Butchers Makes a Big Punch in a Few Pages
Have you ever had a book take you totally by surprise? Butchers by Todd Sullivan caught me totally off-guard in the absolute best way. Not because I didn’t think it would be good, I go into every book hoping it’s going to be the best book I’ve ever read. The reason this book caught me off guard is because of the amount of story Sullivan was able to fit into around 100 pages. Sullivan builds a whole world for us and wraps it around an engrossing story of love, violence and death.
This is a sneaky vampire story. It’s not mentioned in the early parts of the story but our main characters, Cheol Yu and Hyeri are vampires, and the way Sullivan weaves this information into the story and lets the reader figure out on their own is exactly what makes the book that much better.
In spite of the short length, the story is complex but Sullivan is able to address each of the facets enough to satisfy. Cheol Yu and Hyeri work for Gwanlyo a secret organization of vampires. However the Natural Police, who are part of Gwanlyo now want Cheol Yu and Hyeri dead. At the same time, Gwanlyo wants to make the young Sey-Mi a member of their organization. Cheol Yu and Hyeri want to stop them from bringing Sey-Mi in. This results in fast paced brutal action scenes as well of some good character development work.
While the plot was interesting and the characters easy to identify with, it was the world that Sullivan built that made me want to keep reading this one. I cared, not just for the characters, but about the mysterious Gwanlyo and their law enforcement group, the Natural Police. These are not normal vampires and what we learn of the Gwanlyo tells us that. But the more we learn about the group, the more we want to know. This makes the novella a fast, enjoyable read from beginning to end.
If there is a criticism anywhere in this otherwise glowing review, it is the fact that there isn’t enough and when the story ended I wasn’t ready to be finished with these characters or this world. There are so many directions Sullivan could take this story at the end of Butchers and I hope that this isn’t the last we’ve seen of either of these because I, for one would like to know more and would snatch up a sequel to this book in a heartbeat.
Butchers is a new, fun look at an old horror trope. It doesn’t feel like a rehash of any of the old vampire stories we’ve read. Todd Sullivan takes vampire mythology in a different direction and knocks this vampire story out of the park.
Don’t want to miss anything on the site? Sign up for our newsletter HERE
Want more spooky reads? Just search below:
