A review by rovertoak
Blood Crazy by Simon Clark
5.0
I paid a pretty penny for a somewhat beat-up copy of this book and I'll tell you...I'd have paid three times as much knowing what I know now about Blood Crazy. It's 28 Days Later, Lord of the Flies, Jung's [b: The Undiscovered Self|67891|The Undiscovered Self|Carl Gustav Jung|http://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388255319s/67891.jpg|119037], [b: Origin of the Species|22463|The Origin of Species|Charles Darwin|http://images.gr-assets.com/books/1298417570s/22463.jpg|481941], and Braveheart expertly collided with the force of a ten megaton bomb.
The novel begins with confusion and plenty of gory action, as 17-year-old Nick Aten (rhymes with Satan) begins to notice strange goings on. The adult population has become murderously insane, preying on anyone under the age of 20. There's plenty of fear and close calls as Nick collects other teens on his desperate journey to safety. The group stumbles on a community of other kids and teens looking to rebuild society from scratch by organizing, scavenging, and defending against the hordes of adult attackers. Many good zombie/apocalyptic novels include elements similar to these and come to satisfying, if not at times hopeless, finales. Instead, Simon Clark sends Nick Aten further, on a hero's quest nothing short of Tolkienesque in its breadth and duration.
Without spoiling this novel for readers who end up spending some decent coin for this read, know that there is much substance lurking once the reader has gotten the details of the apocalypse out of the way. This book offers the gift of hope to its characters...and readers...and gives us good reason not to trust anyone over the age of TWENTY!
The novel begins with confusion and plenty of gory action, as 17-year-old Nick Aten (rhymes with Satan) begins to notice strange goings on. The adult population has become murderously insane, preying on anyone under the age of 20. There's plenty of fear and close calls as Nick collects other teens on his desperate journey to safety. The group stumbles on a community of other kids and teens looking to rebuild society from scratch by organizing, scavenging, and defending against the hordes of adult attackers. Many good zombie/apocalyptic novels include elements similar to these and come to satisfying, if not at times hopeless, finales. Instead, Simon Clark sends Nick Aten further, on a hero's quest nothing short of Tolkienesque in its breadth and duration.
Without spoiling this novel for readers who end up spending some decent coin for this read, know that there is much substance lurking once the reader has gotten the details of the apocalypse out of the way. This book offers the gift of hope to its characters...and readers...and gives us good reason not to trust anyone over the age of TWENTY!