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Slaughterhouse Prayer
When a boy realises the grown-ups are killing animals and that he has been eating their bodies, he gives up meat. But should he share the truth and break another child's heart? As a youth he wants to believe in the ability of words and peaceful protest to end the slaughter, while struggling to resist a desire for revenge. Now a disillusioned man trying to rebuild his life, he must choose one of two paths. Acceptance means security, but those meat-industry adverts keep taunting him and some familiar insults - smelly pig, dirty cow, chick-chick-chicken - fill his head.
Slaughterhouse Prayer deals in human invention and our treatment of non-human animals, the manipulation of language and the nature of innocence. Society's pecking order is challenged as the story moves to its margins and beyond. A book of dreams, where visions are more real than reality and sentimentality is a strength, it asks a series of questions. Can a person honestly kill without emotion? Could a vegan soldier stay professional and humane? And will we ever confront the terror that surrounds us?
In Slaughterhouse Prayer a boy, youth and man search for the answers.
Slaughterhouse Prayer deals in human invention and our treatment of non-human animals, the manipulation of language and the nature of innocence. Society's pecking order is challenged as the story moves to its margins and beyond. A book of dreams, where visions are more real than reality and sentimentality is a strength, it asks a series of questions. Can a person honestly kill without emotion? Could a vegan soldier stay professional and humane? And will we ever confront the terror that surrounds us?
In Slaughterhouse Prayer a boy, youth and man search for the answers.
- GenresFiction
304 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2018
5 people are currently reading
61 people want to read
About the author
John King
729 books150 followersJohn King is the author of eight novels – The Football Factory, Headhunters, England Away, Human Punk, White Trash, The Prison House, Skinheads and The Liberal Politics Of Adolf Hitler. The Football Factory was turned into a high-profile film. A new novel – Slaughterhouse Prayer – was published on 8 November 2018.
King has written short stories and non-fiction for a number of publications, with articles appearing in the likes of The New Statesman, Le Monde and La Repubblica. His books have been widely translated abroad. He edits the fiction fanzine Verbal and lives in London.
King has written short stories and non-fiction for a number of publications, with articles appearing in the likes of The New Statesman, Le Monde and La Repubblica. His books have been widely translated abroad. He edits the fiction fanzine Verbal and lives in London.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
December 17, 2019
I've read all of John King's books. I particularly enjoyed the "football trilogy" (The Football Factory, Headhunters, and England Away), and Human Punk. I was far less convinced by the books that followed, particularly the last couple (Skinheads and The Liberal Politics of Adolf Hitler).
John King's ninth novel, Slaughterhouse Prayer concerns animal abuse and the meat industry, and has a very pro-vegan agenda. As a vegan myself, I often wonder, given the environmental, health and ethical benefits of veganism are beyond doubt, why more people don't turn their back on meat and dairy. If you were unsure of the horrors involved in meat and dairy production then 'Slaughterhouse Prayer' will leave you in no doubt as it leaves nothing to the imagination.
Despite being very receptive to the book's message, and finding it quite compelling, it is somewhat incoherent: Mike Tanner, an ex-hunt saboteur, leads a self contained life which revolves around his local pub, allotments, vegan cooking, and music, however his simmering anger about the abuse of animals is never far from the surface, especially given his hyper sensitivity to any stimulus, like a butcher's van or leather shoes. The narrative is increasingly intercut with brutal interludes of animal cruelty which anthropomorphise the farm animals.
I won't say any more about the plot however, as it went along, I found it increasingly implausible and hard to follow.
Ratings-wise my head says it's three stars and my heart says it's four stars. My heart wins out as I am sympathetic to what John King set out to achieve, and to the book's central message.
It's hard to see 'Slaughterhouse Prayer' winning over many new readers but it is well worth reading and, if it makes people think more about what they put on their plates then all the better.
I look forward to discovering what John King does next.
4/5
Slaughterhouse Prayer by John King
The blurb...
When a boy realises the grown-ups are killing animals and that he has been eating their bodies, he gives up meat. But should he share the truth and break another child's heart? As a youth he wants to believe in the ability of words and peaceful protest to end the slaughter, while struggling to resist a desire for revenge. Now a disillusioned man trying to rebuild his life, he must choose one of two paths. Acceptance means security, but those meat-industry adverts keep taunting him and some familiar insults - smelly pig, dirty cow, chick-chick-chicken - fill his head.
Slaughterhouse Prayer deals in human invention and our treatment of non-human animals, the manipulation of language and the nature of innocence. Society's pecking order is challenged as the story moves to its margins and beyond. A book of dreams, where visions are more real than reality and sentimentality is a strength, it asks a series of questions. Can a person honestly kill without emotion? Could a vegan soldier stay professional and humane? And will we ever confront the terror that surrounds us?
