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Feed
Fourteen-year-old friends Lola and Patrick are in desperate trouble - along with everybody else. Monstrous enemy invaders have increased their human raids. Those taken face a terrible fate: like animals they will be transported, processed and eaten in a food chain like no other - unless Lola and Patrick can find a way to save them.
272 pages, Paperback
First published January 2, 2014
3 people are currently reading
37 people want to read
About the author
M.J. Howes
4 books2 followersM. J. Howes grew up by the sea in Norfolk. She now lives in a village near Loughborough with her husband and two children (no aliens) and works as a lunchtime supervisor at a primary school. She came up with the idea for FEED while on playground duty.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
March 26, 2016
A fast-paced book for upper primary. Not an amazing work of literature but it will definitely appeal to some of my students.
October 15, 2018
Feed begins with 14-year-old Lola hanging around an abandoned playpark with her best friend Patrick. It's after school, but there are no assignments for these teens, as the world around them is slowly falling apart, as three years ago, an alien race had invaded Earth, taking humans in. Nobody knows whether these humans survive or not, but most assume they're dead once they float up.
The two friends hear from a distance a piercing sound. A siren that is telling them to go home, as the aliens are there to raid their town once more. Lola runs with her dog Musket to their house, but as soon as they get home, Lola's mother tells them her husband is out looking for her. Lola runs towards the school, hoping to see her dad there. However, before she could get any closer, she sees a looming shadow rise from behind the building, her father getting sucked in it.
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Out of all of the books I have read from the Big Bad Wolf Book Sale, this is the most straightforward story. It does not mean it suffers because of its simplicity, though. An alien invasion for food supplies is simple and easy to understand, allowing younger readers to follow along more easily, granted they like horror stories. Simple concepts do not mean low depth, either, as the story can go in different directions that may seem unexpected.
Lola, at first, does not seem like your typical Strong-Female-Young-Adult-Protagonist™, as she is at first scared and alone in this terrifying world she lives in. She does not want to face her fears, but she tries hard at times to see the positive in everything. That happiness fades pretty quickly the more the story progresses, but she keeps the determination she had to save the ones she loves until the end. She is a great role model to the audience this book is directed towards, showing that sometimes, hard decisions have to be made, and these decisions can change who you are, whether one wants to or not.
Despite the excellent prose of the author, at times, there are a few spelling mistakes, breaking away from the immersion at times. They are mostly in the first chapters, but they do detract from the experience at times.
Overall, Feed is a great horror story, showing that not every horror novel has to be deep and complex to get a good scare out of anybody. A relatable protagonist, along with other great supporting characters, creates a great experience for the youth to enjoy.
Feed gets 9 yellow bowls out of 10.
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"No, tomorrow will come, so will the workers and so will my suffering. ... Tomorrow I have to grow up."
- Lola, Feed
The two friends hear from a distance a piercing sound. A siren that is telling them to go home, as the aliens are there to raid their town once more. Lola runs with her dog Musket to their house, but as soon as they get home, Lola's mother tells them her husband is out looking for her. Lola runs towards the school, hoping to see her dad there. However, before she could get any closer, she sees a looming shadow rise from behind the building, her father getting sucked in it.
▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄
Out of all of the books I have read from the Big Bad Wolf Book Sale, this is the most straightforward story. It does not mean it suffers because of its simplicity, though. An alien invasion for food supplies is simple and easy to understand, allowing younger readers to follow along more easily, granted they like horror stories. Simple concepts do not mean low depth, either, as the story can go in different directions that may seem unexpected.
Lola, at first, does not seem like your typical Strong-Female-Young-Adult-Protagonist™, as she is at first scared and alone in this terrifying world she lives in. She does not want to face her fears, but she tries hard at times to see the positive in everything. That happiness fades pretty quickly the more the story progresses, but she keeps the determination she had to save the ones she loves until the end. She is a great role model to the audience this book is directed towards, showing that sometimes, hard decisions have to be made, and these decisions can change who you are, whether one wants to or not.
Despite the excellent prose of the author, at times, there are a few spelling mistakes, breaking away from the immersion at times. They are mostly in the first chapters, but they do detract from the experience at times.
