Everything seems normal until, one Sunday, civilization turns to ruins. Adults have become murderously insane, infected with an uncontrollable urge to kill the young, even their own children. This is the way the world ends.
THE HELLNOTES BOOK REVIEW
Garrett Peck
Readers will relish Clark's uncomplicated cocktail of chlorophyll and human blood (
Financial Times on The Night of the Triffids)
A master of eerie thrills (
Richard Laymon)
Blood Crazy was the first Simon Clark novel I ever read. I picked up a copy of the British paperback at WHC '99 and read it cover to cover on the bus ride home. I became an instant fan right then and there. Now, with its release from Leisure and an assignment to review it here, I had the opportunity to read it again. Did it hold up to a second reading? You bet. If anything, I liked it even better the second time around.
The hottest new purveyor of horrific thrills currently working on these shores (
The Big Issue)
In a nutshell, one day all the adults in the world go crazy and start slaughtering everyone under the age of twenty. Parents in particular are driven wild by the desire to rid the world of their offspring. Youths and children band together to form communities and protect themselves from the murderous "Creosotes."
The book is told first person from the point of view of Nick Aten (rhymes with "Satan"), a good-natured lad who does his best to protect others. As the story progresses, others begin to cast him as a Messiah-like figure, a role he eschews even as his actions reinforce the notion.
At first it seems the sudden rash of infanticide is merely a "McGuffin" to get the plot rolling. The action moves along so quickly you don't think you're going to get an explanation, but you're having too much fun to care. Clark isn't one to cheat, however. He does provide an explanation and it's not at all what you would expect. Even better, its not there just for the sake of having an explanation, but lends deeper meaning to the events of the plot.
Blood Crazy is the spiritual child of many influences, both literary and cinematic. One can't help but be reminded of such films as George Romero's The Crazies and Night of the Living Dead. Nor can one ignore such obvious influences as Lord of the Flies, James Herbert's The Fog and The Dark, and George Orwell's Animal Farm. (Indeed, one of the hard working lads in the main youth community is named Boxer, like the horse that is betrayed in Orwell's allegory. He shares the same fate when fascist bullies overtake the community.) In one striking sequence, the Creosotes link bodies to form a flesh bridge that brings to mind Clive Barker's "In the Hills, In the Cities." Though his influences are on the surface, Clark blends these elements in his own unique way.
Clark has a penchant for apocalyptic scenarios and siege mentality. This is one of his earlier treatments of themes he would later revisit. In Blood Crazy he has produced one of the most satisfying horror novels to come out of Britain. If you don't thoroughly enjoy this one, I fear there's no hope for you.
