Conception

by Chase Novak

Alex et Leslie Twisden mènent une vie radieuse : jobs en or, luxueux hôtel particulier en plein Manhattan et mariage passionnel. Ce qui leur manque en revanche, c’est un enfant, et après l’échec d’innombrables traitements, leur désir de progéniture vire à l’obsession. Dans une dernière tentative désespérée, le couple se rend en Slovénie afin d’essayer une procédure médicale très particulière. Et là, c’est le miracle… Dix ans plus tard, couvés et dorlotés mais vivant dans une maison habitée par les secrets, les jumeaux Alice et Adam se retrouvent chaque soir enfermés dans leur chambre, tandis que des bruits de plus en plus perturbants proviennent de celle de leurs parents. Un jour, ils décident de chercher à comprendre la vraie nature de ceux qui les élèvent. Leur découverte aura de quoi les épouvanter…

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Thriller, Fantasy, Mystery, Suspense, Science Fiction

480 pages, Paperback

First published September 4, 2012

About the author

A pen name of Scott Spencer.

Reviews

[Mohammed Arabey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mr. King praised this as one of the best horror??

Well..it's actually depressing, sad, chaotic, miserable and depressing (yes, it's worth a second mention)
Oh yes, with touch of scary.

Arabic/English Review
كم مرة شاهدت فيلم "جري الوحوش" وفكرت الي اي مدي يذهب الرجل لينجب أبنا له من صلبه
كم مرة شاهدت فيلم "طفل روزماري" وأرتعبت من غموض حمل الأم مع ذلك كانت تخاف علي ولدها

هنا العلاقة المعقدة بين الوالدين والبناء..بشكل مرعب..قصة "جري الوحوش"، ولكن بوحوش بشرية حقيقية تقابل قصة "أبن روزماري" مع دكتور مجنون يقوم بتجربة حيوانية علي زوجين يائسين للانجاب
لتحدث تغيرات عجيبة في حياتهم أثناء فترة الحمل..ليبدأ الجزء الثاني بعد عشر سنوات

بتنقلب الأحداث في ثلثي الرواية لمطاردة في نيويورك بين توأمان يهربا من والديهما الي تصرفاتهم اقرب للغيلان، وجانب مظلم من اطفال الشوارع، وعودة للدكتور المجنون بمجاهل أوروبا الشرقية... ودماء، الكثير من الدماء

السيد ستيفين كينج يعدنا أنها من أكثر الروايات التي ارعبته
حسنا..هي مرعبة بشكل حزين ومؤسف ومحيط

----------
** القصة **
كان هناك قصة قصيرة لدكتور أحمد خالد توفيق نشرت في مجموعة "الهول" عن دكتور "آرمني" يقوم بمعالجة قصور خلايا البشر بأستخدام خلايا حيوانية مما أدي لتغيرات حيوانية بالبشر
هنا القصة مشابهة جدا..الزوجان الثريان يذهبا إلي أوروبا الشرقية بعد نفاذ نصف ثروة الزوج الثري علي تجارب فاشلة للأنجاب...يخبرهما الدكتور أنه يستخدم خلايا عضوية من نوع من السمك..وبالفعل تنجح التجربة
لكن التغيرات التي تصيب الزوجان رهيبة..محبطة .. مرعبة شيئا ما.. مقززة بكل تأكيد
أجواء "روزماري بيبي" الشهيرة في مانهاتان..نيويورك مع لمحات كئيبة من تحول بيت الزوجين العريق في تحفة راقية ومركز لقاء اجتماعي الي عرين بمعني الكلمة


ثم يبدأ الجزء الثاني من الرواية مع الطفلان التوأمان..وعواقب عيشهما مع الاهل الغريبة
والتي تؤدي لهروبهما... وتظهر شخصيات اخري ، فهناك المدرس المثلي جنسيا والذي يعاني من صورة خوف وقلق الاهالي من قرب مدرس شاذ من ابنائهم ولكن للحظ يحاول آدم الاستنجاد به من هلعه من والديه
بينما أليس ، أخته التوأم، فتتعرف علي مجموعة عجيبة من اطفال الشوارع ، بين سن العاشرة مثلها الي سن المراهقة...كلهم لديهم حوادث شبيه بهم مع والديهم

وتستمر الاحداث الكئيبة السيئة التي ليست مرعبة وانما فقط..فوضاوية بشكل مقزز
ربما اجزاء المطاردة جائت مطولة وغير مقنعة كثيرا ، ربما زيادة الخيوط الفرعية جدا "كقصة عائلة صديق المدرس الشاذ ، أو الجارة التي تشهد هروب الاطفال"كانت مطولة بدون اي لزوم لاحقا للحكاية
لكن يظل هناك شيئا ما جيدا في اسلوب حكي الرواية..ربما هي الجمل التي تصف العلاقة المعقدة جدا بين الوالدين والابناء...التي مهما كانت الظروف ستجد دائما هناك خوف غريزي يشعره الوالدين علي الابناء..وهناك شيئا من الثقة من الأبناء تجاه الوالدين مهما كانت الظروف

هيكل الرواية لا استطيع ان اقول سوي انه مبني بشكل احترافي..الفكرة نفسها مرعبة ومحزنة... االاسلوب ايضا به شئ من السخرية..لكن فقط هي القصة او تداعياتها التي لم تعجبني كثيرا
فهي محبطة ، حزينة ، مؤسفة ، مقززة ، محبطة (نعم محبطة تستحق اعادة الذكر) - الغريب ان هذه الكلمة مقتبسة من الاسلوب الساخر الاسود ببداية الرواية والذي كان مقدما بشكل اوضح مما حدث بعد ذلك من تطويل وترهل في الاحداث

حسنا...هل ستيفين كينج محقا؟..القرار لك



How come Mr. King says it's that horror? well... it's scary yes.. but also pretty much depressing, sad, chaotic, miserable and depressing (yes, it is worth a second mention)
Well, I borrow the last line from the funny writing style which was well there at the beginning. Dark comedy Then went downhill to serious depression.

It's about the complicated journey to "parenthood", then the complexity of the relationship between the parents and the kids.

** The Story **

It's about a young woman seeks to marry a man with a magnificent NYC house.


Then a man and woman seeks to have a baby..no matter how it costs them.
Well, this long journey includes a eastern European doctor...and costs them their 'normal life'.

That was first third.. that as it goes it turns more into Rosemary's Baby story but with some differences.
And Ten Years Later, the second part, the two third of the book..

Twins, a boy and a girl seeks escaping from their strange "ghoulish-like-behavior" parents.

A Mother and Father, loving and caring for their long-waited kids, seeks finding their beloved twins.


A gay teacher seeks helping his young terrified student and his sister.

A crazy dark secret phenomenon of strange kids and teens living in NY streets and Parks with dark secrets about their parents.


Well.. it's a depressing, sad, chaotic, miserable and depressing (yes, it is worth a second mention) story.. and YES, it all are worth a second mention.

Sometimes it was too much unnecessary lines and not much interesting inserted between the crazy chaotic events of the second half of the novel.
I hated the whole runaway. I have to admit it's turned unexpectedly in many points but it's still chaotic.

I loved the many references of Parenthood and the complexity of the relationship between the parents and the kids.

There was this funny part where the husband always correct language for his wife..cause of her condition. And how similar it to the brother to his sister.
It was so sad, it made my heart aches. Sad sad and depressing.
No matter how horrible the parents feel they try hard to protect their children, no matter how terrified the kids they feel their parents are the last sanctuary.. they still can find it in them to trust them again.


I can't rate it 3, I hated it and the good parts and the half well written part was so heavy on my soul. Come on.. and if I rate it 2...well, then why I felt so sad for the parents...and even the kids?
I dunno, it's 2.5 but still depressing.
The writing style had some dark humor at first, the structuring of the story was good and at some points even great, but the whole chase was a pit prolonged and not that good.

Well, It's sad sad story.
And depressing... did I said that already?

Monammed Arabey
From 3 Feb. 2017
To 6 Feb. 2017

-but bought 2 Feb. 2016-

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alex and Leslie Twisden are a golden couple with money, good jobs, and a beautiful home. Their big problem - they can't conceive a child. Hearing of a doctor in Slovenia who works miracles for infertile couples they hop a plane to get the treatments. 👱‍♀️ 🧑



Fast forward ten years and the Twisdens have boy and girl twins but something is wrong.



Their home is a wreck, they're almost broke, they avoid social interactions, and they always lock their children's bedroom doors at night.



Turns out the Slovenian doctor's methods were unorthodox and resulted in frightening side effects. The twin children make a break for it, seek help, and happen to come across other families like theirs. As a result they see some disgusting and horrific things. 😵👹



There's plenty of blood, gore and tragedy in this page turner but I was dissatisfied with the ending which (I felt) didn't wrap up the story properly. Still, readers interested in stories with an unusual twist might enjoy this book.

You can follow my reviews at https://reviewsbybarbsaffer.blogspot....

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you want a fairly entertaining book to read in it's entirety on a three and a half hour train ride this would be a fairly good choice.

Stephen King, in superlative tourette's he seems cursed with when blurbing a book, calls this the best horror novel since Peter Straub's Ghost Story. I haven't read Ghost Story so I can't say it's the best horror novel written in the past thirty two years (I doubt it though, just a feeling) but I don't think this is the best horror novel written in the past thirty years.

Does anyone take Stephen King blurbs seriously anymore?

The book is about a couple of can't have kids. She's a mid-west transplant working in publishing. He's the sion of some old money family. They have lots of money and a great life but no kids. She's willing to adopt, he wants to pass on his fine pedigree genes to continue the blue-blood line.

After trying everything, they find a doctor in Slovenia who guarantees to make them fertile, give them some injections and the couple go back to their hotel room and fuck like bunnies and nine months later, twins!

Something in the injection the parents get makes them sort of feral though and the kids start to realize that things are a little weird and scary around their house. So they do what any pair of ten year olds would do when they are starting to suspect that mom and dad might want to make a meal of them, they run away.

Chase Novak is the horror writing pen-name of Scott Spencer. He's one of those writers that I've never read but who seems to get at least nominated for a big award for each novel he writes. At times it feels like he is having a lot of fun writing this. He gets to say things that probably wouldn't fly in a literary novel, and I can't put my finger on why, but it feels like the author was having fun.

The novel is fun to read, but it's not especially scary. There aren't scenes of real tension in the story, and the grislier scenes are fairly toned down. Some nasty shit happens in the story, but the reader sort of needs to fill in some of the gaps if they want to gross themselves out with imagery. I'm sure it's scary as hell to be ten years old and believe that your parents want to eat you, but that fear was never viscerally felt.

Parts of the story are a little confusing, not narratively, the story itself is very straightforward, but why they are included. There are a couple of characters that are introduced and feel like they should have more of an important place in the story but instead they kind of drift to the background to resurface at times but without really being necessary. The character of Bernard is the one I'm really thinking of. The idea behind him seems really cool but he's not really used for too much in the story. This isn't a big deal, but in a horror / thriller type of novel the story should be streamlined for maximum impact.

I'm sure people will like this book. It's a good fast paced novel. Perfect for a train ride, and I'm sure some people will find it full of win and provide some witty pictures captioned with some quote or other, or maybe they won't. But while I had fun reading this I can't think of it as much more than a pleasant and kind of grotesque diversion.

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have wanted to read this book for a while, and I admit to being sold on it because of the blurb where Stephen King calls it the best horror story he's read since Peter Straub's Ghost Story - a claim that is just purely ridiculous. First, Ghost Story was boring boring boring - surely that's not the baseline that King uses for comparison. Hell, my grocery list is more readable, interesting, and terrifying than that snoozefest. Secondly, this book was not very horrorish at all once it got going. It was more of a sci-fi thriller, if anything. So, yeah, I'm convinced that the blurb was one of those sight-unseen things where authors are just like "Sure, yeah, throw my name on it and sign the check over. What do I care? Everyone makes a few bucks. Win/win."

That is not to say that this was a bad book. It just wasn't the great one that King seemed to promise us (depending on how much you trusted a comparison to Ghost Story, I mean).

The book started out on a great foot. We meet Alex and Leslie, quickly see their relationship form, and just as quickly get a background of their desire for a baby, which they have trouble conceiving. So they try some things, and some more things, and a lot more things, and generally throw oodles of disposable income at their infertility, and then finally as a last ditch effort, they see a mysterious doctor in an Eastern European country... and poof, consider that bun popped into the oven.

And that's where things get a bit bizarre. The treatment is... different. The 'treatment' that Leslie gets (and I use that term to mean both the actual injections, and the way it was administered) is fucked right from the word go. Tens of thousands of dollars, up front, for a series of shots from a creepy dude and his rude assistant in a dingy "examination" room, while a salivating Rottweiler tries to attack you? No thanks. And that's exactly what Leslie says... but her husband has already had his shots, and they've come all this way, and paid all this money, and then it's just a couple shots... Come on, honey, take one for the team! She's basically injection-raped - forced, despite her protests to have the shots. And yet, despite what would, to most people in the universe, I think, be grounds for divorce and/or murder... they're hot for each other almost immediately. Bow chicka bow wow and all that jazz. Give or take a letter.

After finishing the book, or, well, after understanding the treatment, I totally get why it wasn't that big a deal to them afterwards. They'd had some... questionable materials entered into their systems, and it changed things around and the hormones and the instincts and the needs all reacted. Nature took over while nurture took a breather. And eventually they had their babies.

This first section was intriguing, sometimes funny, a little bit disturbing, but good. I liked it quite a lot. But from here... the story kinda went off the rails a bit.

I actually really liked the two main characters of Alex and Leslie, especially after the treatments. They were interesting, and I thought that their devotion and desire and love for each other, while manic at times, was ultimately kind of sweet.

Their kids didn't think so, though. They thought they were scary. Which is also true, I guess. So they run away. And then it's just thriller gogogo until almost the end, where it kind of slows to a crawl and then kinda fizzles. Reading the interview with the author at the end, it seems that this is supposed to be continued in at least one more book, which makes sense regarding some of the people we're introduced to, but for me, this was a standalone. It was a little too all over the place for me. I wanted more of the consequences of the treatment, and less of the chasing of the runaways.

And speaking of the kids. They are precocious ten year olds, and both as Mary & Gary as their parents were interesting. They were like little adults running around doing the things that adults thought that kids would do in a particular situation, and not very well. I definitely identified more with the parents here. The kids, and all of the other kids... I couldn't care about. They were just sort of a mishmash of all street kid types, with an alpha (with a heart of gold) leading the group. It was just... *shrug* There was one couple that interested me, because of something they said, but they were introduced, and then left behind, and that was that. Probably in the sequel.

And then there was one kid that just... I didn't get his place in the story. I won't ruin things, but I will say that his being trotted out as a showpiece really bothered me for several reasons. One, it was neither his fault, nor the fault of the person being shown, that things worked out the way they did, and it just seemed cruel to both parties. I really didn't get it.