Overall, Feed is a great horror story, showing that not every horror novel has to be deep and complex to get a good scare out of anybody. A relatable protagonist, along with other great supporting characters, creates a great experience for the youth to enjoy.
Feed gets 9 yellow bowls out of 10.
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"No, tomorrow will come, so will the workers and so will my suffering. ... Tomorrow I have to grow up."
- Lola, Feed
June 26, 2014
Book Review will be posted on my blog first.... http://www.mrripleysenchantedbooks.com/
I have been looking forward to reading this book for quite a while now. The question has to be . . . . . has the wait been worth it? Well, the black glossy book cover certainly sets up a great feel before you even open up the book - Steve Wells is the illustrator responsible for this. The large, red, reptilian eye stares into the soul of the reader asking the question are sure you want to find out what's going on? Almost like a dare.....
As a big fan of the horror genre, I have to say that this is one tasty morsel of literature. It is probably one of the best that I've read for a while. I certainly found myself lapping up the words like a well seasoned corpse - just like one or two lurking throughout this book. The story reads like an express train (the pages are consumed at a rapid pace) with the story hurtling towards a chilling conclusion. The story is one of survival, not just for fourteen-year old Lola and her friend Patrick, but for the world as it has been invaded by a monstrous enemy. The 'human raids' are surreal but very engaging as those that are taken face a terrible fate. THEY WILL EAT US......
The unfortunate victims are transported, processed and put into human cages for amusement and eaten in a food chain like no other. Unless, against all odds, Lola and Patrick can find a way to save the world, then they too could face this terrible fate.
This is a great slice of Action Horror for the 10+ audience. It has a very strong and well written female character that will be loved by both boys and girls. It is a powerful and engaging story that will capture your fantasy appetite; layered with gripping suspense and speculation that will keep you on your toes. Aliens, monsters and gore are in abundance throughout this book. The memorable and intelligent plot sits very comfortably alongside the other big names also writing in this genre.
This is a great debut voice that has been chosen to be published by Chicken House. It is already available to purchase - I dare you to pick it up and read it. This is a highly recommended read for anyone with a large reading appetite.
I have been looking forward to reading this book for quite a while now. The question has to be . . . . . has the wait been worth it? Well, the black glossy book cover certainly sets up a great feel before you even open up the book - Steve Wells is the illustrator responsible for this. The large, red, reptilian eye stares into the soul of the reader asking the question are sure you want to find out what's going on? Almost like a dare.....
As a big fan of the horror genre, I have to say that this is one tasty morsel of literature. It is probably one of the best that I've read for a while. I certainly found myself lapping up the words like a well seasoned corpse - just like one or two lurking throughout this book. The story reads like an express train (the pages are consumed at a rapid pace) with the story hurtling towards a chilling conclusion. The story is one of survival, not just for fourteen-year old Lola and her friend Patrick, but for the world as it has been invaded by a monstrous enemy. The 'human raids' are surreal but very engaging as those that are taken face a terrible fate. THEY WILL EAT US......
The unfortunate victims are transported, processed and put into human cages for amusement and eaten in a food chain like no other. Unless, against all odds, Lola and Patrick can find a way to save the world, then they too could face this terrible fate.
This is a great slice of Action Horror for the 10+ audience. It has a very strong and well written female character that will be loved by both boys and girls. It is a powerful and engaging story that will capture your fantasy appetite; layered with gripping suspense and speculation that will keep you on your toes. Aliens, monsters and gore are in abundance throughout this book. The memorable and intelligent plot sits very comfortably alongside the other big names also writing in this genre.
This is a great debut voice that has been chosen to be published by Chicken House. It is already available to purchase - I dare you to pick it up and read it. This is a highly recommended read for anyone with a large reading appetite.
April 21, 2014
Lola and Patrick are best friends and hang out together trying to forget for a while what is happening around them. They live in a time of invasion – alien invasion. The ground shakes and hovering machines tear buildings, homes and businesses apart, sometimes sucking up the inhabitants.
When Lola is with Patrick instead of going home after school, her father goes looking for her. He is taken by the machines and Lola can’t forgive herself. After her dad’s workshop is damaged by an attack, she sorts through his papers and she and Patrick read about what he was working on. He has designed some pills that when taken, explode – taking out the ships and everything around them. She finds two of the pills and plans to be taken herself. She needs to find her dad and if not, try to kill as many of the creatures as she can. But what she finds inside the ships is more shocking than she ever dreamed of.
A bit sci-fi, a bit horror, tons of action and and a bit love-story. Great!
When Lola is with Patrick instead of going home after school, her father goes looking for her. He is taken by the machines and Lola can’t forgive herself. After her dad’s workshop is damaged by an attack, she sorts through his papers and she and Patrick read about what he was working on. He has designed some pills that when taken, explode – taking out the ships and everything around them. She finds two of the pills and plans to be taken herself. She needs to find her dad and if not, try to kill as many of the creatures as she can. But what she finds inside the ships is more shocking than she ever dreamed of.
A bit sci-fi, a bit horror, tons of action and and a bit love-story. Great!
June 19, 2019
Amazing
March 7, 2021
Super interesting and quite unique! Loved the plotline and is now my favourite book! Super underrated - I literally just made an GoodReads account to rate this because it's that good!
April 19, 2014
As soon as I heard what Feed was about, I knew I had to read it! Maybe that's slightly morbid of me since it's about man eating aliens but that's just how I roll! I love anything with aliens in to be honest so it's always an instant pull for me when a book has them in but this one also sounded fun and I was interested to see how people cope when they find they're no longer top of the food chain. Personally I thought the author handled the storyline brilliantly, its for younger readers so there isn't much gore, not that I don't love gore! But anyone with a weak stomach should be able to read it and you don't have to worry about your kids having nightmares.
But beyond the story, it also makes you think. Lola is pretty indignant when she finds herself in a cage and discovers everyone is separated by age and size, how the aliens fatten people up before eating them, but isn't that exactly what we do to animals? Fatten up chickens for juicy breast meat and eat younger animals because their meat is more tender than an adult. So why does it seem such a shock when it happens to humans? When a far more intelligent species decides we're the tastiest thing on planet Earth why are we so horrified? We can argue that its because we're sentient beings, we're smart right? But compared to the Arlatans' intellect we're about as stupid to them as a cow is to us.
All these and more are things that came to mind when I was reading this book and while those points aren't at the forefront of the story, they're things that go by Lola's mind too but I was glad she didn't give up like some others and was constantly fighting back, trying to find her friends and trying to escape, these things made her an admirable character and I liked her a lot, she showed why humans are different, because we fight back, we're resilient as a race because we have that survival instinct.
It really was a great book, with a well written story, characters you wish were your friends and the ability to really make you think.
But beyond the story, it also makes you think. Lola is pretty indignant when she finds herself in a cage and discovers everyone is separated by age and size, how the aliens fatten people up before eating them, but isn't that exactly what we do to animals? Fatten up chickens for juicy breast meat and eat younger animals because their meat is more tender than an adult. So why does it seem such a shock when it happens to humans? When a far more intelligent species decides we're the tastiest thing on planet Earth why are we so horrified? We can argue that its because we're sentient beings, we're smart right? But compared to the Arlatans' intellect we're about as stupid to them as a cow is to us.
All these and more are things that came to mind when I was reading this book and while those points aren't at the forefront of the story, they're things that go by Lola's mind too but I was glad she didn't give up like some others and was constantly fighting back, trying to find her friends and trying to escape, these things made her an admirable character and I liked her a lot, she showed why humans are different, because we fight back, we're resilient as a race because we have that survival instinct.
It really was a great book, with a well written story, characters you wish were your friends and the ability to really make you think.
January 11, 2014
If you like your monsters with a Darren Shan-esque blend of intelligence and gore (intelligore?), and you like your openings intense and mysterious, then FEED by MJ Howes is the book for you. The intriguing premise will grab your attention, and the antics of the gutsy heroine, Lola, and her super-brain sidekick, Patrick, will keep you gripped until the very end.
