I can't help thinking of this diabolically entertaining novel as Rosemary's Baby's Parents. Not that Rosemary Woodhouse has been appropriated by the author, Chase Novak. But the basic situation is similar. A well-heeled Manhattan couple conceives a child in fraught circumstances. Result: horror…The best American horror novel since Scott Smith's The Ruins, Breed is redolent of Roald Dahl at his creepy best.
Advanced reproductive technologies prove just a new form of mad science in this timely, engrossing medical thriller from the pseudonymous Novak (Scott Spencer, Endless Love). Wealthy Manhattan couple Alex and Leslie Twisden are incapable of having children, it seems—until they avail themselves of the services of Dr. Kis, a dodgy fertility specialist in remote Slovenia. Dosed with a concoction of extracts from the tissues of several aggressive animal species (including a cannibal fish that feeds on its young), Alex and Leslie produce twins, Adam and Alice, though at the cost of horrific side effects to themselves.Ten years later, Adam and Alice run away from home, terrified of their parents, who subsequently seek out Dr. Kis in order to get some answers and save their family. Novak writes with an energy that propels the reader through the novel’s unlikely science and subplots. He also winks enough to suggest that this all could be a black comedy on modern parenting. (Sept.)
"Forget vampires, zombies and guys clad in hockey masks brandishing oversized machetes. Chase Novak unleashes truly scary literary horror villains in BREED: Mom and Dad. Novak...explores what happens when one's parents aren't quite the protectors they should be in this excellent horror novel. He probes emotionally deep and heartbreaking themes of family and friendship that seem fresh in a book that's a bit like a mad-scientist movie-or Frankenstein if the monster decided he needed some kiddos in his life.... The kids escape their domestic prison, which shifts gears in BREED from a psychological tale to a high-stakes adventure where your fingers can't flip the pages fast enough.... BREED doesn't need love triangles, twist endings or aspects of a gore fest to keep an audience enraptured. Instead, it's the simple conceit-how do you love parents who do more harm than good-and a moving ending that make Novak's horror novel a thrill to read."—Brian Truitt, USA Today Publishers Weekly have to know how the story will play out.... But the increasingly macabre and truly horrifying developments kept me in a vise-like grip.... BREED substitutes science for the religious mythology of Rosemary's Baby so it is, in some ways, more believable than the Ira Levin classic. Maybe too believable."—Joe Meyers, Connecticut Post confronts . BREED is an intelligent, dark thriller dense with paranoia, yielding creative anxiety, a genetically modified rollercoaster."—A.J. Kirby, New York Journal of Books Annalee Newitz, NPR.org Ken Salikof, The New York Daily News We Need to Talk about Kevin , John Ajvide Lindqvist's Let Me In , and Justin Evans' A Good and Happy Child ."—Booklist Silence of the Lambs . And in a really fine set piece Mr. Spencer stages a long chase through the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where the relics of primitive times and the veneer of privilege always coexist.... If Mr. Spencer's name were not openly attached to BREED, it would still read like the work of a serious writer with keen antennas for sensory detail.... Above and beyond its fatality count BREED has originality on its side; the ending is a true shocker. The book sets out to convey what it is like to be 'subject to the whip and rattle of unspeakable temptations.' And it does."—Janet Maslin, The New York Times Rosemary's Baby , another Big Apple tale of parenthood gone horribly awry. What Spencer shares most with Ira Levin is a darkly droll sense of humor... [BREED] matches the earlier book's propulsive narrative and satirical edge."—The San Francisco Chronicle Rosemary's Baby -a well-to-do Manhattan couple has everything they could possibly want, only they desperately want children. After trying everything treatment they can, they resort to a highly unusual procedure that's successful in that they conceive twins. But there are also some seriously nasty side-effects that lead to a creepy, bloody, hairy thrill ride."—Stephan Lee, Entertainment Weekly Kirkus Reviews Robin Abrahams, Boston.com's "Miss Conduct Reads" blog Ghost Story . By turns terrifying and blackly funny, BREED is a total blast."—Stephen King Bookpage Richard Price, author of Lush Life and Clockers Russ Marshalek, Flavorwire Warren Ellis, author of Crooked Little Vein and Transmetropolitan The Ruins , BREED is redolent of Roadl Dahl at his creepy best."—Dennis Drabelle, The Washington Post Sam Thielman, Newsday David Abrams for Salon
"For all its Gothic horror pedigree, BREED is ultimately a smart commentary on modern parenting."
"There are passages during which BREED is really visceral."
"Diabolically entertaining.... Along with suspense and shocks, Novak delivers enough humor to make the mayhem palatable...with triumphant effect. The best American horror novel since Scott Smith's The Ruins , BREED is redolent of Roadl Dahl at his creepy best."
"The most elegantly skin-crawling, gut-churning novel I've read in years."
"The definition of a literary horror novel."
"A page-turner, classic yet original, filled with detail both subtle and unforgettable, unnerving in its mad logic and genuinely frightening."
"An honest-to-goodness page-turner."
"The best horror novel I've read since Peter Straub's Ghost Story . By turns terrifying and blackly funny, BREED is a total blast."
"Disturbing and funny and very visual..."
"...Like a literary, contemporary version of Rosemary's Baby -a well-to-do Manhattan couple has everything they could possibly want, only they desperately want children. After trying everything treatment they can, they resort to a highly unusual procedure that's successful in that they conceive twins. But there are also some seriously nasty side-effects that lead to a creepy, bloody, hairy thrill ride."
