Blackout

"4⭐️ Good ending to the trilogy. This book was probably the weakest of the three but still gave a satisfying ending to the story. The trilogy is a great melding of zombie apocalypse and political conspiracy. "

"WOW!!! What a FANTASTIC end to the Mason Siblings' story!!!! While there were some parts of this book I didn't like (not giving away anything specifically but Paz you were right) they were pretty minor and honestly? They were so barely mentioned that I personally can ignore them and pretend they weren't in there at all XD. However, that ENDING was just BEAUTIFUL!!!!! I greatly love all these characters, and I'm so glad that it ended the way it did!!!!! While I know there Is a fourth book, I also know it doesn't continue on the story of these characters. And honestly? I'm kinda glad, as I really REALLY liked how this ended!!!! Everything was finished so nicely!!!! I HIGHLY recommend this series to anyone who likes well written horror books!!!!"

"★★★★½ -- I don't hesitate to say that the <i>Newsflesh</i> trilogy has been my favorite trilogy to date, hands down. The most prominent thought I have about <i>Blackout </i> as I sit here trying to compose this review is that I'm sad to see it end. But, as we all know, all good things must come to an end, and that holds true for stories too. <br/><br/>Mira Grant has created an excellent send-off for the characters we know and love with this final installment of the trilogy. After reading and loving <i>Feed</i> and <i>Deadline</i> to death, I knew my standards were set very high. <i>Blackout </i> met and exceeded them. To my great pleasure, it contains the elements readers have come to expect from the previous novels. It is a great accomplishment that these novels excel so far above just being another science fiction or zombie novel. They are stories about humans -- about our fear, about the importance of truth, about knowledge, about science, about corruption and politics, about integrity, about loyalty. About pain. About the toll that loss, death and betrayal take on a person, and how they are dealt with. The <i>Newsflesh</i> series is so much more than a zombie trilogy. <br/><br/>As readers of Mira Grant know, she excels at creating characters. Shaun and Georgia Mason, Alaric, Becks, Maggie, Mahir, and all the others... Each one of them has a very distinct personality and situation. And regardless of whether or not you particularly like each of them, you become emotionally vested in them. That is, I believe, the biggest success of the series. Its ability to make you feel, to feel so much and so often.<br/><br/>I know that you're unlikely to be reading the review for the third book in a series if you haven't read the first two, but regardless... If you're a fan of Mira Grant, you can't miss this book. Although you may be sad to see the series go, you need to see how it all ends. And if you haven't read <i>Feed</i> or <i>Deadline</i>, do yourself a favor. Pick it up. You won't regret it."

"I want to talk about the final book in the series in two parts- first as an overview of the series as a whole, and then second about the book itself.<br/><br/><b> As a whole: </b><br/>Mira Grant (Seanan McGuire) is great at conceptualizing and world building. I think because of its format, Newsflesh would actually make an incredible video game. The amount of exposition you get can be a little draining when you're reading it, but I think that exposition also means that you get a firm foothold on the rules of the world and a clear picture of what's going on and how people are living. There's never any doubt in my mind as a reader that the author knows her world. Unfortunately this means that a lot of the characterization, pacing and plot end up taking a backseat, which does hurt it a little. The world is immersive and well thought out, but the events and characters running through it don't keep up. <br/><br/>Now I want to address the elephant in the room. And no, I don't mean <spoiler> the incest. I was raised on Vampire Knight and City of Bones- sure it made me uncomfortable but we were spared excessive PDA so I'm willing to live with it. The implications behind Shaun's immunity... I don't want to gross anyone out by theorizing that micro-dosing Kellis-Amberlee through its known method of spread (aka bodily fluids) is how it happened... but they don't explicitly say how his immunity worked. I'll just say that breathing the same air as someone and outer-skin contact isn't likely to be how you get immunity... sorry. I initially thought it was just for shock factor, but if his immunity really is caused by... well then I guess the incest was necessary. I personally would have preferred that he just had a hidden reservoir condition that hadn't been detected before, but that's just me.</spoiler>.<br/><br/>No, the elephant I want to address was accidentally shoved into the room through the window years after the room was set up and decorated. I've seen a lot of comments post-2020 criticizing the book for its rhetoric surrounding the distrust of government organizations, conspiracy theories, the media, the deep state, and how accurately it reflects a lot of dialogue and covid-denier taglines from some of the furthest and most extreme fringes of society in 2023. Had it been written post-covid, it could even be seen as a support of those views- <i>but it wasn't.</i> I certainly don't blame the author for this. The world was a very different place when the first book in the series came out. I tried very hard to not hold that against the book- political parties weren't as polarized, the general public wasn't being bombarded nearly as much by global misinformation campaigns, and and the majority of us weren't being hounded by the very same messages we see in the book (albeit in very different contexts) at every family event by that one uncle or cousin. Again, this is not the author's fault, but it does make the series very difficult to swallow, even when you're aware of the context it was written in. If you're going into the series without being aware of this, it can be a shock to the system. Context is key, but it can be emotionally draining to get through, so be aware of that before you start. It's unfortunate that so much of the book, which was about governmental accountability, the importance of independent journalism and the strength of checks and balances being in place for any organization with any kind of authority <spoiler>in this case the EIS for the CDC</spoiler>, has been poisoned by reality, but we're all victims of time and history, so all we can do is be aware of it.<br/><br/><b>The book on its own </b><br/><br/>As the third installment, I have to say I spent a lot of time wondering whether we were going to get where we needed to go by the end of the book. A lot of the book felt like the reader, and the characters, were hitting a lot of dead ends, and putting a lot of effort into getting the audience to an event that would ultimately serve a purpose, but felt like there were shorter paths to getting there.<br/><br/>For example: <spoiler> there was a large amount of build up to rescuing Alaric's sister, only for it to be used as honestly unnecessary closure between Shaun and his adoptive parents. The pay off just wasn't there. I almost wish the reader DID get to see that rescue- there was so much work that went into building it up as this key event only for it to be discarded as "They'll do it, lets go get fake IDs so we can take off to Canada and happen upon -insert key character here- after a whole lot of build up into this new plot point". The whole "well we're done with this whole journalism and breaking the story wide open thing, let's just leave" plot point was weak as well. I know it was a tool to get to a different plot point, but it just felt arbitrary and like an excuse to have the team back at the CDC for the breakout. </spoiler> <br/><br/>The book spends a lot of time waiting for things to happen to the After the End Times crew. For a book about rising up and being proactive, they weren't particularly proactive and spend a lot of time waiting for the next revelation to happen. It's not until the end of the book that it really feels like they're doing anything, and even then, it was really only once they're put in a position where it's act or die. The pacing wasn't there for me, and the action felt very passive. It almost felt like a video game, where you get quest thread after quest thread, except its one of those games where your character is more of a vehicle to watch the world around it and have things happen to them without any decision making capabilities on the part of the player. The book felt like it could have been slimmed down, while still making all of it's best points of action and plot occur. Overall, it does wrap up the series new path that started in the second book, but the ending felt unsatisfying.<br/><br/><b> Take Away </b><br/>I know up until this point I have been pretty critical, but I did generally enjoy the series overall. It wasn't what I expected going into it, since its far more about government and journalism than it is about zombies (if you're looking for a zombie smasher book, this isn't going to be it) but it was a good read overall and I'm glad I read it. It was a very vivid reading experience, and while it may not have aged the best, the world that Mira Grant (Seanan McGuire) created is worth a look if you're in the right mindset to set aside the real world for a bit and have the stomach to disassociate some rhetoric from its modern usage."