MJ Howes knows how to tell a good story. The early chapters are layered with suspense, and speculation gradually evolves into horror in a claustrophobic chase through darkness and desperation. The pace is frenetic, with no words wasted, and at times things can seem a little rushed but, arguably, that’s representative of the environment in which Lola and her friends are trapped.
The author doesn’t shy away from showing captives being brutally savaged by aliens, but she also takes the time to develop relationships between characters, which give the book its heart. Perhaps it could be argued that the main characters are too good to be true, with Lola attracting both humans and aliens despite being unwashed and half-starved, and Patrick outsmarting highly-evolved, supremely intelligent aliens, but you’re so busy wondering what’s going to happen next that it doesn’t matter.
I don’t want to give too much away about the plot, which is well thought out and ultimately satisfying, but there are several levels on which this book can be read. It’s a spine-chilling thriller, but it is also an interesting exploration of our conviction we can treat Earth’s other inhabitants however we please, as long as our own needs are met. As one character asks:
“Do we ask a herd of deer their permission before we hunt them? No, we just do it. We see them as food, and that’s how Arlatans see us”
Undeniably gory and the stuff nightmares are made of, FEED is also an original and thought-provoking tale of human relationships, both with each other and across species, which keeps you wondering until the very end.
MJ Howes knows how to tell a good story. The early chapters are layered with suspense, and speculation gradually evolves into horror in a claustrophobic chase through darkness and desperation. The pace is frenetic, with no words wasted, and at times things can seem a little rushed but, arguably, that’s representative of the environment in which Lola and her friends are trapped.
The author doesn’t shy away from showing captives being brutally savaged by aliens, but she also takes the time to develop relationships between characters, which give the book its heart. Perhaps it could be argued that the main characters are too good to be true, with Lola attracting both humans and aliens despite being unwashed and half-starved, and Patrick outsmarting highly-evolved, supremely intelligent aliens, but you’re so busy wondering what’s going to happen next that it doesn’t matter.
I don’t want to give too much away about the plot, which is well thought out and ultimately satisfying, but there are several levels on which this book can be read. It’s a spine-chilling thriller, but it is also an interesting exploration of our conviction we can treat Earth’s other inhabitants however we please, as long as our own needs are met. As one character asks:
“Do we ask a herd of deer their permission before we hunt them? No, we just do it. We see them as food, and that’s how Arlatans see us”
Undeniably gory and the stuff nightmares are made of, FEED is also an original and thought-provoking tale of human relationships, both with each other and across species, which keeps you wondering until the very end.
June 30, 2023
7/10, this was an underwhelming novel, yet I still enjoyed this one despite its quality. The concept wasn’t that original since I’ve read books involving aliens before, but the book tried to be original by changing the aliens to not kill people but to rather eat them. The story itself is quite basic due to its writing style and if it wasn’t for the gruesome scenes this would have been a middle grade science fiction novel and not a young adult one. At the start of the story the aliens captured the main character, Lola, and sent her into a prison ship to wait for someone but suddenly there was a compassionate alien whose name I forgot who came out of nowhere to help her escape and free the humans. Then more aliens who couldn’t even speak English and looked like big slugs sent Lola away to a mothership with an arena where people fight to the death and strangely the aliens try to suck their blood and the ending felt a bit contrived since the aliens flew away when a character called Patrick activated a secret exploding pill and blew up one of the aliens’ ships so I felt a bit confused because that part of the world building wasn’t fully explored. If you like an obscure yet not so original novel that is quick to read this one is for you but if you want a better science fiction novel try 1984 by George Orwell instead of this.
November 9, 2016
this book is a great book to read, i loved reading this book in the morning before caching my bus. i really felt like i was in this book because everything had so much detail. i really connected to all of the characters. this book does have a bit of murder but its not to gory so it wont give you any night mares. it is a great book witch always keeps you at the end of your feet and making you want to read more. it would be a really good book to read as a group and talk to people about. but other all this is the most amazing book i have ever read in my whole life. so i really do think you should go buy yourself a copy.
July 3, 2022
I loved the ideas in this book. I thought they were really unique. But it was poorly written . A better writer could have made this an amazing story.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews