A generation ago many families used an untested, unapproved fertility serum from Europe that promised success for those that had been trying to have children. Unfortunately the side effects turned the parents into some-type of fully-body haired, hideous monsters that ate the family pets, and the odd human or two, usually in front of their growing children.
This group of kids, now known as the brood, do everything possible to stave off puberty thinking that they too will end up running down Main Street, naked, hairy and on all-fours. Novak brings us a book that could be described as Midwich Cuckoos meets Peter Pan, except all the Lost Boys are off fornicating and giving birth to children with wings, and nowhere near as cute as Tinkerbell.
Some of the children’s blood has found to have powers that rejuvenate older people’s love lives and so the group, most who live together in packs, find a way to syphon off and sell their precious commodity. A Big Brother operation is also in operation, kidnapping the kids off the street to gauge their blood and make a killing in the pharmaceutical market.

We follow the path of creepy twins, Adam & Alice, who at thirteen are on the brink of puberty. Their parents are dead and they are being watched over by a spinster aunt who finds out she has more than normal troubles to deal with looking out for these unruly teenagers. As she tries to confine them to her loving embrace they hanker to be in the park with Rodolfo the leader of the pack. Is there a way to stop the teenagers’ hormones from kicking into over-gear? Aunt Cynthia sure seems to think she has the answers, and leads you alternatively gasping and gagging on this riot through Central Park.
This was one of the most distasteful books I ever read - from the descriptions of geriatric sex, with men whose breath smelled like old scabs, to a scene where children tear a police officer into pieces and eviscerate him to eat him, however I can’t stop talking about how disgusting it was. Read it, having been warned.
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The thing about him is— Jesus, I don’t even want to write this down. It will be like proof that I’ve started to go mad… and if I do go mad, those kids will really and truly disappear into the grinding machinery of the child-care system that processes kids like sausage meat. But here it is anyhow: Dylan’s hands glow in the dark.

So after not liking the first book I continued on to the sequel only because I had already committed to read it on Netgalley. I, once again, found myself struggling through this one and had to force myself to sit down and read just like I had to force myself to take disgusting tasting cough syrup as a child. It is really hard to find the motivation to follow characters that you don't like or at times don't understand.

This book starts a little while after the first one ended. Adam and Alice are now going to be living with their aunt Cynthia. Cynthia is absolutely dying to be a mother so she jumps at the chance to become a mother to the traumatized twins. I felt that Cynthia was pathetic, naive, and annoying as hell. She just thought they could be one happy family and wouldn't really get the help the kids needed. She was clueless and was definitely not their mother. I haven't wanted a character to die this much in a long time.

If having annoying Cynthia in this book isn't enough for you, readers also get to follow a pack of wild children who speak like cavemen. It was an absolute headache trying to read any dialogue involving the wild children. Of course the only one who speaks normally, Polly, happens to be the one that I hate the most. Here is a little glimpse of how the wild children spoke:

“They are taking us’s brothers and sisters. Who is doing this to us’s? This we’s must know.”

I didn't really enjoy the whole side plot with Dennis. It didn't really help move the story along. In fact the plot progression really lacked in this. Not much actually happened, once again it was a lot of running but this time we added Cynthia worrying constantly to the plot. I was once again left completely unsatisfied with the ending. The ending felt like a fizzle when the author realized he was running out of pages. I am not sure if there will be any sequels to this but I do know that if there are I won't be reading them. ( )