Breed - Chase Novak (Spooky Reads)
SPOO000OOKY READS - Breed Review
Think Rosemary’s Baby meets American Werewolf in London and you’ve got this impressive novel, Breed, written by Chase Novak.
When I’m browsing at the library with no book in mind, just pulling ones out at random, if I see a Stephen King quote on the cover, I immediately take that book home. Whatever Stephen King recommends, Charlotte’s gonna read it. And he hasn’t lead me wrong yet. Breed was one of those picks!
Alex and Leslie Twisden are a beautiful couple. Alex is quite a few years older and incredibly wealthy, he falls instantly for Leslie who marries him just as enamored. Their lives are seemingly perfect except for the fact they can’t seem to get pregnant. Doctors are unsure of the cause, but no matter how much they try, how many procedures they do, or even how many hippie medleys they consume, they cannot conceive. Leslie is tired of trying and thinks they should adopt, whereas Alex would rather pass along his impressively long genes. The Twisden’s go way, way back in American history and he wants to pass on his family’s legacy, and money, to his own heir.
Alex hears about a mysterious doctor in Slovenia who guarantees pregnancy and drags Leslie across the world to try. The doctor is strange, the town is strange, everything about this reads RED FLAG. But Leslie and Alex are desperate. They allow the doctor to inject them with very painful needles and head back to the hotel where they are suddenly overcome with lust. The two make love while basically destroying the hotel room and acting kind of strange. The next morning Leslie knows she’s pregnant.
The pregnancy doesn’t go well. Her and Alex find themselves covered in fur that keeps growing back no matter how much they shave. Both of them are fitter than they’ve ever been and are craving raw meat. And Leslie can’t help the unnatural anger rising up within her.
But the baby is finally born and it turns out they’re twins – Alice and Adam. They start to grow up with their strange parents who become more and more recluse. The twins have no idea what’s really going on, or why their parents lock them in the bedrooms at night, or why the furniture is chewed and destroyed, or why they aren’t allowed to leave the house except to go to school.
What is happening to their parents? And will it happen to them?
So, Chase Novak is actually the pen-name of Scott Spencer, Novak is who he uses to write horror novels. Breed was written in 2012, and a sequel, Brood, was written in 2014. I am eager to pick up the sequel and continue the story. But don’t worry, Breed doesn’t leave you with some awful cliff hanger. It wraps everything up quite nicely. Which actually makes me even more curious to read the sequel.
I loved every moment of this book – it was dark, it was funny, it was creepy, it was disgusting. It was very vivid and the writing was clear, I could picture everything playing out like a movie. The slow transition of the parents is horrifying to read, and the future jump to the kids being around 10 years old causes you to panic. What happened in those ten years? The kids are great characters. They’re both strong and scared and very realistic for that age.
As the story unravels it really becomes a page turner, and the ending is nail biting as the events unfold. You also feel so conflicted as you become quite attached to the parents to begin with and then feel heart broken as the novel progresses.
It’s a great read, especially for classic horror movie fans, and I absolutely recommend it.
