Adam and Alice Twisden’s lives seem perfectly normal. Except
that, every night, without fail, their parents lock them into their
rooms
And the twins know that the sounds they can hear are not just their imagination. They’re real. And they’re getting louder…
Breed, a supernatural thriller, is written by Scott Spencer under the
pen-name of Chase Novak. From the synopsis I thought this would be a
very interesting book. In thrillers I do like to read about genetic
modification/engineering and often times these things go wrong, horribly
wrong. Using the genetic modification/engineering part can quite spook
me out. It is always nice to see how each author introduces this theme
into his or her book and I found that it was integrated quite nicely in
Breed.
Breed introduces a well thought-through concept for creating the
supernatural setting. Two of the main characters, husband and wife Alex
and Leslie have a desperate wish to have kids. But after many fertility
treatments they still Leslie has not gotten pregnant. As they are on the
brink of giving up entirely and opting for adoption Alex gets a tip of
someone in their talk group, that a scientist in Slovenia has gotten
nice breakthroughs. And as a last resort, Alex and Leslie decide to pay
this doctor a visit.
The book itself is divided into two parts, first showing how Alex and
Leslie met up in the past and how they are now living their quite
luxurious lives, and ending with the birth of their children. The second
part of the book skips forward ten years and focuses on the
consequences that the Twisden family has brought on themselves. And
eventually how everything escalates into total chaos. Chase Novak uses a
logical build-up of the sequence of events that stays in the lines of
the supernatural thriller theme, in this sequence everything reads very
fast and I finished this book in about 5 hours, in a single setting. It
really picks you up and does not let you go that easily.
In the beginning, with just having read the synopsis I thought that
the threat would come from the children since they were locked each
night in the rooms. Maybe Going for a more werewolf/vampire kind of
theme. But the threat comes from both the parents: Alex and Leslie. And
if you count 1 + 1 you already know where change came from. I must say
that I was actually quite pleased with the introduction of their
enhancement and how they came to it, and moreover how the scientist Dr.
Kis came up with this remedy. If you look at the characters of Alex and
Leslie you see that they are caring for their children but there is a
certain change when they go from loving to wanting them and having feral
urges toward them, reminiscent to the nature of the creature where they
got their enhancements from.
Then there is Dr. Kis, the Solvenian doctor that finally grants Alex
and Leslie their true wish. When I first got to read about him I just
knew he wasn’t to be trusted. I have to say that the introduction of Dr.
Kis is of course essential to the storyline of Breed but on another
take, looking at human nature, would you trust a Slovenian doctor to
inject you with something vague? Well, I wouldn’t. But then again, going
to the remote country of Slovenia for a cure does add a certain feeling
to the story, a bit like Transylvania. Overall you do not get to meet
up with Dr. Kis that much except in the end, when he is pleading his
final case for Leslie.
Lastly there are Adam and Alice the twins, what I liked about them is
that they do care for the parents even though they are being locked up
in completely boarded up rooms. In this isolation Adam is actually
planning for more. And by his actions he is the cause of the escalation.
As you get to read about Adam in his room there is great feature in the
narration where Adam actually secured a baby phone from his parents and
hears some of the conversations, and they are actually quite spooky.
And on top of it Alex and Leslie are not the only ones that have taken
this treatment… there is much much more to it…
Breed is a unique story that fits well onto the supernatural thriller
shelf. Using a new background for the introduction of why Alex and
Leslie became what they were, it was good to read that it was not yet
another science experiment gone wrong. A nice thing in the end was how
Leslie actually tries to get back together with her children but what
Dr. Kis has said previously turn out to be just empty words… Breed is
gripping, fast-paced thriller that will only allow you to take a breath
after you have finished it.