The Bottom Line: While I found it hard to read Succulent Prey, I still am intrigued by White's imagery and ideas. Even if I think the characters should have been...uh...fleshed out.
lambchops's Full Review: Wrath James White - Succulent Prey
My most recent "guilty pleasure" is horror. I've always enjoyed everything horror--movies, books, television, and even the occasional comic (errr...graphic novel). However with the introduction of Leisure Horror titles I've found myself delving into darker and darker territory for light reading. Authors including Brian Keene, Edward Lee, Bryan Smith, Richard Laymon, Jack Ketchum and Simon Clark have definitely caught my attention. And then came Wrath James White, author of Succulent Prey.
I've digested (uh...read) my fair share of horror novels that move well beyond the bounds of what readers think is "normal." Of the ones listed above Lee, Smith, and Ketchum have all made me read their novels through clenched teeth and vaguely nauseous stomach. At the center of White's debut Leisure novel is an idea posited by the lead character. Do serial killers possess some sort of communicable disease? Having been attacked, imprisoned, and tortured as a boy Joseph Miles now craves the same sorts of things. In particular, the large good-looking college student is drawn to human flesh...or as the online community calls it "long pig."
Miles is a college student who at the start of the telling of Succulent Prey has yet to indulge his darkest fantasies. Having entertained these thoughts for many years, they are becoming impossible to contain. Not even his visits to a sexual addiction support group have helped him to overcome his illness. Miles is at the same time repulsed and aroused by the idea of eating human flesh and absorbing his victims life energy.
Even the memory of this bizarre and dark book makes me twitch. I feel guilty for having read Succulent Prey with such voracity. The idea of cannibalism is of course an almost universal human taboo. Horror and fiction writers have long waxed poetic about cannibalism. We read about it in in American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis, the Inferno by Dante, The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris, and The Road by Cormac McCarthy. White claims that Succulent Prey is a social commentary. On one level it is. What is it that plants the seed of killing in a child? What makes them do such bizarre things? Why would a person actively choose to devour human flesh? It is relatively common knowledge that such behavior starts in youth and blossoms in adulthood. We have cases like that of Jeffrey Dahmer, Albert Fish, and Andrei Chikatilo are the most notorious of this very specific brand of serial killer.
Wrath James White has imagined the most personal account of (fictional) cannibalism I've read to date. Books generally don't delve into a cannibal's personality and motivation. Rather you end up with infamous novels like Off Season by Jack Ketchum in which a crazed bunch of backyard, inbred savages survive on human flesh. We don't have any relationship to these characters and sympathize with those being killed and eaten instead. Miles is not insane. He knows what he craves is wrong and realizes that his crimes are even more abhorrent. He seeks a solution but the hunger overwhelms everything else. Cannibalism is at the core of his psyche.
Obviously Succulent Prey is not for most readers. I read it because it is a Leisure title and because I tend to enjoy horror that comes out of left field. There's only so much Dean Koontz or John Saul you can read without having a sense of deja vu. With White's 2008 novel, there is no question he has written a wholly original piece of fiction. Is is perfect? No. I was fine with the scenes of cannibalism (and the fact that they appear more frequently as the book progresses and Miles grows progressively more disturbed). I wish there was some more meat (no pun intended) to the book. I think knowing even more about Miles would have made him even more interesting.
If you have enjoyed some of the authors and books I've mentioned above and didn't skip the "Girls" chapters of American Psycho you may be able to handle Succulent Prey. White is a unique writer with a unique past and a unique vision. It's not great writing, characterization, or even that shocking...but it is worth a read if you like truly unusual horror.
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