This was a quick read - I read the majority of it today, and while it was one of those books that was easy to keep turning the pages, I didn't really feel wholly invested in it. I read more to find out what happened - not because I particularly cared. And strewn throughout the book there were some misspellings that bugged me, especially as this was a professionally published book which should have been proofread and edited properly.

Not a bad book, but definitely did not live up to the blurb hype. *sigh*

[Stella · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not my usual read, but from the Kindle sample I downloaded it looked interesting so I purchased the book.

And as I was reading, I got increasingly annoyed with the author's reference to Slovenia. I get it that he was trying to create a setting of a small, remote, backward country with no laws where experimental medical treatments may be done on humans - but Slovenia??!!

The author assumes everyone is as ignorant as he is and repeats several times that nobody has ever heard of Slovenia. Really? Where are those "nobodys"? (everyone I know has heard of it, everyone in Europe has heard of it, and I am pretty sure anyone who has ever followed any news has heard of it)

Then he describes their airline as "something called Adria" (it is a national airline of Slovenia, so why "something") and is amazed that there is no first class on a 45 minute flight from Munich to Ljubljana (there usually isn't on such short flights).

I could sort of deal with all that, but then he is surprised (appalled) that there is no passport or customs control on arrival. A simple Wiki check would have explained that (Slovenia is a part of Eurpean Union and so is Germany, so when arriving from Munich there is no passport control! Duh!)

Anyway, while Slovenia is a small country, it falls under the same laws, rules and regulations as Germany, France or any other Eurpeaan Union country. (which is why the doctor wanted euros as opposed to dollars, but author seems to find this very strange and repeats it several times)

For a while I wondered if the author is actually kidding, but I don't think he was.

That annoyed me as much as his "foreshadowing" (it was so obvious it was almost funny) - a father wants to eat up a child because he is so cute, gobi fish eats its young, blah, blah.
So I had to conclude only a few pages down the track that eventually, somehow, those parents will want to eat up their own children. But I already didn't care about the characters who can't use the Internet and check out Slovenia.

P.S. I am not Slovenian, just someone who has heard of it.

[Stefani Robinson · Rating 1 out of 5]

As much as I was looking forward to this book, by the end I hated it. No, hated it not a strong enough word. I loathed this book. So many times I wanted to put it down and never pick it back up, but I soldiered on until the very last page and began to wish I had followed through with the urge to abandon it. This book was a perfect example of a great idea that was executed terribly. This was written by bestselling author Scott Spencer, under the pseudonym Chase Novak. I, for one, will not be checking out anything under either name. This saddens me because I was looking forward to this book so much that I suggested it for my online book club to read, that ended up being a very poor decision.

***Warning: From this point forward this review may contain spoilers. Rest of the review will be hidden for spoilers. Stop reading now to remain unspoiled.***

The basic premise of this was intriguing. An affluent couple who is so desperate to have a child that they travel to an unknown part of the world to have an unknown procedure performed on them. Here is where I ran into my first problem. At one point Leslie decides not to go through with the procedure. I can’t argue with her, she’s in a country she’s never heard of, in a filthy office, about to be injected by a weird doctor with something and the doctor won’t tell her what it is. She starts hollering and the doctor orders her husband from the room…and he complies! For all he knows they are holding her down and injecting her against her will! I was furious on her behalf. But then I got furious with her. She just lets it go and proceeds on their lives together, including having sex with him that same day! I would have gotten a good divorce lawyer before I was out the door of the office after beaning the doctor in his skull with my foot! So that bothered me.

Another huge problem I had with the beginning of the story was the POV. It was written in third person omniscient. So it basically read like a news report. We would see what was happening and how it happened. But we’d have no idea why it happened, what they thought or felt about what happened, or any of the details that make you care about the characters. At one point Alex grabs a small rodent and eats it and I had no idea why. Since i didn’t know if this was an impulse he’d struggled with or a thought he couldn’t ignore anymore it had all of the significance of a pointless sidenote. For that reason I found that I didn’t really care about Leslie or Alex because the only things I could see about them were ignorant, selfish, and horrendously stupid.

After the twins are born the POV shifts to third person close, which was slightly better than before but by that point I just didn’t care. I didn’t care about the characters, I didn’t care about the plot, I wanted something to happen. Yeah yeah, I get it the parents are monsters now. They are fighting off the inhuman urge to eat their children. Gotcha, now let’s do something with it. What they did was that the twins ran away and spent most of the book running from their parents. Along the way they discover other kids that are like them and who have parents like them. Apparently there are hundreds of these people wandering around and yet…no one else in the world has noticed. That stretched my reality a little too far to be believable.

We also learn a little bit about the original doctor and what was in the original shots. A very little bit. I was excited about that and expected this story to become a quest for answers. But it didn’t. We were still on some stupid chase from the parents which was boring and starting to drag. When the parents finally catch them I thought, yay good stuff coming! Nope, it just kind of stopped. Complete with some death and mayhem. And THEN we go on a quest for answers back to the original doctor. All I could think was, “Why did no one think of this in the last 10 years?” But even that proved worthless because there were no answers to be had. The plot never went anywhere and then you reached the end and realized that you had spent several hundred pages on a pointless quest for nothing. This plot had so much potential and all of it was squandered. When I reached the end of the book I was mostly relieved that it was over. If there is a sequel, I will buy it only to tear out off the pages and shred them by hand. I wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone. All that you’ll gain from it is feeling vaguely nauseous and then being angry that there was no pay off for the grossness.

As I write this review I am also struck by another thought seeing all the 5 star reviews. Did we read the same book? I am puzzled.

This and other reviews at Stefani's World of Words

[Giselle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Horror has always been my thing. I get thrills out of being scared, and I love when a good mystery is involved as well. Breed definitely brings both aspects. These people start to get truly bizarre side effects from an out of country fertility treatment, and frankly it freaked me the heck out. The mystery part gets less "mysterious" and more "What is going to happen next?" during part 2, when we fast-forward 10 years later to the kids' perspective, and change from horror to more of a high speed chase. I found this part exciting at first, mostly fascinating due to the unknown, but it does drag on after a while, seemingly becoming a chase that never ends with spurts of unnecessary drama that slows things down.

Looking back, part 1 of the book is what I deem my favorite. We get introduced to this couple who desperately wants a baby. So badly that they hop on a plane to visit a doctor in a new country who they hear gets ridiculously positive results. Little could they know that shortly after, they'd be acting strangely similar to animals. From almost amusing animalistic behavior to eating their own barf, this book goes from strange to positively disgusting. I know some may warn, in books like Anna Dressed in Blood, or I Hunt Killers that it's not for the faint of heart, so let me put this clear, this is nothing compared to getting a visual of someone enjoying licking their own sick off their fingers. This is just one example. I swear, this haunted me for days, causing loss of appetite and general nauseousness. I am not even kidding. I blame this book for days of discomfort! Nothing in the WORLD is grosser than vomit! I could watch a surgery while eating Spaghetti, but I can not deal with vomit. Even the word--vomit--is gross. Really, say it slow. Vo-m-it. *barf*

Grossness aside, it was like I couldn't stop from finding out what weird twisted thing these people were going to do next. It's pretty horrific, when you know the whole story, and kind of... well, it's effed up! How the kids had to live their lives, the way they were raised, what they have to fear. Once we get to the second part, we see that the side effects did not escape their children, either; although in a different manner. The premise itself makes a great horror tale, perfect for fans of the Stephen King novels in all their strange glory. After we get past the initial shock, however, is where I found it started to slip and became more like a non stop action movie. The ones that are fast paced, but still feel especially drawn out. Dramatic happenings that, instead of being exciting as it is meant, feels like insignificant detours; adding action and no substance. Ultimately, I grew bored of it shortly after the half way point.

