The Brain Eaters

by Gary Brandner

An epidemic of shocking violence sweeps across America as a series of seemingly unrelated atrocities lead reporter Corey Macklin and researcher Dena Faulkner on the trail of the Brain Eaters

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Zombies

278 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Gary Phil Brandner (May 31, 1930 – September 22, 2013) was an American horror author best known for his werewolf themed trilogy of novels, The Howling. The first book in the series was loosely adapted as a motion picture in 1981. Brandner's second and third Howling novels, published in 1979 and 1985 respectively, have no connection to the film series, though he was involved in writing the screenplay for the second Howling film, Howling II: Your Sister Is a Werewolf. The fourth film in the Howling series, Howling IV: The Original Nightmare, is actually the closest adaptation of Brandner's original novel, though this too varies to some degree.

Brandner's novel Walkers was adapted and filmed for television as From The Dead Of Night. He also wrote the screenplay for the 1988 horror film Cameron's Closet.

Born in the Midwest and much traveled during his formative years, Brandner published more than 30 novels, over 100 short stories, and also wrote a handful of screenplays. He attended college at the University of Washington where he was a member of Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity. After graduating in 1955, he worked as an amateur boxer, bartender, surveyor, loan company investigator, advertising copywriter, and technical writer before turning to fiction writing. Brandner lived with his wife, Martine Wood Brandner, and several cats in Reno, Nevada.

He died of esophageal cancer in 2013.

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

No, it's not about covid but about brain eaters this time. A wrong pesticide is sprayed out and soon people turn berserk. Will there be a cure against this brain eating parasite (great idea)? What about the Russians (the book actually is from the 80s)? How are they involved into the threat against the USA? Will there be a cure against this man made disease? Can Corey Macklin (the reporter) rescue his girlfriend Dana (she works at the factory that produced that biological weapon)? The novel started strong but soon turned into a cliche east against west thriller like so many books of the 80s. Had its moments but overall a bit too typical and way too transparent for me. The author should have put more emphasis on horror. The cover is great and it's a quick read too. On behalf of horror and surprising twists a bit below average. But I will continue with some more Brandner...

[Cameron Chaney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to Sean Duregger, the narrator of the audiobook, for sending me a download in exchange for an honest review! Full video review to come...

It's late at night (or early in the morning depending on how you look at it) and you can't sleep, so you're scrolling through Amazon Video for a scary movie to sink your teeth into. That's when you see it: some '80s horror film you've never heard of. It's 2 AM and the movie is free. Why not? So you press play. Eighty minutes later, the credits are rolling and you’re asking yourself the same question you asked yourself the last time you chose a random '80s horror film on Amazon Video: "What did I just watch?" You're sleep-deprived so you're having trouble remembering. That, and the movie has literally caused your brain to melt and dribble out your ears and into your midnight snack, so that might have something to do with your memory loss as well. There was something about a scientist with a Russian accent. . .and then there was some generic reporter hunting down a big story that will finally launch his career. . . Also, a female scientist who was actually really pretty for being so smart and all, and. . . ah yes! Zombie-like people with melting faces! There was probably more to the movie, but in the morning it'll all seem like some bizarre dream which is probably the desired effect anyhow.

If you have ever found yourself in that situation, congratulations! You are a horror fan that will watch literally anything. I know I have been in that exact situation dozens of times and I have zero regrets about it. I also have zero regrets about listening to the audiobook of The Brain Eaters by Gary Brandner, whose formula is exactly what you would find in one of those Amazon bargain bin B-movies, from the Russian scientists to the melting people.

Like those cheesy 80s horror flicks, there is a lot in The Brain Eaters to keep you entertained; hammy dialogue, over-the-top characters, graphic gore and violence, a highly contagious parasitic virus that turns people into angry monsters with bad acne, and the mass hysteria that stems from said virus. . . which is all too timely. On the other hand, there are a couple other pulpy tropes that plague The Brain Eaters for the worst, such as dry monologues and long explanations of the “science” behind the virus. These scenes do lend some charm to the book, however, as it is hard for a story like this to exist without them.

The only thing more enjoyable than reading The Brain Eaters is listening to the audiobook, narrated by Sean Duregger. Sean is just such a nice guy, and you can hear that in his voice. This can sometimes hurt a horror audiobook, but The Brain Eaters isn’t all that scary or meant to be taken seriously. Therefore, Sean’s gleeful energy only serves to enhance the craziness of the story. He is also a pro at acting out the characters and can do a mean Russian accent. Just such a fun time!

