Title: Blender BabiesAuthor: Jon Athan
First Published: November 2, 2023
Publisher: Self-Published
Pages: 364
Genre: Extreme Horror, Horror, Post-Apocalyptic, Splatterpunk
Format: Ebook
Source: Kindle Unlimited
Rating:
Synopsis:
They called it: ‘The Craze.’
No one saw it coming. It started with isolated reports of people kidnapping babies and blending them to drink their ‘essence’—a highly potent and highly addictive chemical compound found in infants. The phenomenon spread through social media, infecting other addicts. Cases of kidnapping and murder—femicide and infanticide—skyrocketed, leading to governments around the world to issue state of emergencies and strict shelter-at-home orders.
But it was too late.
Society had collapsed into itself.
Now, Brian Turner finds himself trapped in a police station with his family—his wife Leslie, his five-year-old son Cameron, and his newborn daughter Harper—and a group of shellshocked survivors. With their supplies running low and a horde of baby-fiends waiting to strike outside, he must find a way to protect his family and search for a new home away from the carnage and madness.
Jon Athan, the author of The Groomer and Lovesick, presents a disturbing post-apocalyptic vision unlike anything he’s written before. Can you survive the Craze?
WARNING: This book contains graphic content. Reader discretion is advised.
Review
I’ll be honest, Blender Babies was my dark horse in this year’s Books of Horror Indie Brawl. I hadn’t read any of Jon Athan’s books but was interested. The second I saw the cover and title I wrote this book off as not for me. I gave it a shot for the sake of the event and honestly, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but the book far exceeded my expectations.
Blender Babies is a post-apocalyptic novel about a family man trying to find safety for his family, standard stuff. The book remixes some of the common tropes of the genre by introducing a unique threat: drug-addled psychopaths addicted to adrenochrome. Notably, adrenochrome was the subject of far-right conspiracy theories about Satanists harvesting children. Cook up those conspiracies and toss in a manosphere minor villain to steal the show, and Blender Babies was a surprisingly funny and cutting satire of the fringes of modern society, sustained by social media.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a splatterpunk novel with some truly grisly scenes and a few heart-stopping moments. I was unsure of my feelings for most of the book but the second half of the novel sold me on it. The social and political commentary are razor sharp and the book reminded me why I love the post-apocalyptic genre.
Quote
“All men are welcome here, even the traitors—so long as they renounce their old ways and accept our beliefs. And what are our beliefs, you ask? Simple. All men are created equal… and all women are whores. Sacks of flesh for our pleasure… and our consumption. Brainless dolls for us to play with… and take apart. Slaves to our whim… and incubators of our seed. We—you and I and him and him and him—are everything. They are nothing.”
Content Warnings
View Spoiler »About the Author
About Jon Athan
Jon Athan is an author from California. Jon was born on September 12, 1992 during a stormy night. As a child, he enjoyed writing and telling scary short stories. Some of these stories got him into some serious trouble with his teachers, but he persevered through the detentions and therapy sessions.
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