A generation
ago many families used an untested, unapproved fertility serum from Europe that
promised success for those that had been trying to have children. Unfortunately
the side effects turned the parents into some-type of fully-body haired,
hideous monsters that ate the family pets, and the odd human or two, usually in
front of their growing children.
This group
of kids, now known as the brood, do everything possible to stave off puberty
thinking that they too will end up running down Main Street, naked, hairy and
on all-fours. Novak brings us a book that could be described as Midwich Cuckoos meets Peter Pan, except all the Lost Boys are
off fornicating and giving birth to children with wings, and nowhere near as
cute as Tinkerbell.
Some of the
children’s blood has found to have powers that rejuvenate older people’s love
lives and so the group, most who live together in packs, find a way to syphon
off and sell their precious commodity. A Big Brother operation is also in operation,
kidnapping the kids off the street to gauge their blood and make a killing in
the pharmaceutical market.
We follow
the path of creepy twins, Adam & Alice, who at thirteen are on the brink of
puberty. Their parents are dead and they are being watched over by a spinster
aunt who finds out she has more than normal troubles to deal with looking out
for these unruly teenagers. As she tries to confine them to her loving embrace
they hanker to be in the park with Rodolfo the leader of the pack. Is there a
way to stop the teenagers’ hormones from kicking into over-gear? Aunt Cynthia
sure seems to think she has the answers, and leads you alternatively gasping
and gagging on this riot through Central Park.
This was one
of the most distasteful books I ever read - from the descriptions of geriatric
sex, with men whose breath smelled like old scabs, to a scene where children
tear a police officer into pieces and eviscerate him to eat him, however I can’t
stop talking about how disgusting it was. Read it, having been warned.