Overall, I recommend The Brain Eaters if you are a fan of vintage horror books or if you read Brandner’s classic The Howling and want to read more of his work. This is a bonkers one, and the audiobook is also top notch!

A solid 3.5 stars.

[Scott Rhee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Grady Hendrix needs to reprint this in his Paperbacks From Hell collection...

This book scared the crap out of me when I read it in middle school. (I think I was in sixth or seventh grade.) And before you go and make disparaging remarks about the laxity of parental supervision in my book purchases, it wasn't my parent's fault, I swear. Books like this (which I paid for with my own money---a $5 allowance, and, yes, there was a time when you could actually buy a paperback for under $5) sometimes slipped under their radar. I was reading Stephen King by the time I was ten years old, so I pretty much had a well-developed taste for horror long before my teen years. Gary Brandner, best known for his novel "The Howling" (which was made into a fantastic film by director Joe Dante and starring E.T.'s mom, Dee Wallace), wrote "The Brain Eaters", a terrific little gem, full of gratuitous gore and violence, about little microbial bacteria with teeth that slowly ate one's brains, turning their victims into homicidal killers until eventually dropping dead. I'm pretty sure this is the book that scarred me for life and has made me a total germaphobe. I honestly don't remember anything else about the plot or anything, just that it made me want to wash my hands, climb under the bedcovers, and think happy thoughts...

[Wayne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every time I read a book by Gary Brandner, I always think how, at least to me, underrated he was. I wish I would of read him back in the days instead of some others that were way to overrated. He knew how to move things along and keep the tension on high. From werewolves to a brain eating virus, it's always a good time.

The story for this book could sound like it was about current events now, but in 1985, and if I'm understanding right, the author used the cold war and the then pretty new AIDS epidemic to draw inspiration from. Parasites worm their way into your brain and you go crazy. Homicidally so. Who created this killer and who can stop it. You'll want to know once you start reading.

[Leo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was exactly the creepy gory horror I was in the mood for, to many sweet and normal story for a while. Needed some good old horror and got it in this. Eager to read more by Gary Bradner soon

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

With that title, you should know what to expect. First published in the 80's I read the book in 2014.

I loved it! It took me back to that time period. It is a fast paced gory horror. It is not ground breaking or complex but it is a fun read.

Now looking forward to reading the classic Gary Brandner book, The Howling.

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't expect a lot of subtlety from a book called THE BRAIN EATERS, but author Gary Brandner's plot is rather more literary than I thought it would be. This story of a bizarre health crisis that gradually turns thousands of normal people into maniacal killers is given a feasible backstory and developed with a great deal of veracity, as are the reactions of the American government and the general public as it slowly dawns on them that this unimaginable plague is the real thing and not just a hoax or a case of mass hysteria. Brandner populates his novel with a cast of flesh-and-blood characters that is easy to identify with, and while our main character, a cynical and kind of boorish reporter for a second-rate newspaper in Milwaukee, isn't the most likable of protagonists, he does evolve somewhat as the story progresses. The other characters, including Corey's rather more sympathetic scientist girlfriend, government bureaucrats, secret agents both American and Russian, and crusading hippies, are almost uniformly developed as real human beings with believable motivations and feelings. This means it really counts when one of them dies--and in this tale of a national health crisis caused by brain-eating parasites, a lot of folks do indeed die. Brandner's narrative is lean and focused and races to an exciting conclusion. Will humanity survive, or will everyone succumb to the Brain Eaters? Read the book and find out!

[Nc Hegarty · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Brain Eaters, you say? Okay, so the first half of this book I really enjoyed, it was pulpy and trashy with a struggling reporter trying to break the story about the threat of The Brain Eaters. There was chain smoking, boozing and the struggle of writing.

The second half turned into, "this is so obvious it was written during the cold war", shenanigans with the US vs Russia head to head in a battle over what is to be done with the Brain Eaters threat.

There is one particular part where you get to see what a Russian thinks at a U.S. Airport that is so fucking insanely stupid and misguided it has to be read to be believed. Throw in some good old fashioned 80's sexism and parts of this are just laughable.

It also ends completely abruptly out of nowhere, so yeah a mixed bag. This is only a 2.5 star book, but no half-stars on Goodreads.

[Ryan Pascall · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a strange book for me because of 2 reasons. First, a probably foremost, is that I am listening to a story about what appears to be a killer flu and I'm sure the power of this fact isn't lost on anyone.
The second point is that I rarely read all the blurb on books, as often they give more away than I'd like, and so I came into this story expecting something totally different than what I got and for that I am thankful (as I had expected a hokey zombie novel).
As for the story itself, I really enjoyed it!

