“Population Zero” by Wrath James White is a relentless, graphic and disturbing short novel of extreme horror. It is definitely not for the squeamish or easily disturbed or offended but it is very well written and breathlessly paced. It does not cross the line to being gratuitous, given its subject matter, but I feel the warning is necessary.
The novel follows the slow descent into madness of Todd, a man obsessed with a group called Population Zero. This terrorist organization has the planet’s well being in mind, citing evidence of our incapacity to handle our future population growth, but offers extreme solutions to rectify the issue.
Todd works at a social services office and begins assisting Population Zero in subtle ways, such as suggesting to his clients they have vasectomies or abortions. Of course, they don’t take too kindly to his advice and without spoiling the plot I will just say he takes the matter into his own hands.
Each act of domestic terrorism he commits makes the next more extreme one easier to perform as Todd’s life spirals out of control in a hurry. White does a great job of providing enough back story to give insight into Todd’s rationale without expecting us to sympathize with him.
White’s prose is appropriately pungent and brutally realistic and the whole story powers through at a breakneck pace. The novel is best if read in as few sittings as possible and the effect is numbing. There is one twist near the end that surprised me and adds another level of wicked irony to one of the supporting characters.
If you have the ability to sit through films like Saw or Hostel you should read this novel. It has the same level of extreme violence but much more to offer. It is a biting satire of modern society and a chilling look inside the mind of a maniac.
Note: I have given this a scare factor of three stars considering our site’s scale of “how much it made me jump” but make no mistake, if you consider gore scary its rating is four stars plus.
– George Wilhite
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- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
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- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
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