The Ending of Feed

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To follow on from my previous post talking about Feed, I want to talk a little bit about how Grant ended the novel. Yes, this will include the actual events of what happened at the end – so in case you like your spoilers unspoiled, you have been warned.

Feed is centered on the first person perspective and voice of Georgia Mason. This, ultimately, is her story. Though, like a good newsie, I’m sure she would disagree and say that “her story” is the pursuit of “truth” and reporting the news the way it should be told.

So what happens when an author kills off the main protagonist of a novel / series near the end of the first novel? It helps with the sense of narrative tension. Even in a first person perspective story – the narrator can and will die. This is somewhat different than what George R. R. Martin did in A Game of Thrones because even though that character was considered a primary protagonist – it was a multiple perspective narrative. Feed isn’t. It hinged on Georgia’s voice and the reader’s willingness to follow her. So, Grant’s willingness to kill her off is fascinating to me. It worked in the context of the novel (besides being an overall “oh shit“ moment) and the scene with Georgia and Shaun in the van is heartbreaking (though, the actual blog post seemed a little contrived, but we’ll move past that).

But where do you go from there? The novel is finished in with Shaun’s perspective and we know that Deadline will also follow Shaun. Or, it will initially follow Shaun. Who knows if Grant will whack him, too. That’s part of the fun, but the thing is that Georgia’s voice worked over the course of Feed. Will Shaun’s voice work over the course of Deadline? I don’t know.

It’s an interesting choice.