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janachigo's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
elliebrassington's review
challenging
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.75
shakirae's review
5.0
This book.. WOW. Can I say I loved this book? I love the way it's written, how fully immersed you become in the characters. The violence is horrific and I cringed, but if you love extreme horror Wrath James White is a top author to read.
misskimlove's review
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
vikingwolf's review against another edition
3.0
When Todd's dog has puppies that the family can't afford, he is distraught about them being destroyed when humans do not suffer the same fate for kids they can't afford. Now an adult, Todd is disgusted by his welfare job, watching scrounging wasters pop out babies with no thought for the environment. Todd now has a mission to stop them by any means necessary.
OK, pay attention now-if you are offended by abortion, gorefests and murder then don't even think of picking up this book. It is the most graphic horror book I've read with descriptions of torture, forced abortion and vasectomy, and is not for the weak stomached. I also thought that it was twisted, funny and ironic and very well written.
You can fully understand Todd's frustration as a man who cares about the planet. Every day he watches pregnant women demand food stamps and welfare payments as they prepare to pop out yet another kid that they can't afford. Drug addicts having mutated children because they won't stop using. Men impregnating multiple women then needing a handout. And his hero has just been arrested for trying to add a drug to the water supply to make people sterile as a population control method. So now it is all up to Todd to sort things out, one case at a time. It is his methods that turn him into a raging psycho.
Todd starts by trying to persuade women to have abortions and gets their tubes tied in return for him putting through their welfare claims. He has a small success with a client or two but few are convinced by his arguments including a man who has fathered several children. It is time for Todd to force these people to do what he suggests through kidnap and operations without pain relief. It is shocking to see someone do what Todd does to other humans in the name of saving the planet but I couldn't help laughing at the crazy situations that he gets into. I mean, most people with a brain would realise that kidnapping a man and giving him a vasectomy will not end up well. It was pretty funny to see Todd suddenly understanding that he will be getting reported to the police for this and trying to work out what the hell to do next.
The situations get crazier as he plans to abort the baby of a drug addict and tie her tubes with a helpful internet guide to the procedure. Then there is the problem of what to do about his pregnant ex girlfriend who is now a lesbian, and the home for women who have been persuaded not to abort their babies. Todd is knee deep in trouble(and gore) and I just found this gross bloodfest to be full of dark humour despite the disturbing plot. Todd is bothered by the fact that he might be a sociopath or a psychopath during his evil activities and these worries made me snigger.
If you like Jack Ketchum and Edward Lee and don't mind the shocking and gory content, then you might well enjoy this short novella.
OK, pay attention now-if you are offended by abortion, gorefests and murder then don't even think of picking up this book. It is the most graphic horror book I've read with descriptions of torture, forced abortion and vasectomy, and is not for the weak stomached. I also thought that it was twisted, funny and ironic and very well written.
You can fully understand Todd's frustration as a man who cares about the planet. Every day he watches pregnant women demand food stamps and welfare payments as they prepare to pop out yet another kid that they can't afford. Drug addicts having mutated children because they won't stop using. Men impregnating multiple women then needing a handout. And his hero has just been arrested for trying to add a drug to the water supply to make people sterile as a population control method. So now it is all up to Todd to sort things out, one case at a time. It is his methods that turn him into a raging psycho.
Todd starts by trying to persuade women to have abortions and gets their tubes tied in return for him putting through their welfare claims. He has a small success with a client or two but few are convinced by his arguments including a man who has fathered several children. It is time for Todd to force these people to do what he suggests through kidnap and operations without pain relief. It is shocking to see someone do what Todd does to other humans in the name of saving the planet but I couldn't help laughing at the crazy situations that he gets into. I mean, most people with a brain would realise that kidnapping a man and giving him a vasectomy will not end up well. It was pretty funny to see Todd suddenly understanding that he will be getting reported to the police for this and trying to work out what the hell to do next.
The situations get crazier as he plans to abort the baby of a drug addict and tie her tubes with a helpful internet guide to the procedure. Then there is the problem of what to do about his pregnant ex girlfriend who is now a lesbian, and the home for women who have been persuaded not to abort their babies. Todd is knee deep in trouble(and gore) and I just found this gross bloodfest to be full of dark humour despite the disturbing plot. Todd is bothered by the fact that he might be a sociopath or a psychopath during his evil activities and these worries made me snigger.
If you like Jack Ketchum and Edward Lee and don't mind the shocking and gory content, then you might well enjoy this short novella.
bigbookgeek's review
This was a great, but extreme read. It was hard to read, not so much for the extreme violence and gore (I can take that), more so because of the theme itself. Hard to digest because it gets you thinking about overpopulation, environmental activism, extremism, and humanity. I loved the story, but yeah, it definitely is squirm worthy.
bmacenlightened's review
4.0
So after reading this book I have decided that it might behoove me to make happier choices in my reading material, perhaps something with a sunny disposition. But that's later, and this is now.
I had previously read Scab by the same author and enjoyed the writing not only because of the explicit nature but also because of the level of writing and the skill that the author utilizes for his descriptions. This story was no different and showed that he could weave a longer story than the short ones I had read in the collection. After this I'm going to look at reading one of his longer works, but as I stated previously there needs to be something happy in the middle.
Essentially its a tale of eco-terrorism and the antithesis of pro life gone on a ridiculous rampage in the mind of a man who'd suffered trauma as a child in the same vein.
