Blood Crazy - Couverture rigide

Clark, Simon P.

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0340625740 ISBN 13 : 9780340625743

Editeur : Hodder & Stoughton Ltd, 1995

A propos du livre

Revue de presse :

THE HELLNOTES BOOK REVIEW
Garrett Peck

Readers will relish Clark's uncomplicated cocktail of chlorophyll and human blood (Financial Times on The Night of the Triffids)

A master of eerie thrills (Richard Laymon)

Blood Crazy was the first Simon Clark novel I ever read. I picked up a copy of the British paperback at WHC '99 and read it cover to cover on the bus ride home. I became an instant fan right then and there. Now, with its release from Leisure and an assignment to review it here, I had the opportunity to read it again. Did it hold up to a second reading? You bet. If anything, I liked it even better the second time around.

The hottest new purveyor of horrific thrills currently working on these shores (The Big Issue)

In a nutshell, one day all the adults in the world go crazy and start slaughtering everyone under the age of twenty. Parents in particular are driven wild by the desire to rid the world of their offspring. Youths and children band together to form communities and protect themselves from the murderous "Creosotes."

The book is told first person from the point of view of Nick Aten (rhymes with "Satan"), a good-natured lad who does his best to protect others. As the story progresses, others begin to cast him as a Messiah-like figure, a role he eschews even as his actions reinforce the notion.

At first it seems the sudden rash of infanticide is merely a "McGuffin" to get the plot rolling. The action moves along so quickly you don't think you're going to get an explanation, but you're having too much fun to care. Clark isn't one to cheat, however. He does provide an explanation and it's not at all what you would expect. Even better, its not there just for the sake of having an explanation, but lends deeper meaning to the events of the plot.

Blood Crazy is the spiritual child of many influences, both literary and cinematic. One can't help but be reminded of such films as George Romero's The Crazies and Night of the Living Dead. Nor can one ignore such obvious influences as Lord of the Flies, James Herbert's The Fog and The Dark, and George Orwell's Animal Farm. (Indeed, one of the hard working lads in the main youth community is named Boxer, like the horse that is betrayed in Orwell's allegory. He shares the same fate when fascist bullies overtake the community.) In one striking sequence, the Creosotes link bodies to form a flesh bridge that brings to mind Clive Barker's "In the Hills, In the Cities." Though his influences are on the surface, Clark blends these elements in his own unique way.

Clark has a penchant for apocalyptic scenarios and siege mentality. This is one of his earlier treatments of themes he would later revisit. In Blood Crazy he has produced one of the most satisfying horror novels to come out of Britain. If you don't thoroughly enjoy this one, I fear there's no hope for you.

Présentation de l'éditeur :

Saturday was a normal day. People went shopping. To the movies. Everything was just as it should be. But not for long. By Sunday, civilisation was in ruins. Adults had become murderously insane. One by one they became infected with a crazed, uncontrollable urge to slaughter the young - even their own children. Especially their own children.

Will this be the way the world ends, in waves of madness and carnage? What will be left of our world as we know it? And who, if anyone, will survive? Terror follows terror in this apocalyptic nightmare vision by one of the most powerful talents in modern horror fiction. Prepare yourself for mankind's final days of fear.

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd
• Date d'édition: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0340625740
• ISBN 13: 9780340625743
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 343