I felt at times that this story would work excellently as a 50s sci-fi novel such as The Magnetic Monster as it carried a charmingly innocent feel of that era coupled with some truly horrific and tragic acts of violence.This isn't to say the book is some gore-fest, far from it. I found the whole story very clinical and straight which added to that timeless feel and yet it wasn't until the 'credits' at the end that I realised the book was written 35 years ago!

The narration meanwhile was exactly what I would expect from Sean Duregger as the man has the excellent ability to give a real sense of identity to each character and make them recognisable from scene to scene. Equally, while in some other narrations he has felt very relaxed and flippant, here there was a real sense of drama and gravitas that really worked to drive home the tragedy that was unfolding.

All in all we have a great story that, while quite limited in scope, has a real sense of threat but I would recommend against listing to it during our current Corvid-19 pandemic as it doesn't help to alleviate any worries.

[Joseph Spuckler · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Brain Eaters is one the many follow-ups after The Howling Trilogy by Gary Brandner. I read The Howling in sixth grade and it proved to be well beyond the appropriate level of a twelve-year-old. A friend made a post the other day that made me think of my youthful reading indiscretions and seeing how I read The Howling series a few times I decided to see what else Brandner had written.

The Brain Eaters sounded as good as any of his other titles, and boy did it take me back. Although published in 1985 it seems more in tune with the late 1970s. There is Vic's Old Milwaukee Tavern that used to serve Schlitz, Carlton cigarettes, Gypsy moths, baseball series played against Cleveland, an evil corporation, and, of course, the Soviets. The hero is a newspaper reporter fighting his way back from a terrible fall.

The story is typical of something I would have grabbed off the paperback display at Lawson's, a Cleveland area corner store chain. The plot is fairly predictable, there is an unexplained horror that is slowly realized as it spreads. The government refuses to recognize the problem and the Soviets are lurking in the background. The book is part horror story (with surprisingly non-graphic sex scenes), part newspaper man tracking the big story, and part something to kill time.

The writing is ok. The plot is ok. The memories it brought back were great. If you were around in the late 70s and fell into that cheap horror or cheap spy genre, you'll probably like this book for the trip back in time. A fun read.

[Snobbery and Decay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading a horror novel by Gary Brandner is very much akin to watching a B-movie of old on video tape - remember those? There’s a feel to the material that is so specific to the period - mid-80s - with a proven plot development served by a cast of well-known characters dispensing oft-heard quip dialogues. Even the remarkable cover of the Hamlyn paperbacks edition looks like those fabulous movie posters from Empire Pictures. B-movie through and through.

Get this: Predictably, the novel opens with a prologue when the wrong canister of chemical is accidentally - or is it? - released over the Wisconsin countryside. A week later, three people fall victim of a sudden murderous rage replete with hideous exploding facial blotches. You got it kids: We’re in for a shamelessly gruesome train ride but wait! We’re getting a little ahead of ourselves. We’re then introduced to Corey Macklin, a cynical and ruthlessly ambitious reporter. You know the one: hard-talking, beer drinking, with a dry sense of humour? Course you do. Then we make the acquaintance of Dr Dena Falkner, a researcher at the Biotron chemical plant and, yes, you know her too: intelligent, competent, attractive with a frank wit. Needless to say, these two will meet and soon the appropriate sparks will be flying high. Add some government agents, some half-mad scientists, a best buddy, an assortment of stock supporting characters, a hero’s redeeming ark and so on. There’s even the “don’t-go-in-there” scene which is handled masterfully and actually got me on the proverbial edge of my seat. After all of the above, I found fairly easy to overlook the über-rushed ending. You got the gist though: It’s all very predictable. What it isn’t however, is boring. Never boring.
Interestingly, the novel that was inspired by and in turns echoed the AIDS epidemic back in the day, still resonates now, for obvious reasons, and its occasional descriptions of a world falling apart have a spooky sense of relevance. Not bad for what would have been considered a “by-the-number” horror paperback.

Gary Brandner has been the ‘author of The Howling’ for the best part of his career - for better or worse - and has produced a little more than a dozen horror titles - three of which adapted for the screen - and the conspicuous lack of recognition or even acknowledgment of his body of work among the people in the field is rather surprising if not suspect. Brandner’s writing was serviceable - although a lot more than that in this piece - but his books were always honest in their prime directive, which is to say delivering the goods. And The Brain Eaters certainly does that. Notwithstanding his worldview’s occasional reactionary naïveté, Gary Brandner was a fine craftsman of supernatural fictions and The Brain Eaters might very well be one of his most solid efforts.