This is for none other than those who enjoy adult horror novels. Its unusual story is bound to bring you in for a real mind-f*ckery, and it will probably make you barf. Who's in?

--

For more of my reviews, visit my blog at Xpresso Reads

[TheBookSmugglers · Rating 2 out of 5]

Originally Reviewed on The Book Smugglers

Rosemary's Baby is easily one of my favorite horror movies of all time. Rosemary Woodhouse's descent into terror and paranoia, her protectiveness of her unborn child, the simultaneously comical & horrifying geriatric satanists next door - these are all expertly crafted horror elements that speak to the frightening aspects of pregnancy, ambition, and betrayal. (This is to say nothing of Mia Farrow's - and Ruth Gordon's - powerful performance!) When I read the premise of this book and saw both Stephen King's resounding endorsement and the Rosemary's Baby comparison, I was hooked.

Breed, unfortunately, is no Rosemary's Baby.

Novak's novel is a bonafide adrenaline-fueled page turner with a cool concept - but lacks grace and skill in its telling, and never actually lives up to the potential of said cool concept. But I'm getting ahead of myself. First, the story:

Alex Twisden is one of New York's upper-crust, Upper East Side dwelling elite. The Twisdens are the type of wealthy, storied New York family that presides on the Met's board of trustees, that owns multiple properties (including a full townhouse in the middle of Manhattan), whose children go to the most prestigious of preparatory academies. When Alex meets Leslie, an ambitious young editor at a respected New York publishing house, the two hit it off immediately. Soon after, they fall in love and are married, with only one rain cloud obscuring their happiness: they are unable to get pregnant. After trying everything from in vitro to spiritual meditation, the Twisdens are at the end of their rope - but then they hear about a secretive (and fittingly expensive) doctor in Ljubljana, Slovenia who has an aggressive reproductive enhancement serum. Using a cocktail of hormones and other goodies from particularly vigorous animals (including the Goby fish), the Twisdens finally get everything they wanted and more - Leslie gives birth to two beautiful twins (and one malformed third child that is quietly whisked away).

But the birth of twins Alice and Adam comes at a terrible cost, changing Alex and Leslie forever. Ten years later, Adam realizes just how strange his parents are and knows that he and his sister must leave before their doting parents devour them whole.

Breed is a frustrating exercise in horror fiction - at its core, Breed has a great, solid hook. The pregnancy gone terribly wrong thing is a compelling storyline - cross that with a family of significant means and power in New York City, and you've got one hell of a premise. Unfortunately, Breed takes what should have been an exorcise in good old fashioned filial cannibalism and unnecessarily protracts the story with over-embellishments, strained writing, and a lack of any deeper true horror.*

Part of the problem is that all of our characters are doomed in that first chapter of the book - there's no restraint or mystery, and Novak's hand is tipped completely by the end of the first 30 or so pages. Add to this the fact that we miss the first ten years of Adam and Alice's lives - Novak completely bypasses any tension building, throwing away the opportunity to create a "something is wrong with Mommy and Daddy" atmosphere of dread, jumping all the way to the twins' escape from parents that have already lost their shit (and inspire little to no sympathy to readers - we don't know or care for these people at all). It's an annoying shortcut to bypass character and plot development in exchange for pure action, and that is incredibly frustrating.

Not to say the action is bad - if there's one thing Breed does right, it is the frenzied, hormone-fueled drive of the book as Alex Twisden chases his spawn all over midtown Manhattan. There is a cinematic quality to Breed - not so much of the Polanski variety, but more of the Michael Bay school of fast-paced, crude action. Yet, even in this respect Breed falters by way of writing, which is at times ridiculously forced and inflated. For example, at one point, a character discovers the Twisdens' basement of terror and takes in the full magnitude of the parents' transformation, she thinks to herself:

That moment of blindness. How she wishes it could have lasted longer. Not just a moment - an hour. Not just an hour - an eternity. For what she sees now is by far the most gruesome sight she has ever beheld, or even imagined. What she sees now makes death preferable to having to live with the memory of what is right before her eyes.

Really? Really? Excepting the fact that I don't think anyone would actually think death is preferable to seeing a sight, no matter how gruesome, this is just bad writing.** Why not describe the scene? In another pivotal scene, a character is plummeting to his death by impalement (on King Jagiello's raised swords outside the Met), and literally reflects on his death plunge in no less than a full page - including a refrain of "Oh my god, Michael thinks. My life!" and "He turns slightly, sees the bystanders: a group of Asian tourists, their cameras dangling over there Burberry coats."

Ultimately, Breed feels like an unnecessarily protracted novella or short story: the entire book is essentially a giant chase scene, born of a very simple premise, without any deeper meaning or horror. Instead of being on par with Rosemary's Baby, Breed is more along the lines of the recently released horror film The Possession - mildly entertaining, but for all its blustery hype, forgettable.

-------
* Not to mention, the filial cannibalistic animal that Novak chooses to feature is the Goby fish? For bloodthirsty, animalistic parents? Why not, I don't know, the komodo dragon?

** Not to mention, in the grand scheme of things, this isn't even that gruesome a sight, compared to, say, The Human Centipede or any of the Saw or Hostel films. Not saying those are great films, but as far as the gross-o-meter goes, Breed is a lightweight.

[Bandit · Rating 4 out of 5]

The only way this novel could have been more impressive is if it had, in fact, been a debut, not just a pseudonym debut for a well known author. In the cover blub King proclaims this book the scariest horror novel in about 30 years. I'm not sure I'd go that far. It wasn't scary per se, it was deeply disturbing, alarming and unsettling. As far as horror goes this was as much of a work of literary horror as it gets. It was literature with scary aspects, phenomenally well written exploration of the relationship between parents and children, of the proverbial need to Breed and the lengths that some will go to in order to pass on their genes. In this case a very wealthy New York couple whose obsession with reproduction leads them to disregard good sense, take dangerous risks, suffer horrible consequences and in the end pay terrible price. (Yes those were all movie preview style clichés, but at least no giveaways). Parenting requires certain sacrifices, unquestionably, but how much should one be willing to lose their own humanity in order to create some. Breed explores that, literally and metaphorically. This book would probably be seriously upsetting for parents to read. I found it fascinating, thought provoking and very well done. Highly recommended.

