Book Review: Succulent Prey – Author Wrath James White

SUCCULENT PREY
by Wrath James White
Published by Leisure Fiction
Publication Date: 2008
Format: Black /White – 307 pages
Price: $7.99

Something to sink your teeth into…

Ever wondered what it would feel like to feast on an actual human being? Have you ever felt this strong urge to go out and abduct someone because you’ve felt this hunger that was unlike anything you have ever experienced before? Well that’s what the character Joe Miles has done in the terrifying, gory, ultra-violent horror novel called Succulent Prey has done. This book is definitely not for those who have weak stomachs. This is a serial cannibalistic killer’s wet dream come true. The author Wrath James White had written something beyond dark, beyond morbid. He wrote something that none of the most disturbed minds could ever conjure up. Wrath James White is right up next to the big dogs of intense horror fiction, I’m talking about guys like Clive Barker and Edward Lee.

I purchased this book at Barnes and Noble and was looking for a little late night reading when I read one of the reviews for this book. The reviewer had described this novel to be ultra violent and he was right in every sense. The author had written a very graphic and brutal novel about a young man who had been attacked by a child killer many years ago, well this young man Joseph Miles has developed the strong urge to feast on human flesh. In the book there’s a theory that maybe killers are infected with a type of virus that turns them into the monsters that they are. That’s what Joseph begins to experience as the hunger for human flesh increases. He wants to go out and experiment and there is a body count that follows. I was amazed at how beautifully and graphically violent this book was. I have been looking to get my hands on the most extreme pieces of fiction that I could get my hands on. I was fortunate enough to read this novel. It’s a quick read a reader would be finished with this book within a couple of days. The way the author wrote and told of the vicious and horrific cannibalistic slayings were. I became more and more involved with what he has written.

Each scene of violence and sexual situations were very graphic to the point you could almost see what Joseph was doing to his victims. The book has a very strong sense of sheer brutality, it definitely gets you into the mind of a killer and what he is thinking. You could almost feel the strong urges Joseph is going through as he desperately tries to subdue his intense hunger for human flesh. There is an objective to Joseph’s dilemma. He believes that the child killer who had abducted him and tortured him all those years, had somehow infected him with a virus. A virus Joseph believes that’s turning him into a monster, a brutal and sadistic cannibalistic killer who does not care who he kills and devours as long as he can satiate his intense hunger for human flesh. Joe is on a mission, he does not want to kill the only woman that he loves, his mission is to go out and kill the host.

If you were to buy this novel and read it, I would not suggest you read it on a full stomach. The killings are very descriptive to the point where you could almost feel the pain and suffering Joseph’s victims were going through as he would torture and feast on their flesh. This author is definitely right up there with the likes of Jack Ketchum and Richard Laymon and all of those other authors whose sole purpose is to shock the holy hell out of us with their well written works of dark and twisted fiction. I am proud to say that I will be keeping an eye out for more of Wrath James White’s fiction. He has gained a fan for sure.