak when she got infected and he had to kill her. She's still hanging around--in his head. As if that weren't enough to ruin your day, the news organization that he and his sister put together, while managing to maintain a top slot in the electronic world of blogs, instant video, and self created news, is somewhat at a loss with her gone.

Also by Mira Grant: Newsflesh: * Feed * Deadline

Then the dead doctor shows up and their main base of operations gets caught in an outbreak and firestormed. They just manage to get out alive, well, most of them do, and then they figure out who is actually after them--none other than the CDC, the very organization that is dedicated to eradicating the zombie plague. After that it's all downhill with two raids on CDC complexes, some harrowing cross country trips and more zingers and right angle plot shifts than you can poke a stick at.

This is the follow up book to Feed and the in between book preceding Blackout, which, would be my guess, completes the zombie trilogy. Grant does a good job of extrapolating not only what a viral based zombie plague would be like, but how those in the remaining culture might respond to it. While I struggle a bit to figure out how all the technology is kept running and why there is not simply a whole sale eradication program, these things don't rise to the level of deal breaker due to Grant's ability to keep a plot moving at an often frantic pace. The writing is sharp, the dialogue fits the setting, and the plotting is fairly tight. Overall a very nice job managing a fairly complex set of factors.

The only issue I happen to have is that I'm not sure I buy the basic premise behind this volume. I'd much prefer my villains more bumbling than megalomanical. But that may just be my real life experience interfering. I can live with it as I enjoyed the way that Grant present the material and the choices that are made concerning plotting and pacing. I'm definitely interested in seeing the third book when it comes out and seeing just what the writer has in mind for bringing this all to an end. Definitely recommended. Especially for all you zombie lovers out there.