History Literature / Newsflesh

** Franchise/XMen: Invoked by Shaun when he was being confused about what part of the country Becks came from.

--> '''Seanan [=McGuire=]:''' The first time I called the CDC, I said that I wanted to talk to someone about possibly designing a zombie virus. ...So every time I came up with a new iteration of Kellis-Amberlee, I would call back and say, "If I did this, this, this, this, this and this, could I raise the dead?" And every single time they would say, "No." And I’d say, "OK," hang up, and go back to working. After about the 17th time, I called and said, "If I did this, this, this, this, this, this and this, could I raise the dead?" And got, [[OhCrap "Don’t . . . don’t do that."]] At that point, I knew I had a viable virus.

* ArmorPiercingQuestion: [[CloningBlues Georgia II]] gets in a good one at the beginning of ''Blackout''.

* CloningBlues: Georgia II, or "[[YouAreNumberSix Subject 7C]]", if you must. [[spoiler: The long-term goal, apparently, was for the CDC to prove that they could cheat death through human cloning. The short-term goal was to rid themselves of that pesky blogger, Shaun Mason. They failed to get rid of Shaun, but the cloning itself worked...[[GoneHorriblyRight a little too well]]. They created a clone so much like the original, that she acted just like the original would have in her place. Georgia II blew up their base, teamed up with Shaun & co., and ruined all their plans.]]

** RobinHood: Dr. Abbey refers to Shaun's team as the Merry Men.

''[=Newsflesh=]'' is a series of ZombieApocalypse medical political thrillers written by Creator/MiraGrant (aka Creator/SeananMcGuire).

* TalkingToYourself: Shaun does this a lot [[spoiler: but the truth is he's talking to George. He hears her inside his head.]]

* IsThatWhatTheyreCallingItNow: In ''Blackout'', [[spoiler:Georgia II]] uses this trope as a snappy comeback.
-->'''[[AffablyEvil Dr. Thomas]]''': You've been [[DeadlyEuphemism sleeping]] for some time.
-->'''[[spoiler:Georgia II]]''': Is that what the kids are calling it these days?

* RoadTrip:
** Everything after meeting the Ryman campaign in ''Feed.''
** Getting to and from Portland, and once again to and from Memphis in ''Deadline''.
** Shaun and Becks going to Berkeley and Seattle in ''Blackout''.
** Now with airplanes in ''How Green This Land, How Blue This Sea''.
** From Canada to Oregon in ''Coming To You Live''.

** The name for Lois the cat may be an in-universe tip of the hat to the [[{{Superman}} famous reporter]], whom Georgia dressed as for Halloween one year.

* InexplicablyIdenticalIndividuals: It was mentioned in ''Feed'' how much Kelly looks like Buffy, much to the distress of Georgia and Shaun. The resemblance is taken UpToEleven in ''Deadline''[[spoiler: once they are forced to put her in Buffy's clothing]].

* StealthPun: Or maybe not entirely stealthy. But the title of ''Feed'' is a double meaning: what zombies do, and what people do to follow blogs. Then the first novel's cover takes it UpToEleven by showing the RSS Feed symbol in blood.

* AdultFear: The fact that all mammals over 40lbs can amplify means young children are able to amplify, never mind the thought of a parent amplifying in the same room as their children. ''The Day The Dead Came To Show And Tell'' is basically AdultFear the book.

* PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad: ''Deadline'' indicates that the living are supposed to refer to zombies as "post Kellis-Amberlee amplification manifestation syndrome humans". But as Shaun points out -- that's neither a catchy name, nor one you can shout quickly to warn somebody, nor an acronym that makes a short word you can shout quickly to warn somebody.

** NotUsingTheZedWord: Subverted. The population of the ''Newsflesh''-verse is GenreSavvy -- it saved their lives -- so they don't bother with dodgewords to make you feel better, especially lethally unwieldy ones (see PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad). Those shambling moaning things? They are '''''zombies'''''. Though there are other non-Z-word names used for them as well, such as "moaners".

* ActionSurvivor:

* FamousLastWords: Subverted. "I'll be right back". Shaun makes it back.

** ''San Diego 2014:'' Kelly Nakama, and Elle Riley as Indiction Rivers in ''Space Crime Continuum''. Elle also has to pull ActionGirl duty at the con once zombies become an issue.

* ActionGirl:

* InfantImmortality: It's a series full of zombies. Subverted for the elder Masons' biological child and Rick's son. And for lots of cute animals.

* BiTheWay: several, the most outstanding being Maggie's comment in "Blackout" about [[spoiler:herself and Buffy]] in the hotel.

** Disney/{{Bambi}}: Referenced twice in ''Deadline''. In a world where any mammal over forty pounds will reanimate after death, the infamous scene from the movie takes on a different meaning for the novel's characters.

* EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses: Snarkily subverted as [[spoiler: Kelly Connolly]] got the nickname "Princess" as something half-affectionate, half-pejorative, depending on who said it. And considering that her arrival at the offices of After The End Times started the series of events leading to [[FromBadToWorse things deteriorating]] rapidly.