The juxtaposition of the character in his job and public life vs the level that he went to for a cause he believed in was very interesting to me, as was the descent into a different state of mind than he'd previously been privy to. Outside the main character and his descriptions of the love of his life the characterization was mostly flat but the importance was that he was looking at people as names on a list, numbers on a graph, caring more about their impact on the world around them than the fact that they too had lives that at one point might have been of some value.
The gore was pretty intense, and reminded me of the new French extremity film Inside and did a pretty good job of matching the sheer desperation that was showcased in that film despite having no visual aids with which to do so.
Honestly the only part that I really wasn't a big fan of was the ending where it kind of took a cliche turn and things went the way that one might've expected if they were looking at an easy way to tie up all the lose ends quickly. I understand that part of this is probably by design and maybe it does a better job of giving a sense of closure to the experience, I just wish it were less reminiscent of just quickly drawing things to a close.
I had previously read Scab by the same author and enjoyed the writing not only because of the explicit nature but also because of the level of writing and the skill that the author utilizes for his descriptions. This story was no different and showed that he could weave a longer story than the short ones I had read in the collection. After this I'm going to look at reading one of his longer works, but as I stated previously there needs to be something happy in the middle.
Essentially its a tale of eco-terrorism and the antithesis of pro life gone on a ridiculous rampage in the mind of a man who'd suffered trauma as a child in the same vein.
The juxtaposition of the character in his job and public life vs the level that he went to for a cause he believed in was very interesting to me, as was the descent into a different state of mind than he'd previously been privy to. Outside the main character and his descriptions of the love of his life the characterization was mostly flat but the importance was that he was looking at people as names on a list, numbers on a graph, caring more about their impact on the world around them than the fact that they too had lives that at one point might have been of some value.
The gore was pretty intense, and reminded me of the new French extremity film Inside and did a pretty good job of matching the sheer desperation that was showcased in that film despite having no visual aids with which to do so.
Honestly the only part that I really wasn't a big fan of was the ending where it kind of took a cliche turn and things went the way that one might've expected if they were looking at an easy way to tie up all the lose ends quickly. I understand that part of this is probably by design and maybe it does a better job of giving a sense of closure to the experience, I just wish it were less reminiscent of just quickly drawing things to a close.
david_agranoff's review
3.0
Population Zero by Wrath James White
Ok I fully expected to hate this book. The world of fiction has not been kind to vegans, the depiction in the media is pretty awful. The worst being the scene in 12 monkeys when a group of animal rights activists celebrate but making monkey sounds and stratching themselves.
So when I heard extreme horror writer and former MMA fighter Wrath James White had written a novella with a vegan environmentalist serial killer I was afraid to read it. I am sure not all vegans will be happy about White’s Vegan character, but I was pleasantly surprised. This is not a politically correct book by any means and I think many will call it classist, maybe even subtly racist.
The fact is this is a challenging book, like many great works of ecological and political horror it challenges us to look hard at things we refuse to see, in this case that is not the torn and ripped of fetuses, and mangled limbs. This book has those but that is not what makes this book extreme horror if you ask me.
Todd Hammerstein, is vegan, rides his bike to his social services job at the welfare department. This is a short novel but White does a great job, giving depth to Todd’s environmental beliefs quickly and for me that is more interesting than the blood and gore in the second half. An incident with the dog that was his first love plants a seed with Todd, if you can’t support the population, you shouldn’t breed.
From his job at the welfare department he sees an endless stream of people with children they have no means to support. When he fails convince some that they should have an abortion Todd resorts to violence.
I clearly don’t agree with serial killing as a means of population control but I love this method of story telling to talk about the serious issue of human overpopulation. Add population zero to the cannon of great Ecological horror with Skipp and Spector’s The Bridge, Shirley’s Demons and Brunner’s The Sheep Look Up.
Ok I fully expected to hate this book. The world of fiction has not been kind to vegans, the depiction in the media is pretty awful. The worst being the scene in 12 monkeys when a group of animal rights activists celebrate but making monkey sounds and stratching themselves.
So when I heard extreme horror writer and former MMA fighter Wrath James White had written a novella with a vegan environmentalist serial killer I was afraid to read it. I am sure not all vegans will be happy about White’s Vegan character, but I was pleasantly surprised. This is not a politically correct book by any means and I think many will call it classist, maybe even subtly racist.
The fact is this is a challenging book, like many great works of ecological and political horror it challenges us to look hard at things we refuse to see, in this case that is not the torn and ripped of fetuses, and mangled limbs. This book has those but that is not what makes this book extreme horror if you ask me.
Todd Hammerstein, is vegan, rides his bike to his social services job at the welfare department. This is a short novel but White does a great job, giving depth to Todd’s environmental beliefs quickly and for me that is more interesting than the blood and gore in the second half. An incident with the dog that was his first love plants a seed with Todd, if you can’t support the population, you shouldn’t breed.
From his job at the welfare department he sees an endless stream of people with children they have no means to support. When he fails convince some that they should have an abortion Todd resorts to violence.
I clearly don’t agree with serial killing as a means of population control but I love this method of story telling to talk about the serious issue of human overpopulation. Add population zero to the cannon of great Ecological horror with Skipp and Spector’s The Bridge, Shirley’s Demons and Brunner’s The Sheep Look Up.