For anyone who loves the NEWSFLESH TRILOGY, I highly recommend you go ahead and read this little novella, COUNTDOWN, as well. It's the prequel to book 1, FEED, in which we see snippets of scenes from varying perspectives, all of which ultimately culminate in the rising -- the zombie apocalypse. It's all fact here, leaving the tugs at your emotional heartstrings for the novels themselves, but the presentation is impeccable -- just as in the trilogy -- drawing the reader in and setting the pace for things to come. 
 I now plan to read DEADLINE just in time for the release of the final novel of the trilogy -- BLACKOUT -- which comes out tomorrow. 
 Now, Zombie apocalypses may not normally be my thing -- so if you, like me, wouldn't naturally gravitate towards this series, give it a shot anyways. It's a pretty good likelihood that it will be love at first read -- and luckily you won't even have the impatient experience I did of waiting months upon months for the next installments to finally be released!