Really really enjoyed this book. Spoilers ahead, beware! But I wanted an honest, filtered review for my 6th grade teachers. The word "rape" is used, but it never happens (it's never explained either.) A shirt is ripped off, but undergarments remain intact. A four-letter word is almost used once. By this, I mean it's represented as b--ch. Otherwise, it's a practically perfect dystopian story that had me hooked and staying up past my bedtime to see how it played out. Cannot wait to hear this author speak!! ( )

This book is the first out of 120 horror paperbacks I have hidden away in my closet (there's actually 126, but six of them are Harry Potter books). As I make my way through these piles, each book will get a KEEP, SELL, or TRASH rating along with whatever star rating I choose. If I pick SELL and you would like to buy my copy, feel free to message me on Goodreads.

Breeder, by Douglas Clegg is a KEEP.

If I had to hazard a comparison, I'd say that Clegg's writing is a mixture of Peter Straub and Bentley Little. Yes, there are touches of Stephen King within these pages (especially with the addition of music playing on the radio in almost every chapter, and characters who talk to themselves more than the other characters), but overall, Clegg's voice is his own. This is hard to find in eighties horror, especially late eighties horror, because by 1990 (that's still late eighties; you gotta remember that any book published in 1990 must have been written before the turn of the decade) everyone was ripping off the good horror novels of the previous decade: basically, anything King, Straub, Barker, and McCammon were churning out. Finding Clegg's voice not only original but engaging in this, his second novel, was refreshing.

If you like body horror, Breeder is your book. From vaginal wasps to obliterated testicles, Clegg knows how to make both genders cringe and cross their legs. There are some damn unique horror scenes herein, but, I have to admit, the ending was a little... too weird, even for me. So much was going on, I lost the horror of it all. Kinda like a movie goer becomes numb to the four-hundredth explosion in a Michael Bay film. But this is only the final ten pages before the epilogue. The rest of the novel is disturbing and concise. Please, don't get me wrong. The denouement isn't bad, there's just a lot going on. The constant jumps from one person's POV to another do not help this.

I think Clegg's strong point is his characters. Loved Rachel and Sassy and Ted, hated Hugh and Wilson, and Mattie was a guilty pleasure. I loved the mambo's section simply for the what-the-fuckery. I especially liked the scene wherein she's bathing in a grave. I dig the way Clegg's mind works, and I wouldn't mind having coffee with the dude and discussing story ideas.

In summation: If you happen upon this book, it's definitely worth a read. Clegg is not new to me, but it's been a long time since I read anything by the man. I have another paperback of his in my closet (Naomi), that I will be getting to this year, and then I think I'll start looking up his newer work. I would recommend Breeder to fans of Bentley Little, Stephen King, Peter Straub, and Clive Barker, or fans of eighties horror in general. ( )