[J. · Rating 2 out of 5]

It being October I thought I would read a "horror" novel and who better to suggest such a novel than Stephen King, the master of horror himself. Mr King said that this novel was the best he has read since Straub's Ghost Story. After reading this novel I have to wonder if King thinks that most everything that has been written since Ghost Story is garbage and that his expectations are very low indeed.
Breed is written by Scott Spencer (Endless Love) under the pseudonym of Chase Novak. He sets the tale among NYC's elite--private school--rich. A subject he , obviously knows little about. It is easy to hate the rich and for an author to pander to the masses (let's face it most people are not rich.) Unfortunately, hating your own protagonists, makes for very uninteresting characters. That is the major problem with this novel.
He also seems to hate NYC and this comes across quite clearly as he berates everything from the people to the police. The city, itself, is a character and maybe he should have picked the area he lives in (upstate NY) to create some warmth to a very frigid novel. There has to be some contrast in these types of novels where something in the book is sympathetic.
The main characters are the Twisden's an Upper East Side, old money couple, who want to have a baby. The theme here is that the rich have to go to great lengths to make themselves viable. They are impotent, their city is inept and little by little the veneer is pealed away to show the monsters that they really are. He tries to make his characters likeable, but, since he does not like them he fails at this.
After awhile he begins to write about their offspring who must run from the monsters that begin to emerge from the parents. These characters are also uninteresting, as are, the other hopeless offspring of other rich, impotent parents. None of these characters are really developed and they go nowhere and by the end of the novel I felt betrayed by the author who took me on a meaningless journey.
One character, Mrs Twisden's sister, Cynthia, is an interesting character, but Spencer leaves her off with no conclusion (perhaps a sequel ?). Her character has the best moments as she makes her way down a staircase to face the horror that her sister has left behind, in the cellar, of their townhouse. I cared what would happen to her, I was invested in the character and that was the only moments that the author gives us to have a real thrill. There are moments of gore (a cheap way to try to scare), and of attempted humor, but, basiclly, a poor attempt at the genre.
I struggled with the idea that, perhaps, I am being too hard on the novel, because King gave me great expectations--that may be true-- but mostly I felt this was a flat, under-developed novel and I would be better off rereading Peter Straub's Ghost Story or King's Salem's Lot; two of the best horror novels I have ever read.

[Lou · Rating 4 out of 5]

When the old system lets you down and kids don’t seem to come to fruition couples look down many avenues for a solution and solace.
Adoption is one root or as like the couple in this story flying over to a dirty untidy strange doctor in the middle of a town unheard of to the masses to be guinea pigs in a new breakthrough in medicine is another. From the first impressions they had when they were introduced to this great doctor they should have fled on their heels for the exit door, his surgery and his whole persona was enough of a giveaway that he’s somewhat in the bizarre field of medical assistance.
Alas as many desperate souls dieing for children they went for it and had children. Those children and they themselves then went through a somewhat bizarre change of circumstance physically and mentally. The time the you read past half-away mark you wonder was it really worth it?
No! the amount of deaths that have occurred due to this one breakthrough treatment for having kids stay well away by all means necessary.
The story was interesting and engaging with horror within.
There was within this story some nice writing and good paragraphs. The horror that stays with you is the thought of parents eating their young, torn apart with this desire an alien one to their logic.
A good old style classic horror you probably have seen the likes of in some horror movies.

Review and book trailer also here

[Kristen My Bookish Fairy Tale · Rating 5 out of 5]

Breed is a chilling and horrifying tale. It is terrifying and not like anything I have read before. Breed is definitely not for the faint of heart.

Breed takes you on a disturbing tale of one couple`s journey to have children. They will do anything and I mean anything to have kids. After all hope has been lost, or so they think, they hear of a doctor who has a magical ability to get women pregnant. Even after all of western medicine has failed them, this doctor seems to know the secret.

What starts out as a miraculous miracle turns into something more deadly.

Breed is one of those stories that will give you nightmares. When you think you know the who what where when and why`s, Chase throw`s you for a loop. I was never expecting the book to end the way it did.

I was so fascinated with this book. From page one you just have to keep reading. It is a thrill ride of a lifetime. It is dark and gritty and disturbing on so many levels.

Fans of the horror genre will really enjoy Breed.

[Rabbit {Paint me like one of your 19th century gothic heroines!} · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was disturbing. One of the most disturbing books I've read in a long time. I can understand if a lot of people didn't enjoy or DNFed this one.

I mean, any book that involves parents turning into animal-human hybrids that crave and/or do eat their own children because of a high risk fertility treatment is pretty fucked up. Also the animal death toll is quite high.





Why the high rating?

My favorite genre is horror. I read a lot of horror novels, and watch a lot of horror movies. I am not saying I'm the most jaded desensitized horror fan, because I'm not. I fall somewhere between the average person who is new to the genre/dragged to the theater and jaded horror fan. It takes quite a bit to shock me now sometimes.

Horror, like any genre, can get quite cliche, sometimes that is comforting, but it can get rather boring. This book shocked and appalled me but I could not put it down. I pretty much read it in one sitting. I had to read on to find where the story leads to and how it ends. Had to. Like up until 5 am to finish this book. I'm still debating on giving it 5 stars for that fact alone.

The writing was pretty good, imho. Also the pacing was fast but still build a lot of tension.

Also a bittersweet ending, for those who wanted to know. :)

[Kristin (MyBookishWays Reviews) · Rating 5 out of 5]

You may also read my review here: http://www.mybookishways.com/2012/08/...

When Leslie meets Alex Twisden, it’s pretty much love at first site. 17 years her senior, Alex is everything Leslie wants in a man: successful lawyer, wants a family, and absolutely adores Leslie. Leslie is quite capable on her own, working for an up and coming children’s publisher, and quite frankly, she’d have married Alex if he was cab driver (or other such blue collar profession.) But he’s not, and they’re deliriously happy, comfortable in the luxury of Alex’s family brownstone, with portraits of his ancestors looking down on the hopeful lovebirds. Only one thing is missing from Alex and Leslie’s bliss: a baby. After countless fertility treatments, medical tests, and ultimately, numerous forms of quackery, “guaranteed” to increase fertility and give them the child they so desperately want, they turn to Dr. Kis, a supposed miracle worker in Slovenia. He is recommended by a neighbor and lawyer that, in exchange for information about the doctor that resulted in his wife’s pregnancy, demands to be given a job at Alex’s firm. Alex acquiesces, and learns about Dr. Kis, who supposedly performs miracles of fertility on his patients. When Alex pitches the idea to Leslie, she’s less than thrilled, having tired of the endless stress and strain put on their marriage by their efforts to conceive. She realizes how important this is to Alex, though, and agrees to go, after extracting a promise that this will be the last effort. So, the couple makes the journey to Slovenia, to the office of the strange, abrupt Dr. Kis, where a slavering pit bull stands guard, and where, little do they know, they’re about to undergo a very painful procedure. Said procedure surely achieves what Dr. Kris promised, but at what price? Turns out, it’s a big one. Huge. Soon the couple begins undergoing some terrifying changes, and by the time the twins are born (early), their lives have already become very different.

Cut to 10 years later: The Twisden house is in decline, falling to ruins, and twins Adam and Alice are kept to a very strict schedule. Dreaded are the nightly dinners where they watch their parents consume meat so rare that it’s blue and swimming in a puddle of blood (what Alex and Leslie call “gravy”). They are locked in their room on a nightly basis, and the noises that come from their parent’s room (of which Adam hears through a purloined baby monitor) are terrifying. The twins are loved, however, and Alex and Leslie haven’t harmed a hair on their heads…yet.

Adam is convinced that his parents are going to kill them, and is determined to take his sister and escape. He runs to a trusted teacher first, but his parents prove to be talented trackers, and he doesn’t remain hidden for long. Meanwhile, Alice has met a group of feral kids in Central Park that will reveal much more about their condition and what their parents may be becoming.

At first blush, Breed is pure horror, but it’s the author’s wry observations on elitist society and also Alex and Leslie’s slow loss of humanity that elevates this to something much more. Alex and Leslie adore their children, but cannot fight the changes taking place within them, and their struggle against those changes (in particular Leslie), is heartbreaking, and horrifying. The author turns the creep factor up to about 11, and it’s the first time in a while that after putting the book down, I may have been a little afraid of the dark for a few nights. By turns very scary, and heart wrenching, Breed will take you for a ride you’ll never forget, all the way to its shocking conclusion.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Look, if you are looking for Nabokov this isn't the book for you. BUT...if you are a fan of highly entertaining and elegantly moving prose, then this is the read for you.

