By Mira Grant.
Because the beginning of this one spoils the ending of the previous book, this review will go below the spoiler cut. And then after THAT there's going to be LAYERS of spoiler space because HOLY COW THIS BOOK...
Five stars.
Added bonus: if you'd like to read some short vignettes that take place during the actual Rising, the author has posted them here. And I found a few similar things the other day that I found amusing.
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Spoiler space for roughly the first half of the book:
A year after George's death, Shaun Mason still runs After The End Times, but is a retired Irwin and turned his "action news" section over to Rebecca "Becks" Atherton. He's hella depressed, he tends to punch his employees periodically, and he's kind of only barely functional these days. Also, George is still talking to him in his head. Shaun is well aware that this makes him crazy, but he'd rather be crazy than sane and without George entirely. Most people who know him in real life have heard him talking to George (though they don't hear her responses) and have varying degrees of "uh...." reactions to it.
I have a LOT of thoughts about this plot development, but we'll get back to that.
Anyhoo, after Shaun's first "in the field" moment in awhile after rescuing his employees during licensing training, Shaun comes home to Oakland and finds a visitor: Dr. Kelly Connolly, previously met in Feed. Except she's cloned herself (the CDC has special cloning privileges!!!!), faked her own death with the clone, gotten a new ID, and gone running to him. Why, you ask? Because she started doing a research project about people with reservoir conditions. You may recall from the previous book that George had a retinal version of Kellis-Amberlee in her eyes. Well, Kelly's figured out that (a) people with reservoir conditions (this seems to come from being exposed to live virus before you gain enough weight to amplify: it's the body's method of becoming immune) SHOULD be more likely to survive than anyone else. Except they seem to die a lot more frequently from random freak accidents than the general population. And let's just say that Kelly's the last one of her team alive that was looking into this. And the government would rather fund CANCER RESEARCH-- remember, cancer is extinct in this world-- because "if we find a cure for KA, cancer could come back." Wait a minute, what? People aren't even trying to cure KA?!
And when suddenly a zombie outbreak happens right on their apartment building, the After the End Times folks (mostly) have to go on the run. Holing up at the house of their superrich Fictional head Maggie periodically, the gang goes down a new and even more horrible research rabbit hole, with Kelly's help. They go to an illegal research lab she knows of, where the semi-friendly mad scientist there tells them...
Well, let's just say that your mind will be blown after that point. And more mindblowing, horrific, life-risking truths come after that. And then things get worse from there. And then there's the ending, where, well... Unlike the end of Feed, I was really really super happy at the ending of this one. And dear god, we have to wait another year to get the end?!?!
Anyway, to finish off the less spoilery parts of this review: this book is awesome. The worldbuilding continues to be rich and terrifying. I certainly did enjoy the new folks, but Dr. Abbey in particular is a standout. Especially well done is Shaun's narration. From what we recall of him from the first book, well... that happy-go-lucky zombie poker guy is gone, baby, gone. He's a new unhinged guy, who tends to punch his employees periodicially, and knows he's off the rails, but he's holding on long enough to get George's killer. And after that, well... who cares. You'll be reading the book thinking, "Odds are 50/50 Shaun lives through this, I wonder who will narrate book 3?"
And Georgia. Wow, Georgia. I am very pleased to see that she's back in Shaun's head in any way, shape or form. I love George, I want George in the story no matter what, whether she's a voice in Shaun's head or if her resemblance shows up magically on a pizza like the Virgin Mary or royalty, I don't care. But the way she's used as either a voice in Shaun's crazy head or a ghost... Okay, I'm aware that unlike the author's other works under her other name, Mira Grant books are about the science and are unlikely to actually say that ghosts exist here. And the George in this book says that she's not a ghost. And *cough* I asked the author on the spoiler thread in her LiveJournal and she said no. *cough* But I wished I could briefly hop into the story to say, "Well, if you're not a ghost, WHAT ARE YOU, THEN?!" because she sure as hell seems to be one in some weird way or other. At the very least, even if you argue that George is just noticing stuff that Shaun wouldn't consciously be inclined to notice, there are a few moments in the book that get...physical... and I am still thinking, "Uh, there is something really beyond Living Memory going on here" from that. Even if the author says it isn't the case, I am going to be pretty convinced that George is haunting Shaun until further notice.
My only other theory, which is also pretty tree-hugging hippie, is based on my weird research project that I am doing involving daimons (why I got A Discovery of Witches in the first place, hah). Except for the part where George used to be a real live person, she is pretty much operating in the way that a daimon does in this one. The voice in your head that knows more about what's going on than you do. Seriously, I WANT TO KNOW HOW THIS IS HAPPENING. It'll also be interesting to see how this is handled in book 3, because right now I'm reminded of a certain plot development in Farscape.
Okay, now I'm going to move on to the more spoilery developments. Spoilers for the middle to almost-end follow after this:
Spoiler space
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So... the big mindblowers in this one:
(a) George had the possibility for surviving a zombie attack, which blows Shaun's mind so much that during his latest nervous breakdown, he actually sees and feels George as an external force by him, rather than a voice in his head. That was horrifying and yet awesome. Though it helped when George pointed out that she was considered legally dead by then anyway, she would have been killed by the CDC or someone had Shaun not shot her, and as we find out later (or if you remember Rick's dead son), having a reservoir condition does not necessarily always act as a vaccination against zombification. So that made us all feel better, I think(?). And leads to potential at the end.
(b) The government is perfectly happy to make new versions of KA and kill off people who might survive it. JEEBUS CHRIST. Like you weren't horrified enough by the part where money still goes to cancer research, eh? But yeah...that's our evil government for ya.
(c) Nice Dr. Wynne is evil. Though that one you pretty much kind of have to figure out when the zombies attack Oakland. Sigh. That reminded me of reading Marked and Betrayed.
(d) Shaun and Becks sleep together once. Which leads to us finding out that...
(e) George and Shaun DID have a sexual relationship.
And then finally, (f) Rising Part 2: Hurricane + Mosquitoes. Hoo boy.
I'm gonna skip commenting much on Rising Part 2 and get to the psuedo-incest. Oh, priorities...From reading the author's spoiler thread, she said the characters were insistent to her that that was how their relationship was. And I buy that. Technically speaking, they aren't doing any damage to anybody. And while I'm amazed that the Westermarck Effect apparently didn't happen here whatsoever as I thought it probably had in book 1, these two were pretty much lifemated regardless of whether or not they were having sex, so... okay, fine. And as someone else in the spoiler thread pointed out, post-Rising, nobody wants to have to leave the house to find a date. Good point.
And then there's the final two huge, huge revelations that nevertheless had some cool foreshadowing going on.
(I'm gonna put another level of spoiler space for the final few chapters of the book on top of this...)
Spoiler space
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1. Shaun flat out gets zombie bit and doesn't amplify. He's immune.
One presumes this has something to do with George, that perhaps he picked up her immunity in one way or another (insert dirty joke laugh there), and I look forward to finding out how that worked in Blackout. Though it's certainly ironic that this happened to the death seeker guy.
2. GEORGE HAS BEEN CLONED BY THE CDC. (Though she seems to have been cured of her reservoir condition... uh-oh...)
I can't tell you how pleased I am by this plot development. Yes, the author pointed out on the spoiler page that This Will Not Go Easily for George 2.0, but I'm so happy to have George in the story I don't care if it goes easy or not. The world needs Georgia Mason in it in whatever capacity! I look forward to her inevitable escape from the CDC, finding out what's up with that, and how things go with Shaun.
This is so exciting!!!!
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