Chase Novak is the pseudonym for Scott Spencer. Spencer is the author of eleven novels, including Endless Love, which has sold over two million copies to date, and the National Book Award finalist A Ship Made of Paper. He has written for Rolling Stone, the New York Times, the New Yorker, GQ, and Harper's. Mulholland Books published his horror novel Breed in September 2012.
"...A delightfully nauseating read.... Chase Novak has hit upon the
perfect blend of terrifying real-life topics.... [and] repurposed
his literary flair for observation into grisly narrative
schadenfreude.... There is a clever fable about class here, as the
Twisdens' tumble down the evolutionary tree mirrors their fall down
the economic ladder.... And it's the perfect dark fairy tale for
these times, when more than a few readers might secretly find
themselves wishing that the world's elites would be brought so low
as to start pooping in their own posh living rooms."--Annalee
Newitz, NPR.org
"...A foray into urbane horror, chicly ghoulish, with a malevolent
emphasis on family values.... BREEDexploits the contrast between
civilized and feral behavior. The grand furnishings of the Twisden
homestead wind up clawed, chewed and torn as Alex and Leslie's
conditions worsen; the cellar goes all Silence of the Lambs. And in
a really fine set piece Mr. Spencer stages a long chase through the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, where the relics of primitive times and
the veneer of privilege always coexist.... If Mr. Spencer's name
were not openly attached to BREED, it would still read like the
work of a serious writer with keen antennas for sensory detail....
Above and beyond its fatality count BREED has originality on its
side; the ending is a true shocker. The book sets out to convey
what it is like to be 'subject to the whip and rattle of
unspeakable temptations.' And it does."--Janet Maslin, The New York
Times
"...A slice of shivering dread that won't allow you to look at in
vitro fertilization, children running loose in Central Park or
parents who find their children 'delicious' in the same way
again."--Ken Salikof, The New York Daily News
"...Like a literary, contemporary version of Rosemary's Baby-a
well-to-do Manhattan couple has everything they could possibly
want, only they desperately want children. After trying everything
treatment they can, they resort to a highly unusual procedure
that's successful in that they conceive twins. But there are also
some seriously nasty side-effects that lead to a creepy, bloody,
hairy thrill ride."--Stephan Lee, Entertainment Weekly
"...Will remind horror connoisseurs of Rosemary's Baby, another Big
Apple tale of parenthood gone horribly awry. What Spencer shares
most with Ira Levin is a darkly droll sense of humor... [BREED]
matches the earlier book's propulsive narrative and satirical
edge."--The San Francisco Chronicle
"A cautionary tale about the perils of fertility treatments turns
into a gore fest for the strong of stomach.... There may well be a
massive popular readership for this gruesome tale..."--Kirkus
Reviews
"A page-turner, classic yet original, filled with detail both
subtle and unforgettable, unnerving in its mad logic and genuinely
frightening."--Richard Price, author of Lush Life and Clockers
"Advanced reproductive technologies prove just a new form of mad
science in this timely, engrossing medical thriller.... Novak
writes with an energy that propels the reader through the novel's
unlikely science and subplots. He also winks enough to suggest that
this all could be a black comedy on modern parenting."--Publishers
Weekly
"Although the phrase 'I couldn't put it down' is used promiscuously
in book blurbs (and reviews) it isn't often that I am so caught up
in a novel that I have to finish it before thinking about doing
anything else. Of course, the pacing and length of a book plays a
big role in this phenomenon-once I raced through the first 100
pages of BREED in record time, finishing off another 210 pages was
a realistic goal before turning in for the night.... The
grabber...is in the set-ups that convince us we are in the 'real
world' rather than some phony B-horror movie netherworld. We
believe in the people we meet and the place where they live, so
when ghastly things start happening, we have to know how the story
will play out.... But the increasingly macabre and truly horrifying
developments kept me in a vise-like grip.... BREED substitutes
science for the religious mythology of Rosemary's Baby so it is, in
some ways, more believable than the Ira Levin classic. Maybe too
believable."--Joe Meyers, Connecticut Post
"An honest-to-goodness page-turner."--Bookpage
"BREEDis a daring, ultra-modern novel dealing with bleeding edge
science and contemporary concerns. It's dark fiction, but not as we
know it. An antidote to the anodyne paranormal romances, vampire
horrors, and gory splatterfests littering the book charts, this is
a truly original work. While transcending the modern, it also deals
with universal themes populating literature since we first started
telling stories around campfires. Ultimately, this is a novel about
the dangers of science-bogus science in particular. It's a story of
the Promethean folly of human beings. Written in urgent, vital
prose that quickens the blood, it confronts. BREED is an
intelligent, dark thriller dense with paranoia, yielding creative
anxiety, a genetically modified rollercoaster."--A.J. Kirby, New
York Journal of Books
"Diabolically entertaining.... Along with suspense and shocks,
Novak delivers enough humor to make the mayhem palatable...with
triumphant effect. The best American horror novel since Scott
Smith's The Ruins, BREED is redolent of Roadl Dahl at his creepy
best."--Dennis Drabelle, The Washington Post
"Disturbing and funny and very visual..."--Robin Abrahams,
Boston.com's "Miss Conduct Reads" blog
"For all its Gothic horror pedigree, BREED is ultimately a smart
commentary on modern parenting."--David Abrams for Salon
"Forget vampires, zombies and guys clad in hockey masks brandishing
oversized machetes. Chase Novak unleashes truly scary literary
horror villains in BREED: Mom and Dad. Novak...explores what
happens when one's parents aren't quite the protectors they should
be in this excellent horror novel. He probes emotionally deep and
heartbreaking themes of family and friendship that seem fresh in a
book that's a bit like a mad-scientist movie-or Frankenstein if the
monster decided he needed some kiddos in his life.... The kids
escape their domestic prison, which shifts gears in BREED from a
psychological tale to a high-stakes adventure where your fingers
can't flip the pages fast enough.... BREED doesn't need love
triangles, twist endings or aspects of a gore fest to keep an
audience enraptured. Instead, it's the simple conceit-how do you
love parents who do more harm than good?-and a moving ending that
make Novak's horror novel a thrill to read."--Brian Truitt, USA
Today
"Smart and brutal, this joins the ranks of such elegant domestic
shockers as Lionel Shriver's We Need to Talk about Kevin, John
Ajvide Lindqvist's Let Me In, and Justin Evans' A Good and Happy
Child."--Booklist
"The best horror novel I've read since Peter Straub's Ghost Story.
By turns terrifying and blackly funny, BREED is a total
blast."--Stephen King
"The definition of a literary horror novel."--Russ Marshalek,
Flavorwire
"The most elegantly skin-crawling, gut-churning novel I've read in
years."--Warren Ellis, author of Crooked Little Vein and
Transmetropolitan
"There are passages during which BREED is really visceral."--Sam
Thielman, Newsday
Ask a Question About this Product More... |