The story is pretty good and the ending is, like some other reviewers have noted, pretty damn good. But what is amazing about this book is that the flow of the writing and narrative is unrelenting. I could not_put_it_down. I was consumed by it.

I am a writer and reader who likes to be entertained. I have very low tolerance with naval gazing or prose which go on and on without any adherence to the narrative line.

The prose stuck to a very strong narrative line and the prose were VERY GOOD. Smart writing and impossible to look away from. Great great read. And contrary to the big old Stephen King slug on the front, this isn't really horror. I mean, it's got some graphic violence in it, but not a lot. I hate graphic violence and this is pretty tame - it's more suspense.

Great fast and furious read. I loved it.

[She-Wolf Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ll start with a caveat. I’m no big fan of horror. I tend toward science based sci-fi. Arthur C. Clarke being at the top of my list of favorite sci-fi writers. So, when I was asked to review an advance copy of Breed by Chase Novak (the pen name for Scott Spencer), I was apprehensive. I have very little background or interest overall in the genre. And, after reading the sticker on the cover offering a quote by the King of Horror himself, Stephen King, who hailed Breed as “the best horror novel I’ve read since Peter Straub’s Ghost Story”, I was even more apprehensive.

Why? Mostly because…I’m sort of a punk. As a kid, when the scary movies came on, I would always watch just to prove to my older brothers that I could hack it. Unfortunately, I suffer the emotional scars to this day. At age 7, I begged my folks to let me see Poltergeist. Before the movie ended, I had to be physically removed from the theater as a result of my bloodcurdling and hysterical crying. And the waterworks went on for the next week. Such jaundiced-intestinal behavior continued into my adulthood. Once, while on a business trip with a layover that lasted longer than the Mesozoic-era, I picked up Mr. King’s The Shining for shits and giggles. Well, after it scared the shit out of me, I wasn’t giggling. I mean, who comes up with killer topiaries…really!

With that preface, despite my apprehension, I loved this book. Novak has created a wonderfully devious take on the “urge to breed” and “rear young”, or as we refer to it when it involves upright, two-legged mammals, the biological imperative to procreate and become parents.

We begin with Alex and Leslie Twisden. Alex is a topnotch lawyer from old New York money. Leslie is many years his junior, beautiful, classy, not from money, but not a gold-digger either. The love is genuine and powerful. And like most married couples, the bond of companionship naturally leads to the desire to make a family. And like many married couples, the trouble begins when love proves not enough to produce a pregnancy.

Novak perfectly captures the anxiety, angst, anger, self-loathing, desperation, and depression that is every fruitless couple. Making all the more believable the actions they take to remedy the situation. A chance encounter with a once equally barren, now suddenly pregnant couple, leads the Twisden’s to seek fertility treatments from a Dr. Kis in Slovenia.

This gets to one of the best things about this book…it’s drop dead funny. Novak deftly mixes wry, sometimes laugh out loud humor, with some truly jarring and at times frightening imagery - the scenes with Dr. Kis being some of the funniest and most bizarre of them all. From his mad scientist look, to his drug addict assistant, Reggie. While waiting for Dr. Kis, Alex and Leslie inquire as to the nature of the fertility treatment:

“Obviously I would lose my job if I were to tell you what materials the doctor uses, but he does want you to know that he has had great success—great, great success—using the tissue of some of the most vigorous and fertile beings on earth.”

“Beings?” Alex asks.

“Yes,” says Reggie. “Living things.”

“You seem not to want to say mammal. What kind of being are we talking about?”

“It’s the results that matter,” Reggie says. “Lions, tigers, bears—do you really care?”

You could say it’s all downhill form there, and for a moment it is. But ultimately, Leslie and Alex achieve their goal. A family. Two beautiful children, twins, a boy and a girl, Adam and Alice. But the treatment that brought all of their dreams to life, also brought with it unimaginable nightmares that they don’t even understand themselves.

Novak moves quickly ahead to the twins on the cusp between youth and adolescence. Naturally, a time of great change. A time, in many ways, that is very frightening for both children and their parents. And in the case of the Twisdens, a time of frightening realization for parent and children.

This realization, leads Adam and Alice, not on a “quest to learn the true nature” of their parents, as the book jacket suggests, but to flee for their lives from the parents they suspect may not have their best interests at heart, or may not be able to help themselves from hurting them.

That in and of itself was horror enough for me. The idea, as a child, of being scared of your parents. And as a parent, being scared of yourself, and what you might do to your children. Every parent looks at their newborn child and says, “I could just eat you up!” Well, Novak’s Breed may make future parents think twice before putting that thought into the universe.

Written in the present tense, Breed reads like a great screenplay…the action rolling out in front of the reader in real-time. The relationships between the main characters are real and believable, making the core tension in the book, the danger posed to children by their own parents, even more palpable.

There are a bevy of key side characters: the well-intentioned school teacher and his gay lover who shelter Adam; the gang of feral children living in Central Park who shelter Alice and who help illuminate the mystery surrounding Dr. Kis and his magical fertility drug.

But at the heart of the story are the parents and their children.

If there were any disappointments, it was that at one point, you realize that much of the book is one long chase scene. And while the conclusion of that chase is in some ways satisfying, it did at times seem to drag, or beg for a speedier resolution. And the ending, in my book, wanted for more finality.

While I don’t think Breed will bear any offspring of its own, Novak has given birth to an original and terrible tale, one that I think will enjoy much success.

This was a guest review that originally appeared on the review blog She-Wolf Reads.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alright, here we go. I received this book through a Goodreads First Reads giveaway.

With that out of the way, let me talk about Breed. This is a horror story that revolves around one couple who's quest to conceive children goes very wrong. The author says that he was inspired by Rosemary's Baby, but I feel that this concept in Breed had more truly horrifying potential than the it's inspiration. too bad the execution was not quite up to that level.

Chase Novak (the pseudonym for Scott Spencer) is an eloquent writer. His prose flows beautifully and sets every scene like a museum of classical paintings lined up for the reader to peruse. I am sure that I would love his literary fiction offerings for this reason.

Unfortunately, his beautiful writing does not quite hit the horror button the way he probably intended. The pacing is choppy and makes for some difficult transitions between scenes. There are also scenes that deal with a specific character that are left hanging and fall away for many pages before he returns to them. The tension built by this dissipates long before the author sees fit to revisit these characters and scenes.

This author is a great writer, but not a great horror writer. It takes a certain special talent to get horror right. So, I give Mr. Novak/Spencer a lot of credit for trying. I know he has released a sequel, but I cannot bring myself to want to read it. Sure, there are lots of unanswered questions at the end of this book, but I just don't think I can make myself care about the answers.

This is not great, not terrible, and because there is so much better horror out there, I do not recommend it.

[Amber · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are a few movies and stories that make you wonder, "How on earth does anybody think of something like this". This was that type of book. This book was weird.

The blurb got me so excited because it is just the type of book I love, especially the weirdness but once I started to read it I really thought I wouldn't like it. The beginning was just so slow and I was questioning whether I should push through and read on. Which I did and I am glad I did so!

As soon as I got pass the initial back story and character development the pace picked up so much and I couldn't put the book down. However, I think the characters personalities should have been described in greater detail as I found it extremely difficult to connect to them and I think that was necessary to make this book worth 5 stars (especially regarding the children).

Something that I found annoying was that it doesn't have chapters and at times I got slightly confused but overall I found the book entertaining and very unpredictable.

Although this book is classed as a horror novel I would not say it is scary as such although there are a few gruesome parts.

Also, I am still in shock from the abrupt ending. I did not see that coming, at all!