In Slaughterhouse Prayer a boy, youth and man search for the answers.
John King's ninth novel, Slaughterhouse Prayer concerns animal abuse and the meat industry, and has a very pro-vegan agenda. As a vegan myself, I often wonder, given the environmental, health and ethical benefits of veganism are beyond doubt, why more people don't turn their back on meat and dairy. If you were unsure of the horrors involved in meat and dairy production then 'Slaughterhouse Prayer' will leave you in no doubt as it leaves nothing to the imagination.
Despite being very receptive to the book's message, and finding it quite compelling, it is somewhat incoherent: Mike Tanner, an ex-hunt saboteur, leads a self contained life which revolves around his local pub, allotments, vegan cooking, and music, however his simmering anger about the abuse of animals is never far from the surface, especially given his hyper sensitivity to any stimulus, like a butcher's van or leather shoes. The narrative is increasingly intercut with brutal interludes of animal cruelty which anthropomorphise the farm animals.
I won't say any more about the plot however, as it went along, I found it increasingly implausible and hard to follow.
Ratings-wise my head says it's three stars and my heart says it's four stars. My heart wins out as I am sympathetic to what John King set out to achieve, and to the book's central message.
It's hard to see 'Slaughterhouse Prayer' winning over many new readers but it is well worth reading and, if it makes people think more about what they put on their plates then all the better.
I look forward to discovering what John King does next.
4/5
Slaughterhouse Prayer by John King
The blurb...
When a boy realises the grown-ups are killing animals and that he has been eating their bodies, he gives up meat. But should he share the truth and break another child's heart? As a youth he wants to believe in the ability of words and peaceful protest to end the slaughter, while struggling to resist a desire for revenge. Now a disillusioned man trying to rebuild his life, he must choose one of two paths. Acceptance means security, but those meat-industry adverts keep taunting him and some familiar insults - smelly pig, dirty cow, chick-chick-chicken - fill his head.
Slaughterhouse Prayer deals in human invention and our treatment of non-human animals, the manipulation of language and the nature of innocence. Society's pecking order is challenged as the story moves to its margins and beyond. A book of dreams, where visions are more real than reality and sentimentality is a strength, it asks a series of questions. Can a person honestly kill without emotion? Could a vegan soldier stay professional and humane? And will we ever confront the terror that surrounds us?
In Slaughterhouse Prayer a boy, youth and man search for the answers.
November 1, 2018
Slaughterhouse Prayer, John King’s ninth novel, builds upon the animal rights passages of his previous novel, The Liberal Politics of Adolph Hitler, and convincingly kicks against the comforting but false narrative of Anthropomorphism-As-An-Excuse, leaving the reader with no doubt that non-human animals naturally possess emotions of fear, panic, memory, anger, disgust, happiness, sadness, surprise, contempt, and more. Slaughterhouse Prayer is a brutal and unflinching novel of guilt and innocence and hypocrisy which, at its very core, exposes how and why most humans are manipulated into excusing or turning a blind eye to the horrors of hunting, vivisection, and the meat, dairy and leather industries.
More than anything, it’s a novel that took real courage to write and to publish, one that guarantees a reaction, and one that will implicate many, if not most, of its readers. Inevitably, there will be those reviews claiming that the author pushed it far too far — maybe he did, maybe he didn’t. That’s not for me to say. It’s a novel as unsettling as it is upsetting, but its power cannot be dismissed or overstated.
More than anything, it’s a novel that took real courage to write and to publish, one that guarantees a reaction, and one that will implicate many, if not most, of its readers. Inevitably, there will be those reviews claiming that the author pushed it far too far — maybe he did, maybe he didn’t. That’s not for me to say. It’s a novel as unsettling as it is upsetting, but its power cannot be dismissed or overstated.
July 7, 2020
Mike Tanner just wants to live a quiet life but encountering animal abuse all around him he eventually feels forced to do something about it. Great lone wolf narrative about someone who can't take the cruelty anymore. Although Tanner has a Hunt Sab background by the time the story picks up he's clearly not been any kind of activist in a long time. He goes underground and after endless adventures eventually resumes his quiet life. Clearly John King wanted to created a character anyone could identify with, so this isn't the tale of ALF derring-do some might be expecting.
November 11, 2018
This is a really important book; one that could and should change prevailing attitudes about how human beings treat animals.
It's a tense and all-consuming novel that goes into dark places, reminding us not only how badly and brutally we treat our fellow creatures but how we have the temerity to project our own worst vices on to innocent beings of other species.
Its main protagonist finds that peaceful campaigning has little effect on reducing the killing and abuse of animals, and instead moves towards direct action against those who are complicit in the everyday barbarities carried out in our name.
King's narrative raises the moral issue of whether we can stand idly by when we know that terrible suffering is going on in our midst. And yet it also acknowledges that, for all sorts of reasons, taking matters into our own hands is fraught with difficulties and dangers.
