Craig DiLouie introduces readers to a few characters in the opening chapters of Suffer the Children. Joan and Doug are lower-middleclass parents with two children, and very Midwestern in their values. Ramona is a single mother balancing a career and her “very ill” son who has Celiac disease. Lastly, we have David and Nadine, spouses who are a pediatrician and nurse in a private practice who used to have a son, but he died in a car accident that disabled David.
Those are our main characters, all of them connected to children in some way, which is important, because Suffer the Children is about a pandemic that is quickly dubbed “Herod Event.” Any child that has not yet reached puberty dies for unknown reasons, an event that sweeps across the globe. Even a pregnant teen who visits David’s practice realizes that her baby isn’t moving anymore.
DiLouie’s book seems to be about two things: how we experience grief, and what it’s like to live in an individualistic society. What I mean is, when David and Nadine’s son died in the car accident, no one could understand their pain of losing a child, nor David’s hope that they have other children and Nadine’s refusal to envision that future. Then, after Herod Event, everyone loses their children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, etc., and every adult can relate, but there is no one to provide a support system. Basically, if every family has suffered the worst loss ever, there is no one left to say, “I’m sorry for your loss” and grieve for the family.
And then, the miraculous happens; the children come back from death, wiggling around in their mass graves until they climb out and head home. However the children were before, they are still themselves. Nadine feels it is a miracle from God and has renewed hope in having more children with David. Doug and Joan get their kids back. Ramona is going to focus more on her son instead of her career.
However, I said Suffer the Children examines individualism, such as is American culture. The children claim to be hungry, and news spreads they’re hungry for blood. DiLouie didn’t write a vampire novel, per se. The children drink the blood their parents give them after Nadine starts traveling around and helping parents donate a pint here and there through typical medical means. Parents grow weaker to keep their children alive.
Without blood, the children die again, laying there decomposing. To prevent their final expiration, parents must keep them alive. DiLouie throws in a twist; a pint only keeps a child alive for about one hour, meaning it is mathematically impossible to sustain, but that doesn’t mean every determined parent won’t try. Every single parent would do everything he/she could to save his/her children. Folks without kids are in danger; rich people pay for blood and are attacked by the weak masses that view buying blood as unfair. Suffer the Children keeps up the tension, the grief, the mass hysteria through its entirety, making for an addicting read.
I appreciated that the chapters alternated in points of view, but remained in 3rd person. Therefore, the omniscient narrator could add what the characters did not see, and when some of the children get their own chapters, they don’t sound like 3rd grade students with PhDs, as often happens with first-person child narrators. I also appreciated outside opinions about the role of children in society. If all children around the globe die, entire economies designed to support them, including school, college, clothing, media, etc. collapse, too.
I do wish that Joan, Doug, Ramona, David, and Nadine were not all from the same town. How different it would be if David and Nadine were medical practitioners in Asia, or if Ramona was a South American character. Readers would better understand Herod Event as global, but as is, DiLouie keeps his story focused on a small setting.
Grab the Lapels 
Your description reminds me a bit of The Midwich Cuckoos – in a sense, the premise there is the opposite (the surprise arrival of pregnancies and children), but portraying the impact of a sudden change in everyone’s relationship to children and parenthood on a small community. Such an interesting topic for a book.
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While I did not realize there is a theme for the horror book club I joined in St. Louis just by looking at the book list, someone finally pointed out that we’re reading all child/pregnancy horror. Therefore, Midwich Cuckoos is on the list, so I’m pleased to see you mentioned it!
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What loulou says … this is a fascinating idea.
Individualism is a great thing to think about. Do you think the book’s resolution makes good points about it (without spoiling ending of course.) It certainly feels like an idea or value that’s going to need some interrogation given how the next few years are looking in the USA.
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At one point in the book, someone calculates how much blood it would take to keep all the children in this one town alive, ignoring the rest of the world and their wish to keep their children alive, and it’s mathematically impossible. One pint of blood equals one hour. There is no way folks could work together to save all their children, which means they could have possible worked together to save SOME children, but then which ones? A nurse in the novel points out that people should only give one pint of blood every 56 days, I believe it was. Anyway, no one works together to solve any problems other than the doctor whose son died in an automobile collision before the Herod Event. Altogether, what happens to the children wouldn’t change much in the end of the book, though mass chaos may not have ensued.
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So, what do you think is the overall point of the novel?
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The lengths to which people go for their children, even at the expense of other people’s lives and well being.
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Ah thanks … makes sense, and is a really interesting issue, one most of us never have to confront in this life-threatening way but do frequently in all sorts of small ways.
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I find that a lot of SF is strangely local, mostly American of course, but even 1984 is written as though the author’s home, England, is the centre of the world (ditto, Midwich Cuckoos – where one village is representative of the whole world).
I actually believe that the opposite (of the author’s thesis) is true. That in large tragedies, people bond to share their grief.
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One of the reasons the zombie sub-genre is so popular is because we often see how humans react in mass confusion, conflict, etc., and it’s a lot of snatch resources, killing each other, etc. I do wonder how such a story would be presented in a different culture, one that is more collectivist. The only example I can think of is Train to Busan, from South Korea, in which there are obvious class issues cropping up, with the wealthy thinking they deserved to be saved and a little girl trying to show kindness to everyone in the situation.
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Yikes! Costly necromancy!
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Absolutely. So much anemia.
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This sounds fascinatingly bizarre. I do think there’s something really compelling in this idea that when the world’s children suffer or disappear, it affects the entire purpose of humanity. I’m reminded a bit of PD James’ book Children of Men where children stop being born. Is there a lot of religious imagery in this book – the title and the fact that it’s called Herod seem deliberate.
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You’re right about the religious imagery! I tried to bring it up, and book club was like, “Ope, the store is going to close soon.” Also, your comment about children being a purpose for humanity is fascinating to me. I don’t have children, don’t want children, and don’t think I need to find some children to care for me in old age. However, I do care about them, support them, fund them, etc. and know that they have to take over at some point. What if they weren’t there to take over?
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I have so m any questions, but I’m most hung up on whether the fetus of the pregnant teen came back to life.
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SPOILER: it did, and it basically sucked her dry from the inside.
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That is all kinds of gross
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WOOOOO boy, Melanie!!
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i’ve reviewed a few Craig DiLouie books before (he’s from Calgary!) and he’s quite a creepy writer. This book seems to have tipped over into an even darker place, a place I don’t think I would ever want to go. I would appreciate it’s debate over the lengths people would go to save their own kids, hurting other people in the process, the whole ‘me first’ mentality, etc. Those are always fascinating discussions!
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It’s not a terribly graphic story, but the topic is sensitive, which is why I was clear in my review about that part. I’m sure lots of parents would hate reading this book, though, interestingly, there were several parents at the book club. None of them seemed too fussed about the novel because they use horror to escape real life. They’re able to compartmentalize it.
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And if they’re at a horror book club, you’re only giving them what they want! haha
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So true! I do know some horror folks who quit reading anything related to kids in horror once they became parents.
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That’s what I meant. I don’t think you have to have children to have meaning in life or care about the future. But if there were no more children, if humans were one generation away from extinction, what would that mean for people’s lives?
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