Deadline: The Newsflesh Trilogy: Book 2

3,5 stars. A pretty significant drop-off from 'Feed' which may not be entirely fair, as the first book blew me completely out of the water! I don't know exactly what it was about 'Deadline' that made me like it (much) less than 'Feed'. The book starts out well and gets straight to the action. And it certainly makes it even more obvious that whoever the bastards out there really are, that 'they' have no souls whatsoever... unless you believe that sacrificing half of Oakland just to kill a few teenagers is okay (don't laugh, I know some that do think that way). And there's certainly enough tension scattered throughout - if not the same amount of suspense - as the first book. The book lacks as well a very dislike-able villain which despite some of the more blatant clichés, was a key part of making Feed the classic that it is. Maybe because we know there's something rotten in Denmark and that much of the surprise is gone. It's also rather obvious that this group of characters as a team - meaning those physically present and not metaphysically so - are not as well-formed nor as sympathetic as those in 'Feed'. Shaun is just not the kind of character that can carry a book and no matter how we try to keep Georgia involved, he still comes across as an extremely immature BOY. I would have preferred having Mahir appear earlier and play a much more active role in the team chemistry. Grant's unfortunate habit to overdescribe and be extremely repetitive at times also resurfaces - ye gods, we know that coffee is bitter, we know that Coke is both acidic and sweet, move on please. It's those types of insertions that hurt the 'Parasite' trilogy as well and I wish someone would work a bit harder - even tabulate as the writing was going on - to help minimize this type of unneeded redundancy. Bottom line for me was that the book wasn't executed as well as the first. Add to that a frustratingly unnecessary sex scene - I'm sorry, but what the fudge did that accomplish? I would have preferred a giant 'Young Adult Genre' sticker added to the cover rather than put up with what only came across as a feeble attempt to bring some crudeness to the text (c*ck? We go the entire 2 books without so much as a good old-fashioned series of F-bombs and someone uses the word c*ck, even though everyone on the planet knows how to put on a damn condom?). That alone lost half a star to me. It could have been made a lot more relevant to the story-line but as it was, it just came across as rather sad and not in a grieving way. However, for the most part, Grant's writing style continues to be fluid and well-structured. This is still a fascinating, dystopian suspense-thriller that cleverly employs zombies as the weapon of mass destruction au jour. I am anxiously waiting to get started on the third book, particularly as the last 5 or so pages of 'Deadline' had me floored (no spoilers)! And I will confess: I think I tend to be a tad overcritical of Grant's writing because she is an amazing 'conceptualist' (word?) yet I somehow feel like she is not reaching her full potential in every book. But let's see if this is just a sophomore slump and continue on to the triumph that I hope will be Tome 3. Excelsior!