Wow, How Creepy Are These Kids???

 

TITLE: Suffer the Children

AUTHOR: Craig Di Louie

PUBLISHER: Gallery

PUBLISHING DATE: May 20, 2014

PAGES: 343   

SOURCE: KU

FROM GOODREADS: Suffer the Children presents a terrifying tale of apocalyptic fiction, as readers are introduced to Herod's Syndrome, a devastating illness that suddenly and swiftly kills all young children across the globe. Soon, they return from the grave…and ask for blood. And with blood, they stop being dead. They continue to remain the children they once were...but only for a short time, as they need more blood to live. The average human body holds ten pints of blood, so the inevitable question for parents everywhere becomes: How far would you go to bring your child back?

MY THOUGHTS: I've seen this book around for years and was actually thrilled when my on-line horror book club, "Mel Screams," chose it as the April pick.  I had no idea I would have so much fun with this book even thought I was a bit put off because the author's Episode Thirteen wasn't exactly a hit for me.

The book starts by introducing the reader to a set of characters which will be revisited throughout the entire plot.  Doug is a waste management employee, and his wife Joan runs a daycare from their home.  They have two young children.  Ramona is a single mother who has a medically fragile son who attends Joan's daycare.  And then we have a doctor who runs a pediatric practice with his wife, a nurse.  They recently lost a child through a horrible accident and are still recovering.

One day, for no known reason, all the children in the world who have not reached puberty start dying off from something called Herold's Disease.  There is little to no warning and the deaths are sudden.  These death's travel around the world systematically and within hours, all the young children are dead. But then something odd happens, a few days later, the children start to rise.  Many of them return home but soon everyone learns that the children need to ingest blood on a regular basis and a pint of blood only affords them a few hours before they "die" again.  Furthermore, the more time that elapses, the more the children's conditioner deteriorates.  

I loved seeing the horror unfold in this one.  The book was extremely fast-paced, and it was interesting to see the lengths some parents would go to in order to gain more time with their decaying, dead children.  As to be expected, things get really rough, and the worst of human nature comes out and the reader gets a ringside seat for it all.  I completed the book in less than a day and although I know this is a book people either love or hate, I'm glad I feel more on the love side of things.  It might have even gotten 5/5 if it wasn't for the unnecessary dog death - BAD DOUG!

If you want a new twist on "vampires" and don't mind some gory descriptions of dead and dying kids, then this is a book you should definitely consider.  

MY RATING: 4 PAWS