"...Will remind horror connoisseurs of Rosemary's Baby , another Big Apple tale of parenthood gone horribly awry. What Spencer shares most with Ira Levin is a darkly droll sense of humor... [BREED] matches the earlier book's propulsive narrative and satirical edge."
The San Francisco Chronicle
"...A foray into urbane horror, chicly ghoulish, with a malevolent emphasis on family values.... BREED exploits the contrast between civilized and feral behavior. The grand furnishings of the Twisden homestead wind up clawed, chewed and torn as Alex and Leslie's conditions worsen; the cellar goes all Silence of the Lambs . And in a really fine set piece Mr. Spencer stages a long chase through the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where the relics of primitive times and the veneer of privilege always coexist.... If Mr. Spencer's name were not openly attached to BREED, it would still read like the work of a serious writer with keen antennas for sensory detail.... Above and beyond its fatality count BREED has originality on its side; the ending is a true shocker. The book sets out to convey what it is like to be 'subject to the whip and rattle of unspeakable temptations.' And it does."
"Smart and brutal, this joins the ranks of such elegant domestic shockers as Lionel Shriver's We Need to Talk about Kevin , John Ajvide Lindqvist's Let Me In , and Justin Evans' A Good and Happy Child ."
"...A slice of shivering dread that won't allow you to look at in vitro fertilization, children running loose in Central Park or parents who find their children 'delicious' in the same way again."
"...A delightfully nauseating read.... Chase Novak has hit upon the perfect blend of terrifying real-life topics.... [and] repurposed his literary flair for observation into grisly narrative schadenfreude.... There is a clever fable about class here, as the Twisdens' tumble down the evolutionary tree mirrors their fall down the economic ladder.... And it's the perfect dark fairy tale for these times, when more than a few readers might secretly find themselves wishing that the world's elites would be brought so low as to start pooping in their own posh living rooms."
"BREED is a daring, ultra-modern novel dealing with bleeding edge science and contemporary concerns. It's dark fiction, but not as we know it. An antidote to the anodyne paranormal romances, vampire horrors, and gory splatterfests littering the book charts, this is a truly original work. While transcending the modern, it also deals with universal themes populating literature since we first started telling stories around campfires. Ultimately, this is a novel about the dangers of science-bogus science in particular. It's a story of the Promethean folly of human beings. Written in urgent, vital prose that quickens the blood, it confronts . BREED is an intelligent, dark thriller dense with paranoia, yielding creative anxiety, a genetically modified rollercoaster."
"Although the phrase 'I couldn't put it down' is used promiscuously in book blurbs (and reviews) it isn't often that I am so caught up in a novel that I have to finish it before thinking about doing anything else. Of course, the pacing and length of a book plays a big role in this phenomenon-once I raced through the first 100 pages of BREED in record time, finishing off another 210 pages was a realistic goal before turning in for the night.... The grabber...is in the set-ups that convince us we are in the 'real world' rather than some phony B-horror movie netherworld. We believe in the people we meet and the place where they live, so when ghastly things start happening, we have to know how the story will play out.... But the increasingly macabre and truly horrifying developments kept me in a vise-like grip.... BREED substitutes science for the religious mythology of Rosemary's Baby so it is, in some ways, more believable than the Ira Levin classic. Maybe too believable."
"Forget vampires, zombies and guys clad in hockey masks brandishing oversized machetes. Chase Novak unleashes truly scary literary horror villains in BREED: Mom and Dad. Novak...explores what happens when one's parents aren't quite the protectors they should be in this excellent horror novel. He probes emotionally deep and heartbreaking themes of family and friendship that seem fresh in a book that's a bit like a mad-scientist movie-or Frankenstein if the monster decided he needed some kiddos in his life.... The kids escape their domestic prison, which shifts gears in BREED from a psychological tale to a high-stakes adventure where your fingers can't flip the pages fast enough.... BREED doesn't need love triangles, twist endings or aspects of a gore fest to keep an audience enraptured. Instead, it's the simple conceit-how do you love parents who do more harm than good?-and a moving ending that make Novak's horror novel a thrill to read."
A cautionary tale about the perils of fertility treatments turns into a gore fest for the strong of stomach. Now that Stephen King has earned acceptance as a literary novelist, what has been published as the debut novel by Novak represents a turnabout--a literary novelist of some renown and commercial success tries his hand at becoming Stephen King. The publisher doesn't conceal that the novel was written under a pseudonym by Scott Spencer (whose A Ship Made of Paper, 2003, was a National Book Award nominee), but fans who appreciate his typical balance of thematic depth and storytelling will recognize the marketing wisdom of publishing this under a different name. While he remains a fine writer, this descent "into the medical hell of infertility" is most noteworthy for its shock value and for a few truly spectacular deaths (which should challenge the special effects within the movie to which this plainly aspires). Alex and Leslie have everything--luxurious Manhattan domicile, fine jobs, each other--except a baby. Leslie seems more willing to adopt, but Alex is desperate to try anything. If he weren't, he might have had second thoughts after they traveled to see the mysterious doctor in Slovenia and were greeted by a dog whose "eyes are imbecilic with avidity, and a smell of meat rises from his flanks and loins....But they have come too far, and gone to too much trouble to turn back now." Bad choice. The doctor's assistant proceeds to inform them that he has had "great, great success--using tissue from some of the most vigorous and fertile beings on earth." Another red flag, but they proceed at Alex's insistence, subsequently indulge in some spectacularly animalistic sex, have twins (or more?) and develop a taste for rodents, household pets, fellow human beings and perhaps even their offspring. The twins are a little weird (and they discover a tribe of similar mutants), but it's the parents who become monsters. There may well be a massive popular readership for this gruesome tale (but not Scott Spencer's readers).