Now remember to rewind your tape.

[Robert Jr. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is essentially 28 Days Later by way of the first third of George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead with heavy Cold War Era political thriller undertones. Basically, a hippy eco-terrorist chick gets her boyfriend to screw up a harmless test involving spraying dye to test air dispersal, and the brain eater parasite is unleashed. The book, for the most part, follows a disgraced newspaper reporter as he discovers and unwinds the crisis. It was a fast-paced and easy read though the last fifty pages had a couple of lulls that probably should have been shortened. Otherwise, all the character work and introductions had something to do with driving the plot along including cutaways to the several first incidents of brain eaters causing people to go berserk.

The story had plenty of horror and some tense action pieces though I preferred the straight horror scenes more. The subplot that finally intersected in the last bit of the book with the KGB Agents and the Soviet “Agricultural” Specialist, which was the espionage undertone of the work, surprised me in its final twist involving the hippie girl which I thought that I had figured out already. It was a little punch to my political stances as she was made out to be a vicious idiot who was violently against war and pro-environmentalism that the reader was supposed to hate. At the same time, some of the victims of the parasites had racist and homophobic thoughts as they were succumbing and portrayed as victims. I might be reading too much into it as I have no idea what the author’s political bent was at all.

Overall, I recommend this if you’re looking for a not-too-heavy end-of-the-world horror story. The story is fast-paced, it never stops moving forward save in a few spots, and there is no doubt that it is meant to be a straight horror story judging by the very horror-morality ending, the other elements from outside genres being just a part of the scope. In fact, I definitely now want to check out the first The Howling book now. I loved the movie since childhood so it’s not like I wasn’t interested beforehand.

[Mikepottz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Parasites feeding off the brain causing uncontrollable headaches and a desire to stop the noise/pain by killing anybody within range. Public panic and mayhem until an antidote can be found. The cover is hideously amazing. Classic vintage old school horror.

[Nick LeBlanc · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded up.

This was sent to me as part of a reader's package from Savage Harvest, a new horror-focused imprint of Fathom Press that specializes in reprints of classic paperbacks from the golden age of horror. The new cover is beautiful, the fonts are classic and easy to read, and it was all tightly bound in the perfect-sized reading package: the mass-market paperback. Savage Harvest was nice enough to send the book packaged in a medical biohazard bag with a small vial of dried "brain-eating" worms in a sealed vial as a knowing wink to the novel's central threat. This edition is very nice and Savage Harvest has some exciting releases on the horizon, so I enthusiastically recommend their work, even if this novel doesn't exactly tickle your readerly urges. Now, onto the book...

The Brain Eaters is a bold and often thrilling dive into body-horror paranoia, blending 70s-style conspiracy with 80s visceral, bloody terror. Gary Brandner escalates dread through well-paced revelations, skillfully employing paranoid thriller tropes—shadowy government agents, a rising body count, and neighbors succumbing to distrust. The plotting is a standout, weaving suspense with moments of shocking violence and gore. These sequences are intense and engaging, written with a raw, cinematic energy. Brandner’s knack for atmospheric scene-setting pulls the reader into the dread-soaked world, while the characters remain grounded and believable even as the horrors spiral out of control.

However, the novel’s broad scope detracts from its strengths. The parasitic threat quickly expands to a national scale, and the narrative struggles to maintain cohesion and pacing across such a sprawling canvas. Characters move from one crisis to another with little clarity on whether hours or days have passed, muddling the urgency of the threat. By contrast, Shaun Hutson’s Erebus—a novel with a similar thematic conceit—keeps its focus tightly on a single small English town, heightening paranoia and suspense by localizing the horror. The Brain Eaters might have benefited from similar restraint.

Similarly, the subplot involving the KGB feels like an afterthought—a deus ex machina that adds little to the story beyond a superficial nod to Cold War paranoia. This thread’s resolution, which coincides with the climax, feels unearned and rushes the novel into a jarringly quick and overly neat conclusion. After a slow-burn buildup—at times perhaps too slow—the abrupt “happily ever after” ending undermines much of the tension and dread of the novel's earlier half.

Despite its flaws, The Brain Eaters remains a gripping and atmospheric read. Brandner’s prose crackles with energy, and his ability to blend visceral horror with paranoid thrills makes for a memorable, if uneven, journey. Fans of 80s horror and 70s paranoid thrillers will find much to appreciate, even as the novel bites off more than it can chew. A worthy and engaging read.

