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Meet the Cunninghams… A family bound by evil and the blood
they have spilled.
Meet Caleb Samael Cunningham, a diabolical serial-killer
with an inherited psychopathology, passed down via a blood-soaked genealogy.
Caleb is a disturbed young man whose violent father is a suspected serial
killer and mother, and insane alcoholic. After his father's suicide,
Cunningham's disturbing fantasy-life becomes reality, as he begins his killing
spree in earnest. His identical twin brother Charlie is to be released from an
asylum and all hell is about to break loose, when the brothers combine their
deviant talents.
4.5/5 Amazon Stars
The serial killer genre must be one of the most difficult to
write about. Considering that so much research has been devoted to our
understanding of these monstrous people who live among us, the killer is not
mysterious. We're fascinated by the perpetrators of the most heinous crimes;
the killers are granted immortality by the media and our own innate desire to
peer into the darkness of the human heart and mind. How can such monsters
exist?
William Cook's presentation of a family of murderers, most
notably the twin brothers Caleb and Charlie, is a chronicle that charts the
evolution (or de-evolution) of a killer's psyche. There is a plot in this
novel, or rather, a series of events that result in the book's conclusion (no
spoilers here). A revolutionary plot on the manic scale of Charles Manson, a damaged
family unit that has been depicted in classic horror films like Texas Chainsaw Massacre and House of 1000 Corpses, and the downward
spiral of the novel's "good guy" all illustrate the environmental
conditions which create such monstrosities. Cook did very thorough research; no
stone was left unturned, no cause unexplored.
There are several scenes that may have been more effective
if the reader was given a chance to "see" rather than be
"told," however, within the greater framework of the novel, which is
rather extensive, one can argue that Cook's method only underscore the madness
within: there are buckets of gore amid several grotesque mutilations, but all
of them are very casually described. Whether from the perspective of a killer
who wallows in bloodlust or from files and reports that summarize the grisly
murder scenes, the detachment of the prose from the massacre mirrors the mental
state of the characters. Descriptions are hardly tense, but rather
matter-of-fact.
Grievances with this novel are based on personal preference.
As with many serial killer stories, there is a severe lack of an endearing
female character. From the perspective of Caleb and Charlie, this is acceptable
because it appropriately conveys their worldview; however, I would have liked
to see a character contrast with their dark, grimy world. One might argue that
a doctor that appears within the pages is this contrast, and the argument is
acceptable. In addition, I found some of the information near the end of the
novel to be a bit anti-climactic.
Cook knows his material. The contemporary standard for a
serial killer novel is, in my opinion, American
Psycho by Brett Easton Ellis. The fact that I can measure Blood Related against this standard
suggests that Cook has accomplished what few writers can with the serial killer
story. I've seen Blood Related appear
on a few "Best of" lists; I expect Cook to receive accolades for this
novel, and future endeavors.
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