Suffer the Children - Craig DiLouie

I received a free copy from Permuted Press via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

 

All of a sudden, a few weeks before Christmas, all children die. Every single one of them. Even foetuses still in their mother's womb. Herod's Event, named after the Biblical King. Is it the end of the human species? 

Then, a miracle. On the third day, the children return. Only now, they are no real children any more, as they demand blood to live. Human blood that is...

 

I hadn't read anything by Craig DiLouie before, but got interested as they stated it was for fans of Justin Cronin's The Passage, with some real vampires (the bloodsucking, not sparkling kind). Though the children in this book, or as I like to call them 'The Vampire Zombie Kids' are no real vampires either...

 

The books centres on certain people in different setting (couple with kids, one parent family, man without children) during the events before and after Herod's. I don't have any children myself (yet), but I can imagine that the first part of this book is more emotional if you've got children yourself. It's full with disbelieve (only natural, all children have just died) and grieve.

 

The second part, after the vampire zombie kids come back to life, is more a dystopian thriller/horror on just how far people are willing to go to 'save' their vampire zombie kids. Needless to say, it only takes some time before the civilization starts to breakdown and it's ''all for his own family".

 

The novel seeks an explanation for the vampire zombie kids in biology. Interesting... But as they need blood to be alive again, how do they come back in the first place? I never found a good explanation to that question. As an important part of this book is also about the consequences of blood loss and anaemia, there is some explanation on the human body as well, although it seemed a bit obvious to me. The heart pumps blood - you don't say? 

 

While on the subject of medicine, I've made my own diagnosis of one of the main characters, Dr. David Harris, MD.

Here are some of the symptoms that helped my to make my decision...

1) He's a Doctor

2) He has a leg injury and walks with a cane

3) He's addicted to Vicodin

Congratulations! You've got Dr. House Syndrome! Why? Why? Why was this necessary? 

 

The writing was nice and read fast, it was very hard for me to put this book down. I liked it more than I'd expected at first. It took me only four days and I was reading on my laptop (that usually takes a lot more time)...

 

To be publiced May 20 2014