[TheCultureVulture · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perhaps I wouldn't have noted it if not for COVID times but a shocking lack of social distancing considering a brain eating virus is rampaging major metropolitan areas.

[Tony Maddox · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was essentially Stephen King's The Stand plus the movie 28 Days Later, but on a SyFy original movie budget. It was literary junk-food, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. If I could have given it a 2.5, that would have been more in line with what I thought of the book overall--it was squarely average; just enough fun to finish, but ultimately really stupid. It also just sort of ended suddenly. It seemd like the author got bored with the whole thing and jump directly to a resolution without any further explanation. It really was the exact kind of thing that happens in those SyFy movies...

I suppose the book was everything you'd expect from something titled The Brain Eaters.

[Nicholas Gray · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this story a ton, but the characters weren’t all that well written and likable. I’m not saying characters have to be likable for me to enjoy a good story, but one of the main characters, the protagonist Corey, was a huge dick and I wanted him to die so badly, but, and not to ruin anything, Corey is the hero of this story. So, of course, there was no way he wouldn’t get the girl in the end. Overall, i’m giving this story three and a half stars, round it to four. BUT, I really want to say that the performance for this was out of the park! Excellent narration! Gotta applaud the narrator for this one! Great narration and a pretty good, but outdated story.

[Shaun Gregory · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrifying Prophecy

In my opinion Gary Brandner is the most underrated American Author of Horror. Like the Howling before it, this novel is absolutely amazing. Some of the scenes are mirrored by real events surrounding the COVID-19 outbreak. I don’t mean the horror of parasites, I mean the way the outbreak is dealt with. I could not put it this Kindle book down. Highly recommend reading. I gave five stars because “The Brain Eaters “ deserves it. If you love horror then check the late Mr. Brandner out, you’ll not be disappointed.

[Mkittysamom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Opposites come together!

US and Russia, fight to cure the Brain Eaters, Coined by Milwaukee newspaperman Corey. Parasites that eat your brain till you go crazy from the pain! Interesting story! Big twists!

[Latoya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely a good amount of gore!

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Something has gone terribly, horribly wrong. A newly-wed in Seattle; a cab driver in New York, and a highway maintenance worker in Milwaukee: three strange, violent deaths in three different cities. At first, these shocking incidents appear unrelated. Then a disturbing pattern emerges: agonizing headaches, violent tantrums, faces erupting with sickening lesions, and finally, a fatal outburst. These are only the first of thousands.
First published in 1985 (I’m reading it as part of my 12-book-old-school-horror challenge), this is as gloriously gruesome and straight ahead as you would expect from that era (and, on occasion, the language is very much of its time). Corey Macklin is a down-on-his-luck reporter who witnesses a man freaking out in a bar and therefore gets front seats to an epidemic of shocking violence that sweeps America. Dena Falkner is a research scientist at Biotron and her sometime boyfriend is the helicopter pilot who accidentally releases the virus, so she’s quickly snarled up in proceedings. Beyond them, characterisation is bare bones and there are only a couple of key locations (the Milwaukee Herald, where Corey works and the Biotron plan), but the story chugs along at a good pace so you don’t really care. In the best James Herbert tradition, we get introduced to characters simply to see them die (oddly, we don’t get to see the newly-wed melt down) and there’s plenty of gore, though it (cleverly) lessens as the book goes on. Reading it in 2025, however, gave me a new insight to the second half of the book, once the epidemic takes off and its echoes of what really happened during Covid are very on the button. Nevertheless, a cracking 80s horror novel and if you like that kind of thing (which I absolutely do), then this is very much recommended.

[Geoff · Rating 2 out of 5]

All done-

It's easy, very tame in my opinion, and misogynist (but aren't they always). More of a detective noir with espionage for dummies, but minus any detective. A lot of character motivations and plot moves make no sense.

Written @ pg 168

I dunno.... I want to hear less about the government side of things and the lengthy repeat explanations about what the brain eaters are and where they come from. I know already. I'm also not interested in the romance in this book, but whatever.

I read this because I was hoping to read interesting chapters about the spreading of the virus and the mayhem it causes. These are present, but they are brief and unexciting. Call me modern, but I was hoping for a bit of the excitement at the beginning of Stephen King's Cell (bad book overall, btw) or the first half of The Stand, or even Jose Saramago's description of the blindness taking hold in Blindness. I would even settle for the style of the World War Z book. Something about the brevity, the tone, or the general descriptions in Brandner's scenes just isn't very entertaining.

