Saturday. An ordinary day. People out shopping. Going to the movies. Eating fast-food. Just an ordinary Saturday. Right?
Wrong. Twenty-four hours later, civilization has been torn apart. Adults begin roaming the streets in howling mobs. They have become murderously insane and nobody under the age of nineteen is safe.
Running through the burning ruins of cities is seventeen-year-old Nick Aten. Nick has discovered that his brother has been murdered. And now he is fleeing tens of thousands of homicidally deranged adults who will, if they catch him, tear him apart.
Dark bleatings, my frenzied tribe! Today, I’m taking a second look at Blood Crazy, which I recently re-read. I first read it many moons ago, so far back I can’t actually remember when it was, but it always stuck with me as being one of the more original takes on the apocalypse.
So, what’s it about, I hear you ask? Nick gets home one morning to find his parents aren’t there, and his little brother is dead. Not only dead, but brutally murdered, actually. He quickly discovers that he’s in an apocalypse of sorts – everyone over the age of 19 has turned into a murderous freak, intent on killing children, especially their own children. The only people unaffected are kids and teenagers, and so our unlikely adolescent group set out to survive in circumstances that are – and please excuse my language here – completely fucked. I like to think I’d have some sort of survival instinct if half the population went nuts like this but truthfully, I’d probably be one of the first to go.
Initially, I thought ‘come off it, kids would never survive this’ BUT I was wrong. I forgot that though I had my struggles, I was a relatively sheltered kid. I never, for example, took to the mean streets (is that what they call it if you’re in a gang?!). I have no street smarts to speak of. I have always been enormously protective of my little brother though, and think I’d do a pretty good job of surviving at any age if his wellbeing depended on me.
Anyway, there’s a lot to love in this story. I love the apocalypse and I love anything that even vaguely resembles a zombie. I got invested in the characters pretty fast too. But where I think this book really excels is in its thought-provoking themes.
On the surface, Blood Crazy is a thrilling world end with fast pacing, chaos, and surprising levels of violence, at times. But beneath that, and you don’t have to dig too deeply to see them, are many layers. Social politics seen through the lens of children and survival instinct are right there for all to see, and then there’s also a subtle look at how social class might play into a situation like this. Those toughened by misfortune and hardship, whether it be with parents or at school, seem better equipped to handle the violence and emotional turmoil. Those with the confidence that comes with being respected and valued, and that shouldered some surface level responsibility prior to the apocalyptic event, find that the wheels start to come off in terms of their leadership skills in a situation as dire as this.
I’d recommend this to people who enjoy having things to reflect on after a good book, and also to people who just want a fun, balls out horror story. If you’d like to check out the book or author, I’ve popped some links below for you:
Bleeeeat!
Happy Goat Horror 
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