Storyline: 2/5 
 Characters: 2/5 
 Writing Style: 2/5 
 World: 3/5 
 I never got into the zombie craze, but it was with some anticipation that I started to read this Hugo-nominated book zombie book. I also never got into the young adult book craze, and I hadn't realized this was intended for adolescent audiences. 
 On the positive side, this opened with an interesting premise: the zombie outbreak happened, but it wasn't an apocalypse. Zombie outbreaks rank in there with tornadoes, hurricanes, or automobile accidents; they're problems but life moves on. This provided Grant with a world ripe with opportunity to build in and showcase how the future would be changed. Also, as a thriller, the author knew when to stick in some excitement and danger to move the story along. 
 On the negative (and much weightier) side, this was a young adult book that reveled in all the cliches of that genre: young people sleuthing out secrets that professionals were unable to uncover, incompetent villains whom always let their prey escape, and incessant mentions of just how tired (or difficult or trying or taxing) their adventure made our heroic young adults. The writing style matched the flippant attitude of our youthful main characters. It (like flippant, youthful characters in real life) was amusing for a short time, but before long one is more annoyed than entertained. Additionally, I fear that the technological side to this story - the blogging world - while perhaps novel, is going to be dated in very short time. 
 This shares more in common with the old Scooby Doo television cartoons than it does most of the science fiction and fantasy I read. I rarely abandon a series once I've begun, but I would gladly jettison this one were it not for the fact that it would interfere with my challenge to read all the Hugo nominees. So I suppose I'll be back to the Newsflesh sequels with a small hope that they'll mature into something less glib.