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Fed (Newsflesh Trilogy #1.5)

by Mira Grant

3.56 of 5 stars 3.56 · rating details · 563 ratings · 122 reviews

An alternate ending to the first novel in the Newsflesh trilogy, Feed.

ebook, 53 pages

Published May 16th 2012 by Orbit

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Jun 06, 2012 Alona rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to Alona by: Tina

Shelves: sci-fi, e-book, horror, zombies, 2012

I said I won't read this yet. BUT. It's in FB. It's just one click away.

I like Feed's ending better than this.

(view spoiler)

Good thing I still felt numb after reading Feed. It's an alternate ending. I'm glad it was NOT the ending or I'll throw all the books within my reach. (I can't throw my kind...more

6 likes · like · see review

May 28, 2012 Aaron Vincent rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012-read, dystocalypse, scifi

When I read the author's opening along the lines:

"It is not what happened.
But it could have.
We came very close."

I thought I would get the happy ending I didn't got from the original one. I thought that "close" is something everyone wanted -- something triumphant.

I should have known better. This is a zombie novel in the first place. But still.

BUT.

Mira Grant -- or Seanan Maguire, whatever appeals to you more -- don't do this to me again. And please see a shrink. Stat. That is the truth and I beli...more

6 likes · like · see review

May 30, 2012 Alice rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, dystopian, horror, thriller, urban-fantasy

Fed is an alternative timeline of the end of Feed. If you think the real ending was an emotional punch in the gut, wait until you read how it could've happened. Fed is available for free on Facebook if you "Like" this page.

Mira Grant (aka Seanan McGuire) has often hinted that she knows what would've happened if Feed had ended differently. In Deadline, there's a reference to the figurehead working for the bad guys having been planted to specifically prey on one scenario. Mira Grant has said in in...more

10 likes · like · see review

May 03, 2013 Jeff Stockett rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: zombies, short-story

Since this is an alternate ending for Feed it's virtually impossible to review it without discussing the differences between the two endings and, therefore, spoiling both. Continue reading at your own risk.

(view spoiler)...more

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Feb 27, 2013 Liz rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: bonus-content, ebooks, spine-tingling, zombie-noms

Um, what the hell was that?!

When I read an alternate ending, I expect a real alternate ending. Not just the character names switched around. Because that's pretty much what this is. Replace every instance of 'Shaun' at the end of FEED with 'George', and you've got your "alternate ending".

I just finished FEED, and saw the link to this on the Goodreads series page. I definitely had an emotional response to the end of FEED. It was gut-wrenching. It was tragic. It was perfect.

But I thought, what the...more Um, what the hell was that?!

When I read an alternate ending, I expect a real alternate ending. Not just the character names switched around. Because that's pretty much what this is. Replace every instance of 'Shaun' at the end of FEED with 'George', and you've got your "alternate ending".

I just finished FEED, and saw the link to this on the Goodreads series page. I definitely had an emotional response to the end of FEED. It was gut-wrenching. It was tragic. It was perfect.

But I thought, what the hell? Usually an alternative ending is a happy thing. It's just a little bit of fanservice for those who wanted everything to turn out okay in the end.

This? Not that.

It was very, very weak. I though the narration change from Georgia to Shaun at the end of FEED was, perhaps, a little indistinct. Their voices were definitely different, though maybe not as much as I would have liked them to be. This little snippet, however, reveals just how apparently interchangeable the Mason siblings are.

Spoilers ahead! Only read it you've already skimmed this novella and/or read FEED.

(view spoiler)

I loved the first book, and I'm definitely going to be reading the others. I'm just glad that this is not how the book ended, or I wouldn't even be bothering to continue. This is an incredibly weak excuse of a piece of writing. Switching the names around is not acceptable.

I'm just glad this was free. I'd have flipped if I'd paid for this.(less)

2 likes · like · see review

Jan 21, 2013 Paul Bonamy rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Ok, so, spoilers for basically All The Things here. Because we can't really even talk about where Fed splits off from Feed without spoiling Feed, and I want to be able to talk about things we'd only learn later in the 'real' timeline. You've been warned.

I discovered Fed exists by way of TV Tropes (which, really, is how my life seems to work some days), and set about immediately finding a copy and giving it a read. The very careful foreword notes that the book splits off at the beginning of Chapt...more Ok, so, spoilers for basically All The Things here. Because we can't really even talk about where Fed splits off from Feed without spoiling Feed, and I want to be able to talk about things we'd only learn later in the 'real' timeline. You've been warned.

I discovered Fed exists by way of TV Tropes (which, really, is how my life seems to work some days), and set about immediately finding a copy and giving it a read. The very careful foreword notes that the book splits off at the beginning of Chapter 25, which, for those who have read the book, is the chapter in which Georgia is assassinated. (If you haven't read it, what are you doing here, behind a spoiler tag?) This time around, the dart full of live KA tags Shaun rather than Georgia, and things run from there. Interestingly, Shaun manages to figure out what's happening before they make it to the van, giving him the opportunity to get Rick and George safely into same and then set up shop outside, to fend off the oncoming horde, rather than force George to do him in. I expect the first chapter is from Shaun's POV specifically to allow this to work out properly, and give him a chance to sign off, as it were.

From that point, the story runs basically parallel to the original. Georgia writes up a post revealing what's happened, Steve turns up to rescue her and Rick, and off they go to the end game with Tate. There are a few little hiccups along with way, where perhaps text from Feed wasn't quite edited into the new George-lives-Shaun-dies timeline, but it all hangs together reasonably well, right up to the inevitable dual funeral epilogue.

In terms of emotional impact, the (initial) Death of a Mason doesn't seem to hit as hard here as it does in Feed. It could be that I like George more, but really I think a lot of the power in her death stems from the way it's handled. Watching Georgia and Shaun make the preparations to let her write that last post, reading same as she clearly struggles to keep it together long enough to get the truth out, and then a sudden flash and pain and we're dumped into Shaun's point of view is the sort of emotional wringer that, in the right hands, can be simply incredible and so perfectly human. Shaun gets hit, and it's clear that he's going to amplify any time now, but the van door closes, and that's just it. No descent into zombiehood, no last gasp of humanity calling for an end before it loses itself. Locks flick, and that's the end of Shaun Mason as far as the narrative is concerned. This is, to a large extent, likely justifiable as a way for Georgia to do what needs doing, but still.

Of course, the other major problem with the whole "Shaun got an arm full of live KA" thing is the big reveal (well, the penultimate reveal, at any rate) from Deadline: the dude's immune. The heroic sacrifice is lovely and all, but it's not like he actually would have forced Georgia or Rick into shooting him before he ate them if he'd gotten into the van. There would have been a good deal of hand wringing, probably, and then a lot of deep confusion when he utterly failed to turn into a zombie the way he was supposed to, but that just makes the rabbit hole that much deeper. I suppose there's the potential for reveal along those lines (similar to the "she would have gotten better" whammy) if the series carried forward from Fed rather than Feed, but I've no idea how that would work, short of him somehow making it out of the Center.

Complicating the whole 'if the series carried forward' issue is Georgia's suicide. It's exactly what everyone would have expected from her, and if I recall aright the method of her death is actually speculated on correctly in the later books. Knowing what we do from those books, it's remarkable how well the Conspiracy read George. As Fed shows us, if they'd actually managed to kill Shaun they'd have gotten away with it, no problem, because Georgia decides that Tate's the end of the conspiracy, deals with him, and goes to join Shaun, leaving no one behind with any real motivation to do anything about ferreting out the rest of the story. Heck, somehow Rick even ends up staying on with After the End Times, apparently, so it's not like he could have been on hand to pull the Project Shelley / Georgia II gambit. It's amazing just how lucky that dart hitting George turned out to be, which is not a phrase I would have expected to use of a situation that turned a major character into a haunted house for the next two books.

Getting back to the thought about the power of Georgia's death in Feed, as oppose to her and Shaun dying in Fed, I've one final remark. I knew, in advance, that Georgia was going to die in Feed because that had already been spoiled for me. The glowing recommendation of how it was handled is one of the reasons I picked up Feed in the first place. (Also, I have a soft spot for hero journalists and zombie stories.) Even so, her death was incredibly powerful, and the entire see-death-coming/die/switch-POV-characters thing was handled better than I would have imagined possible. I knew Shaun was a goner from the outset here. How could he not be? It's not like there are that many ways to change the end of Feed without it suddenly becoming rainbows and kittens. And it stood to reason that Georgia would follow close behind him. That was also totally expected, I didn't expect it to phase me, and it didn't. Until I got to the last paragraph of the epilogue:

The Masons did what they knew and loved best, and they died for it. Not before Shaun saved her one last time, not before Georgia found her truth. Maybe that was enough. Maybe this was all over. And maybe it didn't matter, because our story ended with a razorblade and a bathtub full of water, and a girl who never knew how to cry weeping in the only way she knew how. Even if it wasn't over, someone else was going to have to save the world next time.

and suddenly everything that had made George's death the first time so very powerful was there again. It's no longer a simply tally of the bodies: their deaths are human again, and we're seeing the impact on the people closest to them, as we saw with Shaun. And knowing what's to come for the world, after that point, it makes the whole thing that much more poignant. Not only will the team not be put back together, but there may not be anyone else out there to try to save the day.

