Blood Crazy, from British novelist Simon Clark, is an apocalyptic mixture of the Stand, Lord of the Flies, and Zombies. In a reversal of Stephen King’s Children of the Corn, all adults have gone insane and began slaughtering first their own children then anyone under the age of twenty. The children and teens who survived the first murderous day, eventually join together in communities around the world trying to re-build a sane society while defending against the onslaught of the zombified adults.

The story is written as a memoir by seventeen year old, Nick "rhymes-with-Satan" Aten. He’s the typical jeans and T-shirt teenager: fixes his car, likes rock music and Big Macs, and notices girls. Nick has a streetwise edge but early on exhibits a heroic nature when he risks his life to save three girls. He is a reluctant hero, conflicted between survival and helping others.

Nick, through different circumstances, visits several of the communities built by teens and children. Like the Lord of the Flies, one village, established with order, reason, and civility, has deteriorated to savageness and cruelty. Other villages are maintained through religion or heavy-handed rule. A radio receiver allows some of the resourceful sects to communicate and update each other on their conditions. Each community has their own name for the crazed adults: Creosotes, Kaybees, the Inflicted.

The zombie-like adults work as a collective. They gather, travel, and build gruesome artifacts out of body parts. Their only mission is to find and destroy the communities. For the good of the collective, the adults will perform suicidal feats like building a human bridge out of their frozen bodies. As time goes by, the adults become ragged and stinky, not taking care of normal human function or washing the blood they’ve splattered on themselves while killing their children. Nick’s parents follow him, watching him from afar until they can attack.

Blood Crazy attempts to explain what has happened to the Adults near the book’s end. With a blend of Psychology, Philosophy, and History, the theory is interesting, but leaves a lot of questions and logical inconsistencies - maybe left to be answered in the sequel hinted on the last page. I found the explanation under whelming and overwritten, taking several chapters and pauses. Additionally, the ending battle scene was anti-climatic and written in a rush.

The book’s descriptions such as the references to pop culture and Nick’s journey through the dangerous “madlands” are strong and entertaining. I found myself rooting for Nick in his personal mission to find answers, return to his love, Sarah, and protect his own community. While Nick was written as the average guy, the brainy teens were the voice for science, studying the Adults and planning a better society.

The horror is tame compared to Clive Barker and less emotionally frightening than Stephen King’s work. Since the book deals with the killing of children too much descriptive horror would be inappropriate, but author gives enough grim illustration and suggestion to convey the gore. For example, bodies are torn apart or sewn up like dolls, but the author tellingly puts more time into describing the violence between the sane: child against child.

Unlike the Stand or Lord of the Flies, Blood Crazy is much less involving and compelling, but I found it to be good read. About two-thirds of the book held my interest, especially the middle section which I ploughed through non-stop. However near the end, I began skimming paragraphs, correctly predicting the unfolding action. I was not impressed with the moral-of-the-story type ending, urging the reader to attain self-enlightenment. It was too blatant. Most of what I read did not adequately lead up to the concluding message.

Overall, the book is written satisfactorily by Clark with slivers of horror and love and a slab of adventure. The explanation of what seizes the Adults’ sanity was the most disjointed and out-of-place part. It’s not a life changing book with lasting impact, but it was entertaining and I especially like the lead character, Nick.

rating: 3.5


Recommended: Yes