Bloody Books, publishers of the Read By Dawn anthology series, (itself related to the annual Scottish Dead by Dawn horror film festival through Adele Hartley’s curatorship of both ventures), ups the ante with their latest release, Meat, by Joseph D’Lacey.

Back in the day, I remember losing myself in the visceral volumes of Clive Barker’s Books of Blood. Gritty, experimental and imaginative, Barker’s short stories took horror fiction to a whole new level of artfully manufactured grue. Whilst D’Lacey’s novel almost certainly won’t create as many red ripples, (let’s face it, nothing could), Meat is an undeniably powerful read.

The town of Abyrne is hungry as hell. Possibly a surviving suburb of a now abandoned and rotting City, Abyrne is surrounded by an unexplained and unforgiving wilderness. A gnawing post-apocalyptic appetite dominates the rhythms and thoughts of the townsfolk. Plant-life is rare. Vegetables are seen as insufficient and lacking protein. The authorities have long since gone, replaced by ginger giant psychopath, Magnus, the owner of the Meat Processing Plant whose factory produce keeps the populace in thrall.

Richard Shanti punishes himself every minute of every day because he’s good at his the job. He’s ‘The Ice Pick’, he makes the entire meat production process tick, unflinchingly pulling the trigger on the gun that sends the bolt deep into the brain of each cow. Every time he looks into the eyes of the cattle he’s processing, he questions himself, and his colleagues, and his family, and the people of Abyrne.

Parson of the Welfare, Mary Simonson is feeling ill, she’s got the shakes, (as have many of the townsfolk). But she won’t let the crippling stomach pain distract her from her holy work. Shanti’s in her sights and her Church is vying for control of the town. God is supreme. The flesh is sacred, goes the mantra. (But don’t forget those tasty dairy by-products).

Collins is a mysterious and displaced dissident. Hiding from the authorities in the Derelict Quarter, he’s preaching to whoever will listen. Gradually his message is spreading, his supporters are gathering…

The cow, WHITE 0-47, cringes from her keepers, wondering where her calf went. And here’s the bull, BLUE 792. He’s built like a brick shithouse, but gentle around the cows. His seed keeps the herd’s numbers up. Mutilated and manacled, processed and packaged, seemingly silent, the Chosen are talking to each other…

D’Lacey’s been promoting Meat across the UK, and the book’s uncompromising cover has been draped around adshels across the country. According to his blog on Myspace he’s driven around in his Meatwagon – have a look at this, damn impressive – and: “A lady in a London branch of Waterstones described it as ‘a life-changing read.’ I’ve discovered that one reader has become vegan since reading MEAT, stating the book as the catalyst for this major alteration. Will there be others?”

Obviously it’s creating waves of some sort, even on a personal level for some. Here’s why. It’s a throwback to those sharp-edged pages of Barker’s bloody books. It does what it says on the packaging, (unlike most products you’ll find in the supermarket these days). You are what you eat and D’Lacey makes the residents of Abyrne eat every last bit of the animal. Yes, even those bits. He expertly carves emotion from the protagonists and details their diseased lives in uncomfortably raw prose. (But then we wouldn’t want our post-apocalypse existence to be anything but uncomfortable would we?).

Meat is a damning and workmanlike commentary on the human race’s ceaseless appetite for meat, and the unspeakable processes involved in meeting that demand.

You are what you read, so here is my PARAGRAPH OF RESONANCE:

Shanti had been watching the matings the day that BLUE-792 entered WHITE-047’s mating pen. It was subtle; he didn’t know if any of the stockmen ever noticed – they were too busy shouting encouragement and laughing at BLUE-792’s huge pizzle. Something was different about the process that day. The bull sniffed at the air in the crate as he always did but Shanti saw him freeze without taking a single step further. At first, he thought his favourite bull was afraid. Instead of hiding timidly in the corner, nervous and tense like most of the other young cows, WHITE-047 was standing upright and facing BLUE-792. She was staring at him, and he was staring back.

Download the first chapter at meatnovel.

Paragraph(s) of Resonance – those passages that particularly hit a nerve with me, and might with you, hopefully giving you a taste of what to expect.

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