Feed
Seanan McGuire
 Feed is set several decades after the zombie apocalypse, referred to as the Rising. Two man-made viruses (a cure for cancer and a cure for the common cold) combined to form Kellis-Amberlee, a virus that quickly infects all mammalian life. Kellis-Amberlee is normally beneficial, but death causes the virus to 'go live' or 'amplify', converting any host mammal over into a zombie. Most humans reside in tightly controlled safe zones, with rigorous blood testing and decontamination protocols used to prevent the spread of live virus. After the inaction of traditional media during the Rising, blogs and other new media have taken over as the primary source of information and entertainment; bloggers are recognised as professional journalists, with individuals specialising and identifying as 'Newsies' (fact-based reporting), 'Irwins' (named after Steve Irwin, who seek to educate and entertain by going out and "poking things with sticks"), or 'Fictionals' (fictional content), among others. Feed occurs in 2040, and is written from the perspective of Georgia Mason, a Newsie blogger and head of the After the End Times website. Georgia, her brother Shaun (an Irwin), and their friend Georgette "Buffy" Meissonier (a Fictional and technology guru), are selected to cover the presidential campaign of Senator Peter Ryman, a moderate Republican. The campaign is mostly uneventful until Eakly, Oklahoma, where zombies attack the campaign convoy, killing several before security (assisted by Georgia and Shaun) can contain them; they later find that it was an orchestrated attack. The next stage of the campaign is the Republican National Convention, where Ryman faces off against religious, right-wing Governor David Tate and sex-over-substance Congresswoman Kristen Wagman. During the convention, Newsie and former print journalist Rick Cousins defects from Wagman's campaign to join After the End Times. Ryman is selected as the Republican candidate for the presidency, but as this is announced, Georgia learns that a zombie outbreak recurred at the senator's horse ranch, and his eldest daughter is dead. On investigation, Georgia and company find that the outbreak started with a horse injected with live virus. Ryman and the campaign relocates to Texas, where he joins his vice-presidential candidate: Tate. The bloggers must drive their vehicles and equipment overland. During the trip, the convoy is attacked by a sniper. Georgia, Shaun, and Rick survive, but the van carrying Buffy and Chuck (the campaign's tech chief) crashes; Chuck dies, zombiefies, and bites Buffy. Buffy reveals that she was leaking information to a group undermining Ryman's campaign; the attack occurred because she had stopped. After administering a coup de grâce, Georgia calls for rescue, but the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) team drugs them and takes them for testing. After being released, the team's work on the campaign is hampered as they dig at the underlying conspiracy, souring the bloggers' relationship with Ryman and Tate. They find evidence linking Tate to the attacks, along with hints of a broader conspiracy involving the CDC and other parties, but when Georgia confronts Ryman during an event in Sacramento, California, he sends them away. As they leave, the bloggers are attacked, and Georgia is shot with a tranquiliser dart containing live virus. Rick flees with a copy of the group's evidence (escaping just before a zombie outbreak is instigated), and Shaun helps Georgia expose the conspiracy through one last blog post before she begins amplifying, forcing Shaun to execute her. The novel's narration then changes to Shaun's perspective. He rallies Ryman's security detail to help contain the outbreak, then breaks into the convention centre to confront Ryman and Tate. Tate takes Ryman's wife hostage with a syringe of the zombie virus, claiming his actions were part of a plot using fear of the zombies to reshape America into a more faithful society. The governor then injects himself with the virus, and Shaun shoots him to prevent zombiefication.