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tinyashtravels's review
4.0
Good one to read after book 3 Blackout. As always I love the writing, it keeps you on the edge of your seat and you really get to live Mahir’s experience visiting Australia but this isn’t a complete story. The biggest mystery in the story was not solved although it was nice to learn a little bit more about this virus infested world.
weweresotired's review
3.0
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How Green This Land... is a quick read, being a novella that clocks in at around 130-ish pages. I read it mostly while waiting to board a plane, and then in a quick sprawl-on-bed-and-get-covered-in-cats session once I got home. You shouldn't read this if you haven't read the Newsflesh trilogy. First, it would make no sense, and second, it would spoil every plot twist I hold near and dear to my heart. I'll write this review without spoilers, but just be aware that this isn't a stand-alone for new readers.
How Green This Land... is narrated by Mahir Gowda, a blogger and journalist in a world devastated by zombies. Readers of the Newsflesh trilogy know him as the long-suffering, sleep deprived blog partner of Georgia and Shaun Mason. Here, Mahir gets to tell his own story as he goes to Australia to meet up with a pair of his bloggers, as well as to investigate the role Australia's rabbit-proof fence has played in keeping the zombies at bay.
Only, Australia is affectionately referred to as Murderland, because everything wants to kill you. If it wasn't already venomous or filled with murderous rage before the zombies, well, now you've got zombie kangaroos and zombie koalas to contend with. Australians maintain a pretty strong no-shits-given attitude towards all of this and look towards their new lives with an air of "well, whatever" and a strong focus on conservation. And all because the deadly things are behind a fence doesn't mean that our bloggers are completely safe, either.
Mahir is not always the strongest of narrators; his constant dark sarcasm and "10000% done with this" attitude does sometimes come off as a little forced. He reads well in small snippets, like in his appearances in the Newsflesh novels, but carrying a whole story got a little tiresome. But still, I enjoyed having someone more practical and balanced to narrate this trip (unlike Shaun, who was totally imbalanced for most of the time, and Georgia, who saw the world as very black and white), and having an established character narrate made more sense than expecting the newly introduced ones to be our guides. Our new main characters, bloggers Olivia and Jack and pilot Juliet, are interesting but somewhat one-note and could stand to be fleshed out more. Then again, this is a novella - they were fleshed out enough to work for the story's purposes, and their hints of backstory got me interested enough to want to know more about them. The ending left a little to be desired, too; things get wrapped up in a kind of hand-wave "well that happened" sort of way, but I suspect writing out the full aftermath of Mahir's adventure would have turned this into a full novel.
As a bit of a side note, I appreciate Grant's efforts to write a diverse cast of characters and How Green This Land excels at that. Her cast spans the spectrum of diversity in ethnicity, gender, gender roles, sexuality, etc., and gives voice and representation to people who may not typically see themselves written about in fiction
While this isn't as edge-of-your-seat or all-around perfect as Feed, one of my favorite books ever, this is a fine addition to the Newsflesh universe, and gives the reader a lot to think about regarding conservation, safety/security or the illusion thereof, and the stories we tell ourselves to get through difficult situations. I think I appreciated it more for those broad themes than for anything else.
How Green This Land... is a quick read, being a novella that clocks in at around 130-ish pages. I read it mostly while waiting to board a plane, and then in a quick sprawl-on-bed-and-get-covered-in-cats session once I got home. You shouldn't read this if you haven't read the Newsflesh trilogy. First, it would make no sense, and second, it would spoil every plot twist I hold near and dear to my heart. I'll write this review without spoilers, but just be aware that this isn't a stand-alone for new readers.
How Green This Land... is narrated by Mahir Gowda, a blogger and journalist in a world devastated by zombies. Readers of the Newsflesh trilogy know him as the long-suffering, sleep deprived blog partner of Georgia and Shaun Mason. Here, Mahir gets to tell his own story as he goes to Australia to meet up with a pair of his bloggers, as well as to investigate the role Australia's rabbit-proof fence has played in keeping the zombies at bay.
Only, Australia is affectionately referred to as Murderland, because everything wants to kill you. If it wasn't already venomous or filled with murderous rage before the zombies, well, now you've got zombie kangaroos and zombie koalas to contend with. Australians maintain a pretty strong no-shits-given attitude towards all of this and look towards their new lives with an air of "well, whatever" and a strong focus on conservation. And all because the deadly things are behind a fence doesn't mean that our bloggers are completely safe, either.
Mahir is not always the strongest of narrators; his constant dark sarcasm and "10000% done with this" attitude does sometimes come off as a little forced. He reads well in small snippets, like in his appearances in the Newsflesh novels, but carrying a whole story got a little tiresome. But still, I enjoyed having someone more practical and balanced to narrate this trip (unlike Shaun, who was totally imbalanced for most of the time, and Georgia, who saw the world as very black and white), and having an established character narrate made more sense than expecting the newly introduced ones to be our guides. Our new main characters, bloggers Olivia and Jack and pilot Juliet, are interesting but somewhat one-note and could stand to be fleshed out more. Then again, this is a novella - they were fleshed out enough to work for the story's purposes, and their hints of backstory got me interested enough to want to know more about them. The ending left a little to be desired, too; things get wrapped up in a kind of hand-wave "well that happened" sort of way, but I suspect writing out the full aftermath of Mahir's adventure would have turned this into a full novel.
As a bit of a side note, I appreciate Grant's efforts to write a diverse cast of characters and How Green This Land excels at that. Her cast spans the spectrum of diversity in ethnicity, gender, gender roles, sexuality, etc., and gives voice and representation to people who may not typically see themselves written about in fiction
While this isn't as edge-of-your-seat or all-around perfect as Feed, one of my favorite books ever, this is a fine addition to the Newsflesh universe, and gives the reader a lot to think about regarding conservation, safety/security or the illusion thereof, and the stories we tell ourselves to get through difficult situations. I think I appreciated it more for those broad themes than for anything else.
seeinghowitgoes's review
3.0
As an Australian it's strange to read this odd love story to my homeland, a lot of the concepts seem overly idealistic of what life in Australia is like but the tiny glimpse back into the Newsflesh universe simply made me miss it all the more.
adamrbrooks's review
4.0
My only complaint about this story is that Grant wrote it as a novella. The voice is great, the story is interesting, and there's a lot of room to explore the different ways that the world might react to a zombie apocalypse.
In fact, it feels like it was MEANT to be a novel. She introduces at least two mysteries -- and it's easy to imagine that they're related -- and then explicitly says, "Welp, guess we'll never know who did those things." Feels like she just decided, "Eh, I don't have time to write a whole novel. Let me just get this thing out the door."
Really too bad there's not more of it.
In fact, it feels like it was MEANT to be a novel. She introduces at least two mysteries -- and it's easy to imagine that they're related -- and then explicitly says, "Welp, guess we'll never know who did those things." Feels like she just decided, "Eh, I don't have time to write a whole novel. Let me just get this thing out the door."
Really too bad there's not more of it.
snazzymoose's review
4.0
I wasn’t satisfied with some of the ending. It seemed just to tie up and end rather abruptly. 3.75 ⭐️s
hermyknee19's review
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
A complete waste of time. Zero pacing, zero character development, and the same tired zingers and dialogue for 80 pages. I have no idea how you manage to make a book about the conservation of zombie kangaroos so boring.
nicolemhill's review
3.0
Zombie kangaroos? Disturbing and awesome.
Would have been nice to have more of a resolution after the journo ex machina, though.
Would have been nice to have more of a resolution after the journo ex machina, though.
pelargonia's review
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75