[Sonia · Rating 1 out of 5]

1 out of 5. I feel disappointed... the book had so much potential in theory and didn't deliver it... I endure so much icky facts, and feel like the only purpose was to gross the reader, since there hadn't weight to the story. Right now I'll probably say it was the worse from 2012... I have to take a pick of this year's list to make sure, but I'm almost certain it was. And it wasn't the type of story or the pet eating and stuff, it was the writing.

I liked the twins. And the professor. The way he connected with the kids and tried to protect them was something. And strangely, it was the only character that allows us some insight of what he was feeling and thinking - apart from Adam. I didn't like the POV. The detached way the story was "communicated", it looked like if it was a documentary, without the good narrator, and the good plans, and the good storyline and all the good work behind. It was disjointed, and with no dept. I feel betrayed, I had so much expectation for the story.

[Andi Plouffe · Rating 1 out of 5]

Awful

[Bill]

Breed is the first book in the Breed series (2 books) by American author Chase Novak, a pseudonym for Scott Spencer. I have to rate this book as a Did Not Finish (DNF) so can't in all honestly give it a rating.

I did try to give the book a fair shake, but after getting through half of it, I came to the conclusion that it really wasn't for me. I'm not sure who the book is aimed at; horror aficionados? I do enjoy a good horror story, I think, but once again, this one didn't work.

This is the premise in case you're interested in trying it yourself. A rich couple in New York have been trying unsuccessfully to have children. They take one last chance, flying to Slovenia to meet with a specialist. Dr. Kis injects something into both of them; animal products, hormones, etc. Lo and behold, it works and they have twins (a third baby is born deformed and taken away, presumed dead). Oh, both parents grow extensive body hair as one of the side effects. Their lives spiral downwards as their kids grow up; dogs and cats disappear in the neighborhood, their children are locked up every night; their house is destroyed and everything sold to pay bills. The children decide they must escape because they fear their parents want to kill (eat?) them and when they do, they meet up with other children born from similar parents......

That's as far as I got. I will say the story moves along at a reasonable pace. There is lots of action. But I never warmed to it in anyway and ultimately, I didn't care how it ends. That's about it. Sorry. I don't often not finish books I've started and I probably could have steamed through with this story, but .... nyeh.. (No Rating)

[Madison Blum · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh

[firstaidkit · Rating 3 out of 5]

what in the absolute f*ck?

[WortGestalt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Da ich nicht zu den regelmäßigen Lesern von moderner Horror-Literatur gehöre, kann ich nicht mit Bestimmtheit sagen, ob dieses Buch tatsächlich dem Horror-Genre zuzuordnen ist. Aber als jemand, für den Bram Stokers „Dracula“ und Mary Shelleys „Frankenstein“ als Sinnbilder für den klassischen Schauerroman stehen, ist für mich „Breed“ genau das, was ich mir unter einem modernen Schauerroman vorstellen würde. Die Atmosphäre, die Bilder, das alles ist für mich die logische und konsequente Weiterentwicklung in der alten Tradition großer Schauerromane.

Und das macht sich auch direkt am Schreibstil des Autors bemerkbar, dieser hatte in meinen Augen wirklich Klasse. Ich fühlte mich beim Lesen, wenngleich die Geschichte in der Gegenwart spielt, um ein, zwei Jahrhunderte in der Zeit zurückversetzt. Als würde man durch das viktorianische London streifen, obwohl sich die Story im heutigen New York City zuträgt. Ein Erzählstil, der einen gefangen nimmt und aus der Zeit reißt, das hat mir großen Spaß gemacht.

Die Idee zu der Geschichte selbst ist weniger aufsehenerregend, sie ist solide, aber nicht völlig neu, dafür aber letztlich besser verarbeitet, als ich es bei dem Klappentext zunächst angenommen hätte. Ein wohlsituiertes Paar aus Manhattan hat eigentlich nur einen einzigen Wunsch, den es sich bisher nicht erfüllen konnte: eigene Kinder. Nach jahrelangen Bemühungen und aus purer Verzweiflung heraus wagen sie nun einen letzten Versuch und nehmen die Dienste eines Fruchtbarkeitsexperten im fernen Slowenien in Anspruch. Die Behandlung schlägt an, die beiden werden Eltern von zwei reizenden Kindern. Nur mit ihnen selbst gehen seitdem merkwürdige Veränderungen vor, da ist dieser Hunger, diese Wildheit...
Man bekommt nicht alles haarklein und im Detail erklärt, aber die Vorkommnisse sprechen für sich und lassen ein recht gutes Bild dessen entstehen, was die Fruchtbarkeitsbehandlung bei dem Paar bewirkt hat.

Und ich will an dieser Stelle gar nicht zu viel verraten, denn auch der Klappentext hält sich bedeckt und deutet nur an, dass die Eltern ihre Kinder plötzlich zum Fressen gern haben. Ob nun Vampir, Werwolf, Zombie oder wie auch immer geartete Ungeheuer, das bleibt vor der Lektüre offen und so soll es auch bleiben. Ich war selbst ganz gebannt von der Art der Mutation, die diesem Horror-Roman zugrunde liegt und auch wenn es an ein bekanntes Motiv erinnert, fand ich die Ausarbeitung hier sehr stimmig. Ebenso wie die Figuren. Da hat für mich alles gepasst, besonders die beiden Kinder! Die Zwillinge Adam und Alice haben ihre Rollen sehr schön ausgefüllt, die Zerrissenheit zwischen unbedingter Liebe zu ihren Eltern und nackter Furcht vor dem, was aus ihnen geworden ist, treibt große Teile der Handlung an und sorgt für einige dramatische Momente.

Fazit: Wenn man sich eingelesen und die Dynamik dieses wunderbaren Erzählstils verinnerlicht hat, wartet eine moderner Schauerroman mit toller Atmosphäre und viel rohem Fleisch auf den Leser. Ein recht bekanntes Motiv wurde hier in einer stimmigen Mischung aus modernen und klassischen Horror-Elementen in Szene gesetzt. Vor allem gibt es hier wirklich eine Geschichte, die erzählt werden will und nicht nur Blut, das an die Wände gespritzt wird.

Bewertung:

Stil: 5 Sterne
Idee: 3 Sterne
Umsetzung: 4 Sterne
Figuren: 5 Sterne
Plot-Entwicklung: 4 Sterne
Tempo: 4 Sterne
Tiefe: 4 Sterne
Komplexität: 3 Sterne
Lesespaß: 4 Sterne

Durchschnittliche Bewertung: 4,00 Sterne

Gesamteindruck: Glatte 4 Sterne für eine absolut positive Überraschung!


Rezension auch auf:
http://wortgestalt-buchblog.blogspot.de

[Travis · Rating 4 out of 5]

******SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW******



Desperately seeking fertility, Alex and Leslie, as a last resort, seek the help of Dr. Kis in far off Slovenia. He injects both Leslie and Alex, painfully with a large syringe, with a mysterious serum. Shortly thereafter, they become ravenously hypersexual, and Leslie is soon pregnant and eventually gives birth to triplets: Alice, Adam, and a genetic monstrosity, Bernard, whom we are initially led to believe is euthanized but is actually spirited away by a devoutly religious nurse.

Life, following Dr. Kis's treatments, is never the same for the yuppie Manhattan couple. Both Leslie and Alex grow ever more hirsute, ever more lupine, ever stronger, ever faster. They never actually metamorphosize as in the classic werewolf tales into wolves, but their behavior and tastes (they develop a taste for rats, squirrels, raw meat, dogs, and even human flesh, and most horrifically, they start to yearn for the flesh of their own children) become more and more wolfish as they become less and less human, even gradually, though not completely, losing their capacity for language. The driving force in the narrative occurs when, at ten years of age, Alice and Adam, starkly frightened by their parents' behavior and afraid for their own lives, run away from home.