On the whole, Fed is an interesting little work, though it hold precious few surprises plot-wise. Being lead to think about what makes a death scene so very powerful is an interesting sort of thing, though.(less)

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Dec 02, 2012 Lori Redman rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: series, zombie, dystopia, trilogy, just-plain-awful

I'm beginning to see how the remaining books in this trilogy have more than 4 stars rating even though they are just not that good (or at least, I've only read this- the 1.5, and Book Two)- the people who read the first book and liked it continue to read, and since they liked the first book, they are more likely to enjoy and highly rate the remaining books... even if they are just plain AWFUL.

This is 90% of the last few chapters in Feed, with some slightly different wording. By which I mean, the...more

2 likes · like · see review

Nov 27, 2012 Dani rated it 5 of 5 stars

Well, I thought I didn't like the ending of FEED due to the survivors at the end (I didn't care for the character that survived at the end the first read through but they started to grow on me the second time through) but the ending to this was more final so I understand why Mira Grant (Seanan McGuire) ended the book the way she did. It was interesting the way the alternate ending was, but I have to say I wasn't surprised with how it ended. There were a lot of hints throughout the story of how i...more

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Aug 07, 2012 Laura rated it 2 of 5 stars

This is basically an alternate ending to the novel Feed. I've only just finished Feed so it was still fresh enough in my mind that I could really imagine an alternate scenario.

However, the question remains that did Feed really need an alternate ending? In my opinion the answer is no it did not. The ending to Feed was brilliant and unexpected and everything you could ask for in a good ending. Fed is mostly the same but just switching around what happens to the different characters. (view spoiler)...more

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May 17, 2012 Snail in Danger (Sid) Nicolaides rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction, zombies

This is an alternate ending for Feed. As Grant put it:

This is another way the end of Feed could have gone: it picks up with the events of what would originally have been chapter twenty-five. It is not what happened.

But it could have.

We came very close.

The actual canon ending has more punch. I think I prefer it, from a critical standpoint. But bizarrely, I think I would have preferred the Deadline that would have resulted from this ending. Rick being gloomy and morose until something came along...more

3 likes · like · see review

May 28, 2012 Kat_merle rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 50-book-challenge-2012

Fed
by Mira Grant

Fanfiction for Newsflesh Trilogy

Can I really call it FANfiction when it was written by the author herself? I remember shortly after Feed was published Mira Grant saying she wanted to write an alternative ending to feed where one key detail changed and how the story would have ended. With the final installment of the trilogy coming out Grant allowed herself that chance and posted it to Facebook as a teaser for Blackout. I of course devoured the story and then was amused when it wa...more

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Aug 12, 2012 Clementine rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012

Blah blah blah I had to do it. It's only about 50 pages, so I read it in one sitting (and on my computer, no less), because I can't get enough of these books.

It... kind of disappointed me. And I'm torn. Because the text is essentially the same, just swapping out Shaun for Georgia. Their reactions are identical. And part of me is like, "Uh, that's a copout, and it's boring," and part of me is like, "Well, that's cool, it shows how alike Shaun and Georgia really are."

It was definitely cool to see...more

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Jun 07, 2012 Maria rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: dystopia

I recommend Fed.

*****

You would've thought that there is an alternate ending because Mira Grant wanted you to have a not-so-earth-shattering ending compared to the real ending of Feed. Goodness, think again. Mira writes to torture us Newsflesh fanatics. Torture, i tell you! :)

I still liked the ending of Feed after I read Fed. I mean, if i have to choose heartbreak (Fed) over the previous bigger heartbreak (Feed), i'd choose Feed's heartbreak. I say, why not go for the bigger kill eh, Mira Grant?...more

5 likes · like · see review

Mar 03, 2013 Raya rated it 5 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Apr 06, 2013 Lara rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: zombies-zombies-and-brains, journalism-and-reporting-thrillers

I prefer the original ending to FEED - not this alternate version. I felt more emotionally attached in the original than this; something about (view spoiler) doesn't really pack that emotional punch you know? Having (view spoiler) allowed me to relate more to the situation than in this version when (view spoiler)...more

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Jul 03, 2012 Keith Chawgo rated it 5 of 5 stars

What would happen if you could go back and change the outcome by changing a few small details - what would happen. This is what Mira Grant did with the book Fed. She changed a few details from Feed and gave it an alternative ending using the butterfly effect.

