Suffer the Children

Wooooooooooooooow.

This is one hell of a read.

Suffer the Children is essentially about a world where every single child gets sick, dies, and then gets reborn as a monster. Vampire children? Yep, count me in. It's a story about parenthood, relationships, desperation, grief, guilt, and corruption.

It follow multiple different POVs throughout.

I loved it. My first book by this author, but safe to say I'll be trying more.

Also if you're a friend from my real life reading this review, I really don't think any of you would like this book. <3

4.5/5 stars

This book is literally so messed up but in the best way possible

Honestly, I thought about dropping this one a few times, but I kept going. At one point, I thought to myself, ‘Well, I'm 200 pages in, so it's pointless to stop, since I'm more than halfway.' I think there are spoilers in this review.

And so I kept going. Was it worth it? Not at all, but at least, now I know. Small consolation.

I'm not convinced this chap can write. The prose was appalling and trite. The only interesting bits are when the author is dropping a modicum of biology on you, and it's probably more interesting reading that from a medical textbook. The characters he chooses to follow are all humdrum and also trite. The doctor, the crazy mother, the angry blue collar dad and his religious-ish wife. Not one single character in the bunch was engaging. I actually rather disliked some of the characters.

Essentially, this is a vampire, post-apocalyptic medical thriller. One day, all the kids in the world die. Then one day, they wake up. But they need blood to survive. Everyone on the planet is basically host to a parasite dubbed Herod, but only prepubescent children are affected. And so, parents start going postal and giving their kids their blood. Some parents kill themselves, perhaps accidentally. Some parents start killing others. And our heroes are the Coopers (blue collar man and wife), the Harrises (the doctor and nurse wife, who is nuts), and Ramona (crazy mom). The Coopers have two young children affected, and Ramona has a son. In the end, of course, the kids go vamp, fully controlled by the parasite, and the world is in ruins.

There was precious little creep in this for me. Maybe if a better writer had tackled this topic, it could have been interesting. But the execution of this book was badly done. The characters are all so dull and often inane that I couldn't care less what happened to any of them. Every one of them was so gendered that I couldn't handle it. Nothing progressive here, even when it tries to be. I realize that's the way most of the characters are supposed to be, but I think it went farther than that.

I really didn't like this one at all. I have nothing really good to say about it. I wasn't scared, the prose sucked, the characters sucked, and it was just bad. Not even hilarious bad, or bad enough to cause fury. It was just mediocre bad.

Rating: 4.4 leaves out of 5
Characters:4.5/5
Cover: 5/5
Story: 4/5
Writing: 4/5
Genre: Horror
Type: Book
Worth?: Yes

A great twist on the subject and honestly haven't read something like this before, even 7 years later. I like where Craig delve into. So with that, what would you do to have your child back?

I had to write a review of this while it was fresh in my mind. I just finished listening to Craig DiLouie's Suffer the Children, and I think the best word to describe how I feel right now is horrified. I'm certain that was the intent of this dark story. Every parent out there knows that they'd do anything for their children. That protecting them is all that matters. But, what happens when the concept of “doing anything” for your children drastically changes? When the world turns upside down and suddenly your moral compass no longer points East? That, my friends, is what this book is about. This isn't a feel good story. It's dark. It's violent. It's disturbing on so very many levels.

Starting with what I liked, let's start with the concept of Herod's in the first place. I was impressed at how well Craig DiLouie laid out the deadly plague and explained why it was so sinister. The children, if that's what you want to call them, became real in my eyes. As their parents fought for their survival, for their own survival, I was actually invested in these characters. All I could keep doing while listening to this was wondering what I would do. What lengths I would go to. I felt so many emotions during this book. It took every little piece of empathy I had inside me, and wrung me out. Don't read this if you have an issue with the death of children, or with graphic violence. Trust me on this one.

For the most part, I also liked the pacing of Suffer the Children. I thought I knew what was coming around the bend, as the synopsis isn't exactly hiding anything, and still I managed to be surprised over and over again. Little things were revealed in perfect places. The general downfall of society, and the depravity that was taking its place, expertly laid out for the reader. Our main characters, the people who I started out feeling awful for, suddenly became something I was afraid of. It was sudden, and impressive. The one thing I had an issue with was that the ending felt oddly rushed. After the slow build up, the ending felt a little jarring. Expected, maybe. But jarring nonetheless.

So why the three star rating? There were points that dragged a bit, some awkward dialogue, and points where things didnt' quite match up. For me though, personally, this read was so tough. If you've followed me for any length of time, you'll know that I have a hard time reading about children in peril. This book ate at me. I found myself thinking about it even while I wasn't listening. I can't even really say I enjoyed the listen, so much as it was well done. Would I ever read this again? I think not. That being said, I still highly recommend others give this a shot. Just take into account what I mentioned above.