Breed is a classic tale of horror with a few elements of humor scattered about and a great deal of violence and terrifying suspense. There is no happy ending here, but scary stories wouldn't really be scary if, in the end, everything all worked out for good. This is a dark novel but one that is highly entertaining.

An interesting philosophical and psychological issue arises in this novel: Alex and Leslie gradually, due to their injections from Dr. Kis, slough off the mores of the mass of humanity, becoming uncivil, vicious, bloodthirsty (literally), cruel, and violent. We know that these changes in Alex and Leslie are not their fault: they result from the changes wrought by Dr. Kis's injections. Knowing this, we readers should be sympathetic toward Alex and Leslie, for we know that they are not really responsible for their actions--the unethical, even evil, Dr. Kis is responsible--as their very selves have been transformed by chemical-biological forces beyond their control. Still, as we watch in horror their increasingly wolfish behavior, we cannot help but hold them responsible, yet they are not acting truly freely, and so it is not really fair of us to impugn them for their actions when they are not in full control of themselves; nevertheless, we do so. This brings home the point that, regardless of what we believe about free will--even, in fact, if we don't believe in free will at all--we cannot escape the human tendency to assign responsibility to an individual for actions that that individual carries out even if the individual is acting in ways she or he would prefer not to due to factors that have rendered her or his free will impotent.

[Stephanie]

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

My Summary: Alex and Leslie's relationship was always strong. They were happily married for years, and even the age difference couldn't make a dent in their blissfully happy lives.

That is, until the couple began wishing for a child. After years of trying with no success, Alex and Leslie begin to look into unorthodox methods, with disastrous results.

Ten years later, the Twisdens have everything they could ever have wanted: a pair of lovely twins, perfect in every way. But something is not quite right in the Twisden house, and the twin fleeing sparks a string of events that will call into question everything - especially how far people are willing to go for a child of their own.

My Thoughts: Wow. Just... wow. I was struck speechless at the end of this novel, unable to put my thoughts into words for quite some time. Going into Breed, I had no idea what to expect. I've always been an avid fan of sci-fi, but this didn't seem like your run-of-the-mill sci-fi novel. Regardless, I dove in head-first.

And I loved every minute of it.

I devoured (ha!) every page, staying up well into the night to squeeze in any extra pages. Novak's style of narration was perfect for this eerie novel, revealing little tidbits of information at the perfect moments. I loved the dark, creepy atmosphere. Actually, I loved the whole book.

Final Thoughts: I definitely recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys darker, creepier novels. Chase Novak has found a fan in me - I can't wait until his next novel is released. Seriously. I'm expecting nothing short of perfection!

[Renée Swann · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brilliantly written and crafted story of a couple who are desperate to conceive. But they end up getting more than they bargained for. Leslie and Alex Twisden will do anything to have a child. From a friend, they are given one last chance. When they meet Dr Kis in Ljubljana, Slovenia, it is where things go horribly wrong. Leslie and Alex begin to experience some bizarre side effects from their fertility treatment, a twisted physical and mental evolution of sorts: They’re growing hair in unusual places. Their sex drives sky rocket. And like the goby fish shot they were injected with, they are destined to eat their young.

Ten years later, the story jumps to twins Adam and Alice being locked in their bedrooms after dark. And little do they know, it’s so their parents, Leslie and Alex, won’t eat them. Adam and Alice can hear some pretty sick noises coming from their parent’s bedroom and it’s getting louder, more intense, more disturbing each night. Together, they decide to find out the true nature of the people that raised them. Only, it’s far more horrible than they could ever imagine.
One night, Adam dreams of freedom and plans their escape. But freedom, for all of them, is far off.

Gory, heart-stopping and terrifying. Chase Novak has a way of creeping you out, by making the most unusual and frightening things seem the norm. For me, the ending was unsatisfying. And very, very sad. Though I thoroughly enjoyed reading Breed, the ending left me with too many questions.

Recommended to: Stephen King enthusiasts.

[Dramapuppy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This started off really well, but then fell apart completely.

So we have this couple, and they're desperate to have a baby. They would do literally anything. We see their intense pursuit of this goal. Tension builds as we wonder what risks they're willing to take. What will happen? It's an exploration of passion and wanting. I was beginning to get scared.

Then, for some reason, we skip to when the kids are ten years old. Why??? All the tension has now been destroyed, and it's a stupid monster story that doesn't make any sense. The rest of the novel is basically a huge chase sequence. I guess it's not bad action, but it wasn't what I wanted. The psychological aspects of desperation and need completely disappear, and it kind of feels like a rejected Goosebumps book.

At the beginning, the writing felt satirical. I chuckled once or twice, and the style worked with the concepts being explored. This style does not work, however, with stereotypical monster action. It just feels stupid and bad. There's nothing thought-provoking to make ironic jokes about, so it just falls flat.

It doesn't deal with emotions at all, so it isn't scary. It doesn't discuss the frustration and panic the parents would feel upon realizing their desire to consume their children. It glosses over everything that made the premise sound interesting.

In the end, this was not worth my time. If you want a bland monster story, this isn't the worst. On the other hand, if you're intrigued by the premise, just put the book down and back away slowly.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was completely ridiculous- which was not to say that I didn't enjoy it. The plot is something out of an overdone B-Horror movie: A wealthy childless couple, having exhausted all other methods of procreation travel to a mysterious doctor in Slovenia who treats them with a number of injections to increase their fertility. The drugs work almost immediately, and nine months later the woman gives birth to healthy twins and their malformed sibling, who is immediately whisked away. But of course there are side effects, the mildest being the coarse hair that begins to sprout all over the parent's bodies and their increasing appetite for rare meat. Pets in the neighborhood go missing. The twins are locked in their rooms every night, but are they being hidden, or protected? And if so, from what?

In other words, all of the elements for a familiar horror story are present, but the story that ensues is not quite what you expect. It’s not a comedy, or a straight up satire, but the book is often times hilarious, and the subtle tongue-in-cheek style of humor is so understated that if you don’t pay attention you might miss it and think this is a run of the mill genre piece, which it most definitely is not. The writing style and skipping point of view make this a very literary piece of work. To put it another way: this novel is in on its own joke. A light read that won’t make you think, but won’t make you feel dumber, either.

[Craig DiLouie · Rating 3 out of 5]

In BREED by Chase Novak (an alias for writer/novelist Scott Spencer), Alex and Leslie Twisden lead glamorous lives in New York City, but they have been trying without success to have children for years–until they hear about a novel treatment from a Slovenian doctor. Soon, Leslie becomes pregnant with twins, but not without consequences as Alex and Leslie realize they are becoming increasingly animalistic.

Ten years later, adored but living in a house of secrets, the twins Adam and Alice find themselves locked into their rooms every night, with sounds coming from their parents’ bedroom getting progressively louder, more violent, and more disturbing. They set out to learn the true nature of the people who raised them only to reveal a threat so horrible it must be escaped at any cost.

BREED is a good book with a great concept. In my opinion, the writing was a bit stuffy–though not quite stilted–while occasionally breaking open into faster-paced scenes with terrific action in which one empathizes with both hunter and hunted. The tension builds nicely until finding a satisfying ending. Check it out if you’re interested in character-driven horror that is somewhat off the beaten path.