Synopses & Reviews
Two teenagers struggle with a horrific family legacy, and the woman who has adopted them fights for their lives--and her own.Adam and Alice are reaching the age when some of the children created by the fertility treatment that spawned them begin to turn feral. Will they succomb to the same physiological horror that destroyed their parents? Every change brings on terror--the voice cracking as it changes, the swelling of the breasts, the coarsening of down into actual hair. Their aunt, Cynthia, oversees renovations to the Twisden family's Manhattan residence--torn apart by the children's parents at their most savage--and struggles to give her niece and nephew the unconditional love they never had. Meanwhile, in the world outside, the forces of good and evil collide as a troop of feral offspring threatens to invade the refuge Cynthia is so determined to construct behind the Twisdens' walls.
Review
"Charmingly grotesque . . . B-movie bliss in which gore gets so gratuitous, it's occasionally funny-and always fun. . . . The people-eaters bring out the best in Chase Novak . . . His prose sings with joy."--Colin Dwyer, NPR
Review
"Like all good literary horror, a sense of foreboding piggybacks on a layer of strong emotion, and here it's tweaked by the characters' desperate, haunting desire for connections."--Booklist
Review
""A satirical supernatural thriller . . . Genuine rat-inspired horror."--Publishers Weekly
Review
"Novak ably combines realism and the supernatural."--Kirkus Reviews
Review
"Gruesome and grimly funny"--BookPage
Review
"[Novak's] prose sings with joy when he describes the snap of a bone, delights - and disturbs - when he dredges dark humor from the aftermath. Simply put, the people-eaters bring out the best in Chase Novak."--Colin Dwyer, NPR
Synopsis
Two teenagers struggle with a horrific family legacy in the sequel to Chase Novak's novel, Breed.
Thirteen years ago, a radical fertility doctor helped bring Adam and Alice Twisden into the world. The treatment came at a great cost: it turned the twins' parents into barbarous animals and threatens to transform the children, too. As Adam and Alice find themselves on the brink of maturity, they starve themselves in a desperate attempt to stop their bodies from changing. Will they succumb to the same bodily horrors that destroyed their parents?
Their aunt, Cynthia, who has always wanted to be a mother, oversees renovations to the Twisden family's Upper East Side residence--violently torn apart by the children's parents--and struggles to give her niece and nephew the unconditional love and stable home life they never had. Meanwhile, in the world outside, the forces of good and evil collide as a troop of wild teenagers, growing steadily in number, threatens to invade the calm refuge Cynthia is so determined to construct behind the safety of the Twisdens' walls.
As New York City transforms into a battleground, Adam and Alice will have to decide where their loyalties lie. They are determined to lead normal lives--and yet their unnatural urges, which grow ever stronger by the day, can only be stifled for so long...
About the Author
Chase Novak is the pseudonym for Scott Spencer, who Publishers Weekly has called "the contemporary American master of the love story." Spencer is the author of ten novels, including Endless Love, which has sold over two million copies to date, and the National Book Award finalist A Ship Made of Paper. He has written for Rolling Stone, the New York Times, The New Yorker, GQ, and Harper's. Mulholland Books published his first horror novel Breed in September 2012.