This is an interesting experiment and as for a read, it is merely for the fans of the well received 'Feed'.

I found this to be a good read and it opened up alot of what if questions.

If you looking for an upbeat rosy coloured ending to the...more

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May 28, 2013 Elaine Wong rated it 2 of 5 stars

In Blackout Shaun realizes that the conspiracy had the wrong person. What if they had gotten it right?

What you'll get: a rehash of the last few chapters and a reason why this wasn't the 'true' ending.

Thank goodness this is free. An alternative take to the last chapters of Feed, if someone had moved just a few inches closer (or further), but it's really a retelling with different characters saying similar things. I'm unhappy with how...unoriginal it feels: I started skimming midway through the bo...more

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Jun 27, 2012 Courtney rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 3-stars, fiction, sci-fi, series, short-story, survival, zombies

I'm actually a lot more disappointed by this version than what the reviews seemed to make it sound like. The ending of Feed is what made the book for me, and this ending just didn't cut it. It seemed a little too short and rushed. Yeah it was sad, maybe a little more sad than Feed even, but Shaun mourning George in Feed seemed more thought out. George just took the easy way out, whereas Shaun actually made an effort to live on and help the people he would have left behind. George acts so strong,...more

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Jul 14, 2012 Wigs rated it 1 of 5 stars

Um.

Okay first of all this recycles a lot of text from Feed, which shows me that whether George or Shaun is talking, she doesn't really care to have it written that differently. And what is changed from the original book, is a lot less powerful or meaningful. Why was this written? This was basically here to entertain an idea brought up from Blackout, but in no way does it carry any sort of the same emotion. The end is just wah-wah-wah. Pointless. At least it's just a free little online thing. Whi...more

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May 10, 2013 Kerry rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror, waiting-for-the-second-death, ebook

I absolutely LOVED the ending of Feed, so this alternative ending had a lot to live up to. It didn't quite do it for me mainly because: (view spoiler)...more

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May 31, 2012 Elena rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror, sci-fi, adult

This alternate ending to Feed fell far short of the original. There's a reason the ending to Feed is the way it is, and it's because this one was pretty unsatisfying. While this version is technically a worst case scenario, it didn't have the same gut-wrenching emotional charge that the real ending provided. (view spoiler)...more

1 like · like · see review

Jul 15, 2012 Wicked ♥ (Wickedly Bookish Reviews) aka Bat-Jess rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, apocolypse, horror, kindle-nook-freebie, short-stories, summer-reads, thriller, zombies, dystopia

Fed is an alternate ending to Feed. A What If scenario if you will, that you should not read unless you have already completed Feed

For those of you looking for a spoiler free review, I will say this. Fed is an almost complete regurgitation of the last few chapters of Feed, that exchanges thoughts and dialogue between characters as if they were interchangeable plot mechanisms rather than unique characters. Many passages are word for word what they were in the original regardless of whose point of...more Fed is an alternate ending to Feed. A What If scenario if you will, that you should not read unless you have already completed Feed

For those of you looking for a spoiler free review, I will say this. Fed is an almost complete regurgitation of the last few chapters of Feed, that exchanges thoughts and dialogue between characters as if they were interchangeable plot mechanisms rather than unique characters. Many passages are word for word what they were in the original regardless of whose point of view it was in to begin with. I felt cheated by this and didn't understand the point of writing an alternate ending if the author wasn't going to give us an alternate experience. Rather than seeing the ending as an entirely new possibility, we saw the same ending through a different set of eyes, with the exact same sentences, descriptors, and dialogue.

Not to mention, the part that was actually alternate to the original events is skimmed over so completely that I was left feeling more ambivalent than the intended devastation.