I guess I'm just confused as to why I'm basically reading a detective noir romance billed as a classic, creepy gore-fest. People are constantly running around for no reason.. Dena is like let me go visit this woman who is definitely infected at the time she's most likely to pop, you know I actually didn't know her well and have no reason to be here, ow I have an open wound! Or Eddie being like I just have to go to Biotron and tell them the True Story.... and then he gets there and is like crap... I have to do this before I die... my calling.. and immediately turns back around and goes home. Thanks?

[David Stephens · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don’t know exactly what good was going to come out of this book. The story, about a brain eating parasite spreading outward from Milkwaukee, is derivative. The characters are thin and cartoonish. There’s the mysterious, hand-rubbing corporate executive, two chess-playing Russian agents, and the scarred and cynical young man and woman who begin an uninspired romance in the middle of a deadly epidemic, the gravity of which is never really felt.

The only avenue for making a lasting impact is through some wild and messy violence, and the book only manages that every once in a while. And even then, it feels muted. Moments that could go splatterpunk feel more like tepid lists of news items. James Herbert, where are you?

Otherwise, there’s really nothing more here than a bland and forgettable mix of quasi-social commentary, an occasional out of place line of poetry (“Corey stared at her as though his oyster stew had just yielded up a pearl”), and awkward sex.

[Kim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Brain Eaters wasn't really what I was hoping for after reading the blurb. I thought it was going to go into apocalyptic territory, and it got close, but not quite. First of all, Brain Eaters is an awful name, and that's all I'll say about that part. I understand that this book was written in the 80s, but the derogatory terms were unnecessary to the story, and accomplished nothing but to make the main character immediately unlikable. Apparently in the 80s, there was a strange phenomenon that turned women into walking boobs, as this is the most notable feature of the two women described in this book.
The narrator did a fine job with what he was given, and his accents, while not perfect, were immediately recognizable.
In short, I would listen to this narrator again, but the author is now on my "to be avoided" list.

[RJ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Prepare for an exhausting journey down the zombie trail. It’s not exactly what you expect, at least it wasn’t for me. The background ate up the first third of the book before anything of real significance took place. Once that landmark was passed, the tale of a virus, its effects, and the search for an antidote began in earnest. Sort of. The story continued to plod along like the old grey mare, although there was enough material to keep you turning pages. Personally, I think the tale could have been told in five or six hours. Two.point.five. I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

[Neil Wright · Rating 2 out of 5]

The title is terrific. The opening passages are absorbing, ghastly, and believable. So why does the book fall apart at the halfway point? There are compelling ideas which are not fully explored. The episode of “The X-Files” titled “Blood” has a very similar plot, but that story has a more distilled and potent sense of horror.

The two lead characters are drips, there is a half baked espionage subplot, and the conclusion felt like the end of an episode of Scooby Doo. Yes, most of the major characters have a good laugh together over the horror they’ve just experienced. With a title like “The Brain Eaters”, this novel needs more teeth.

[Matt Hansen · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like 70s and 80s B-horror movies you’ll love this book. After an accidental chemical release, there’s a virus outbreak in a small town outside of Milwaukee. When the locals begin exhibiting extremely aggressive behavior and attacking their neighbors, the town, government and the world are forced to take notice.

This was a blast to read. Felt like I was watching a classic horror from the late 70s or early 80s. I could see the gruesome practical special effects in my head in every overtop violent scene.

It was by the numbers but Brandner did a good job pacing the story to keep it moving along at a good pace.

[Dex · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 estrellas si Goodreads permitiera medias. Ya he leído a Gary Brandner antes y me han gustado bastante sus libros. Este tiene trama y personajes interesantes, algunos clichés como suele ser con libros ochenteros y —no sé si sea como "la firma Brandner"— un final que se siente abrupto.

Mi personaje favorito a pesar de no tener tanta presencia: Doc Ingersoll.

[Remi VL · Rating 3 out of 5]

Starts off strong, and at a great pace, with the action getting going pretty fast, and it's all pretty gruesome!

But by the second half, there's a lot of people moving from place to place doing nothing in particular for the story until it all resolves itself in a neat little bow

[Brooklyn Attic Books · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sexist, racist and homophobic...this book did not age well. First time reading this author (maybe the last?). Great cover on this new edition from Fathom Press though.

Quick read. Typical of its time. A time capsule, if you will.