One of the triumphs of this book is that it points out, with emotional clarity, something that should be obvious to all of us, but somehow doesn't seem to be – that animals have feelings every bit as strong as we do - maternal, fraternal and otherwise.
King has to be highly commended for tackling a subject, in novel form, that most people (and most publishers) refuse even to contemplate tangentially, let alone look fully in the face.
Slaughterhouse Prayer deserves to be a bestseller; if it is, then maybe things will begin to change for the better.
It's a tense and all-consuming novel that goes into dark places, reminding us not only how badly and brutally we treat our fellow creatures but how we have the temerity to project our own worst vices on to innocent beings of other species.
Its main protagonist finds that peaceful campaigning has little effect on reducing the killing and abuse of animals, and instead moves towards direct action against those who are complicit in the everyday barbarities carried out in our name.
King's narrative raises the moral issue of whether we can stand idly by when we know that terrible suffering is going on in our midst. And yet it also acknowledges that, for all sorts of reasons, taking matters into our own hands is fraught with difficulties and dangers.
One of the triumphs of this book is that it points out, with emotional clarity, something that should be obvious to all of us, but somehow doesn't seem to be – that animals have feelings every bit as strong as we do - maternal, fraternal and otherwise.
King has to be highly commended for tackling a subject, in novel form, that most people (and most publishers) refuse even to contemplate tangentially, let alone look fully in the face.
Slaughterhouse Prayer deserves to be a bestseller; if it is, then maybe things will begin to change for the better.
November 2, 2018
A highly original and disturbing vegan vigilante novel that guides readers into the well-concealed heart of darkness otherwise known as the livestock industry. I can't remember when I last read a work of fiction that lingered so persistently in my mind.
November 11, 2018
This is a very powerful and thought provoking book and as with all John King's books it packs an emotional punch to it.
Slaughterhouse Prayer left me reviewing my own way of life again due to it's very powerful depiction of the way the meat, dairy and leather industries operate and suck us all in without thinking of how our food has arrived on our plates or the clothes on our backs and shoes on our feet.
I found myself being angry and sad and each reading left me thinking more about how I was living my life and what more changes can I make in my life to ensure I wasn't contributing to further animal cruelty.
It is a rollercoaster of a ride and I haven't read a book that has affected me as much as this one and as I say enabled me to question how I was living.
It is that powerful a book. I can't recommend it highly enough.
Slaughterhouse Prayer left me reviewing my own way of life again due to it's very powerful depiction of the way the meat, dairy and leather industries operate and suck us all in without thinking of how our food has arrived on our plates or the clothes on our backs and shoes on our feet.
I found myself being angry and sad and each reading left me thinking more about how I was living my life and what more changes can I make in my life to ensure I wasn't contributing to further animal cruelty.
It is a rollercoaster of a ride and I haven't read a book that has affected me as much as this one and as I say enabled me to question how I was living.
It is that powerful a book. I can't recommend it highly enough.
September 29, 2022
3.5 Stars!
FOUR LEGS GOOD, TWO LEGS BAD
“With their incredible wealth, the great post-war democracies could easily have moved to a meat-free diet, but instead they had let business interests take them in the opposite direction, adopting a hard line capitalist system of meat production.”
This is somewhat of a departure for King. Initially this felt like stumbling lost through the woods trying to find the path with a torch that wasn’t quite strong enough to see your surroundings, but I stuck with this and I eventually did get onto a path of sorts, albeit one which led down an incredibly gristly and disturbing journey.
I remember experiencing this problem with some of his other work, a slow, confusing “where is this going?” feeling, but then it slowly starts to come together. I am going to go out on a limb and suggest that King may not be a meat eater. I suppose this is what you would call militant veganism. This has some of the most disturbing descriptions of animal cruelty you are likely to come up against, outside of a farm or abattoir. I mean truly harrowing, particularly when done from the animal’s perspective too.
Descriptions of the emasculatome, elastration, the Burdizzo and the Newberry castration knife, are possibly best left to the imagination…or maybe not. King makes a point of blurring the lines between man and beast, and also between human and animal suffering to the point of anthropomorphism, which is obviously a bit of a ambitious move. And there is a moral superiority and preachy feel which underpins much of this, which will prove a little too much for some. It may well be overdone but it certainly makes its point, if not taking quite a liberty in creativity and assumptions, this does present many uncomfortable truths, which may not quite have the clean answers we look for.
There are some obvious parallels to be drawn with consumerist culture and the capitalist system, i.e. profit over humanity, indifference over sensitivity and individualism over community, traits which have been encouraged, nurtured and celebrated for generations. So this makes for tough reading and this is a gritty tale, but it also makes some convincing and profound points.
“People were rich with credit and growing fat, clogging their arteries and ruining their bodies in an orgy of consumption.”