If this is how the story had actually ended, I would have been completely put off of this series. To be honest, I don't think this series would have continued period, if it had ended this way. It is jarring, unnecessary, and has absolutely no correlation to the events in the following two books. Things revealed to be true in Deadline and Blackout are completely disregarded. And while yes, these plot twists aren't introduced until after the events of this short, they still existed during regardless of whether the reader and the characters were aware or not. The following example is a spoiler from book 2 and this short so please do not read it if you haven't finished both yet. (view spoiler)

Fed is a weak, and utterly uninspiring rendering of a story that was absolutely perfect just the way it was. And while I love the Newsflesh Trilogy, I can't give this sad little short a five-star rating based on the merits of its predecessors.

This was a story that didn't need to be told.(less)

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May 07, 2013 Frances rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 20-minutes-into-the-future, ebook, horror, owned, zombies

(Found mention of this while I was putting up my review of Blackout, and dug up a copy here, since the Facebook link doesn't seem to want to work.)

A fast read, and not a bad one, but it felt a bit like the old Marvel What If...?s where alternate possibilities always ended up being worse than the way the stories actually turned out. Still, solid and plausible, and chilling for what was nearly unrevealed.

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May 25, 2012 Sam rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Fans of "Feed"

Shelves: ebooks, read-in-2012, reviewed, zombies, short-stories

This is the alternative ending to Feed. And i'm so glad it didn't end like this!! First off, i don't know how Deadline would have worked with this and secondly, it was a lot sadder than the actual ending! And the original ending was sad enough!! But it was still interesting to read what would have happened if the things from chapter 25 onwards happened differently. A must read for fans of "Feed".

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Aug 15, 2012 Ceridwen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: america-and-environs, cats-and-dogs, daddy-drinks-because-you-cry, pulp, omg-were-all-going-to-die, sci-fi, short-shories, zombies, reviewed

An alternate ending for Feed which is probably unnecessary, but also pretty fun. After I read all the Newsflesh books, I was in a serious jones for more of the world, despite some troubles with said world. I certainly appreciate a kind of non-canon take on events and characters, working out what happens and to whom. Zombie stories, at best, can be about the essential randomness of who lives and dies, and this is a nice blind alley about that. We're all up against the blind alley of mortality.

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May 28, 2013 Pamela rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: book-club-io9-book-club

This is an alternative ending to Feed. I must admit that I prefer the ending in Feed to this one. Although I can see how this ending makes sense considering the characters, (view spoiler)

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May 12, 2013 Eric rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror, extras-alternate-endings-other-what, older-ya-vibe, i-should-be-sleeping-really-i-shoul, zombies, young-adult-fiction, this-is-how-the-world-ends, multiple-povs, scifi, dystopia, thriller

People need to calm down. Yes Feed was perfect, do you want to know why - because this take had to be "cut" for the one presented in the book to happen. Also what is with all this copy and paste bullshit. Wake up people it is an alternate ending, it is something that *could have happened* it doesn't need to be entirely fleshed out. We already know what happens in the already canon and published version. We get new blog posts, new POVs, and a new way for the Masons to end it.

I can't fault how peo...more

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Oct 01, 2012 Jeann rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: zombies

Ugh, honestly I could have done without this. Feed was depressing enough, this one just hits it home. The ending of Feed was shocking enough, and I read the alternate ending in hopes of a better resolution. I don't mean to disappoint, but that's not what you get in this one. It's an even worse conclusion, and probably 80% of it is recycled from the ending of Feed with most things the same.

Also it was incredibly disappointing that (view spoiler)...more

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May 23, 2012 Tina rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, ebooks, sci-fi

If you haven't read Feed yet, don't even try opening this. Read it first, digest it, and then come back for this when you're ready enough to do so.

Well if you think having your heart broken from Feed wasn't enough, try this alternate ending. I never thought it could happen this way, but when you think about it, this seemed like the way it could and would happen.

Of course, if you've read Deadline, questions will pop up about how this ending happened. But that doesn't make this less heart breakin...more

4 likes · like · see review

May 22, 2012 Nikki rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: dystopia, short-stories

An alternate ending to Feed. This doesn't have the same punch as the original, but it was a nice look at how minor changes can really effect the overall story.

Knowing how Deadline ends, I wonder if we still couldn't get to the same or similar events that might occur in book 3 if Grant had originally used this alternate story.

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About Mira Grant

Born and raised in Northern California, Mira Grant has made a lifelong study of horror movies, horrible viruses, and the inevitable threat of the living dead. In college, she was voted Most Likely to Summon Something Horrible in the Cornfield, and was a founding member of the Horror Movie Sleep-Away Survival Camp, where her record for time survived in the Swamp Cannibals scenario remains unchallen...more

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