This is a novel which doesn’t just wear its political beliefs on its sleeve, it nails them to the mast and waves them long and hard. It explores the social and political ideas and consequences around meat eating, something which is more crucial today in light of the devastating impact on the environment. King makes a convincing argument with regards to society’s sanitising and distorting the true nature of meat eating and how it’s presented to the consumer at large in a sunny, clinical way, cleverly disguising its true origins of blood and slaughter, which is fair enough.
So although a tad adventurous with its connections and explicit to the point of extreme in its detail, this also warns what happens when strong convictions harden into violent, militant activism, and in the end who are the real criminals?...and the real victims?...blurred lines between mechanised slaughter whether that it be on the battlefield or in the meat works and is it really as simple as right v wrong?...
“Excess was part of a successful life, his mistakes the lessons a clever man learned.”
FOUR LEGS GOOD, TWO LEGS BAD
“With their incredible wealth, the great post-war democracies could easily have moved to a meat-free diet, but instead they had let business interests take them in the opposite direction, adopting a hard line capitalist system of meat production.”
This is somewhat of a departure for King. Initially this felt like stumbling lost through the woods trying to find the path with a torch that wasn’t quite strong enough to see your surroundings, but I stuck with this and I eventually did get onto a path of sorts, albeit one which led down an incredibly gristly and disturbing journey.
I remember experiencing this problem with some of his other work, a slow, confusing “where is this going?” feeling, but then it slowly starts to come together. I am going to go out on a limb and suggest that King may not be a meat eater. I suppose this is what you would call militant veganism. This has some of the most disturbing descriptions of animal cruelty you are likely to come up against, outside of a farm or abattoir. I mean truly harrowing, particularly when done from the animal’s perspective too.
Descriptions of the emasculatome, elastration, the Burdizzo and the Newberry castration knife, are possibly best left to the imagination…or maybe not. King makes a point of blurring the lines between man and beast, and also between human and animal suffering to the point of anthropomorphism, which is obviously a bit of a ambitious move. And there is a moral superiority and preachy feel which underpins much of this, which will prove a little too much for some. It may well be overdone but it certainly makes its point, if not taking quite a liberty in creativity and assumptions, this does present many uncomfortable truths, which may not quite have the clean answers we look for.
There are some obvious parallels to be drawn with consumerist culture and the capitalist system, i.e. profit over humanity, indifference over sensitivity and individualism over community, traits which have been encouraged, nurtured and celebrated for generations. So this makes for tough reading and this is a gritty tale, but it also makes some convincing and profound points.
“People were rich with credit and growing fat, clogging their arteries and ruining their bodies in an orgy of consumption.”
This is a novel which doesn’t just wear its political beliefs on its sleeve, it nails them to the mast and waves them long and hard. It explores the social and political ideas and consequences around meat eating, something which is more crucial today in light of the devastating impact on the environment. King makes a convincing argument with regards to society’s sanitising and distorting the true nature of meat eating and how it’s presented to the consumer at large in a sunny, clinical way, cleverly disguising its true origins of blood and slaughter, which is fair enough.
So although a tad adventurous with its connections and explicit to the point of extreme in its detail, this also warns what happens when strong convictions harden into violent, militant activism, and in the end who are the real criminals?...and the real victims?...blurred lines between mechanised slaughter whether that it be on the battlefield or in the meat works and is it really as simple as right v wrong?...
“Excess was part of a successful life, his mistakes the lessons a clever man learned.”
July 27, 2020
Perhaps one of the most honest and uncompromising novels I have ever encountered.
The subject matter will doubtless make King's Football Factory former readers ill at ease. Have seen reviews elsewhere from those too squeamish to finish the book - yet not squeamish enough to consider the horrific origins of their dinner.
All in all a fabulously confrontational and utterly uncommercial novel that anyone with a shred of decency in the body should read to finish. I dare you....
The subject matter will doubtless make King's Football Factory former readers ill at ease. Have seen reviews elsewhere from those too squeamish to finish the book - yet not squeamish enough to consider the horrific origins of their dinner.
All in all a fabulously confrontational and utterly uncommercial novel that anyone with a shred of decency in the body should read to finish. I dare you....
September 25, 2020
Love most of JK’s books but found this one a struggle. Shame really, as I went vegetarian last year and am now considering going vegan - so it’s a story/message that interests me a lot. Unfortunately, I found the book hard to follow in quite a few places meaning it probably won’t be something I’ll read again.
January 6, 2022
Whilst I appreciated what John King was trying to say in this book I found it kind of went off the rails a bit in the second half. It has inspired me to make a serious attempt at vegetarianism though, so I suppose that is a good thing.
July 16, 2019
Sorry one of the few books ii gave up on.Found it felt like I was being lectured and the book plodded.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews