Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Breed: A Novel
    Unavailable
    Breed: A Novel
    Unavailable
    Breed: A Novel
    Audiobook12 hours

    Breed: A Novel

    Written by Chase Novak

    Narrated by Peter Ganim

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Critically celebrated novelist Scott Spencer delivers a Rosemary's Baby-like novel of gothic horror, set against the backdrop of modern-day Upper East Side Manhattan.
    Alex and Leslie Twisden lead charmed lives-fabulous jobs, a luxurious town house on Manhattan's Upper East Side, a passionate marriage. What they don't have is a child, and as they try one infertility treatment after the next, yearning turns into obsession. As a last-ditch attempt to make their dream of parenthood come true, Alex and Leslie travel deep into Slovenia, where they submit to a painful and terrifying procedure that finally gives them what they so fervently desire . . . but with awful consequences.

    Ten years later, cosseted and adored but living in a house of secrets, the twins Adam and Alice find themselves locked into their rooms every night, with sounds coming from their parents' bedroom getting progressively louder, more violent, and more disturbing.

    Driven to a desperate search for answers, Adam and Alice set out on a quest to learn the true nature of the man and woman who raised them. Their discovery will upend everything they thought they knew about their parents and will reveal a threat so horrible that it must be escaped, at any cost.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHachette Audio
    Release dateSep 4, 2012
    ISBN9781619691933
    Unavailable
    Breed: A Novel

    Related to Breed

    Related audiobooks

    Horror Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Books

      Apr 22, 2022

      Books
      4 min read

    • Article

      Books

      Jul 22, 2019

      Elsa Joubert is best known for The Long  Journey of Poppie Nongena, but she also wrote a lot about her travels through Africa. In Cul-de-Sac she describes a journey of another kind: into proper old age (she is 95). Elsa moves into Berghof, a retirem

      4 min read

    • Article

      Books

      Apr 16, 2021

      Books
      4 min read

    • Article

      Cultural Prescription

      Nov 26, 2021

      Family misfortunes From David Lynch to Jonathan Franzen to Charles Ray, Guardian critics offer suggestions of culture that can mess you up at least as much as your mum and dad “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own w

      2 min read

    • Article

      Riding The Rapids

      Apr 4, 2021

      Riding The Rapids
      3 min read

    • Article

      What To Read

      Jul 29, 2022

      By HAYLEY SCRIVENOR Pan Macmillan Twelve-year-old best friends Esther and Ronnie leave school together one Friday in their small Australian town, but after they part ways only one of them reaches her home. Sydney missing-person police experts Sarah

      3 min read

    • Article

      September’s BOOK CLUB

      Jul 30, 2020

      What if you had the chance to open a book and try another life you might have lived? In this life-affirming read, Nora Seed does just that. With so many regrets, she gets to see what could have been if she’d taken that job, joined her brother’s band

      2 min read

    • Article

      Love & family

      Dec 28, 2022

      Australian author Peggy Frew creates characters you feel you know and long to help. That aching compassion draws you in and despite its traumatic world of addiction, Wildflowers is impossible to put down. Meg and Nina have always lived in their dazzl

      2 min read

    • Article

      Book Club

      Apr 21, 2021

      The dread witches inspired in the early 17th century is captured here with chilling deftness by debut author Elizabeth Lee. As the daughter of a ‘cunning woman’, Sarah fears she will resort to spells and curses to survive on the outskirts of the vill

      1 min read

    • Article

      Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Spencer, Phillips, and More

      Jun 16, 2020

      Here’s a quick look at some notable books—new titles from the likes of  Scott Spencer, Lucie Britsch, Ashleigh Bryant Phillips, and more—that are publishing this week. The post Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Spencer, Phillips, and More appeared fi

      5 min read

    • Article

      Great Read

      May 18, 2022

      Great Read
      5 min read

    • Article

      Summer Reading Special

      Dec 28, 2023

      The distinctive depth of characterisation shines in this tightly knitted story of therapist Nick and retired solicitor wife Zoe, as they decide to view a deconsecrated Victorian church which is for sale. It’s “even more picturesque than it looked onl

      11 min read

    • Article

      Summer Reading Special

      Dec 28, 2023

      Summer Reading Special
      11 min read

    • Article

      Great Reads

      Jun 7, 2023

      by Daniela Krien (£16.99, HB, Quercus) Rahel and Peter have been told their holiday cottage has burnt down, so go to stay at a friend’s isolated farm where Rahel spent her summers as a child. Here the couple, in their 50s, face up to their marriage:

      2 min read

    • Article

      Book Club

      Dec 2, 2020

      Dogs, snow-topped mountains and a little romance – what more could you want in an escapist festive read? When tragedy strikes in Alice’s life, her world is turned upside down and along with it comes Bear, a rapidly growing puppy. Outgrowing her Londo

      1 min read

    • Article

      Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Nugent, Tenorio, Martin, and More

      Jul 7, 2020

      Here’s a quick look at some notable books—new titles from the likes of Benjamin Nugent, Lysley Tenorio, and Andrew Martin—that are publishing this week. The post Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Nugent, Tenorio, Martin, and More appeared first on Th

      6 min read

    • Article

      New Fiction

      Jun 11, 2021

      This elegant debut novel is based on the true beginnings of the Oxford English Dictionary. Interspersing real-life figures with fictional characters, Williams explores words, in particular the different meanings and significance they can have for men

      1 min read

    • Article

      Best Books

      Oct 12, 2021

      Best Books
      1 min read

    • Article

      October’s BOOK CLUB

      Aug 26, 2021

      In 1960, DH Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover was tried for obscenity at the Old Bailey. Alison Macleod’s account shows us what was at stake. Had the case been proven, the defendant – Penguin Books director Sir Allen Lane – would have faced a three-

      2 min read

    • Article

      Better Books

      Apr 12, 2023

      At the end of a scorching hot Christmas Eve in 1959, a local man makes a dreadful discovery on the grounds of a grand country home in the Adelaide Hills. Police are called in and the small town of Tambilla becomes embroiled in a dreadful murder case.

      1 min read

    • Article

      Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Keefe, Beagin, Welsh, and More

      Feb 26, 2019

      Here’s a quick look at some notable books—new titles from the likes of Patrick Radden Keefe, Jen Beagin, Irvine Welsh and more—that are publishing this week. Want to learn more about upcoming titles? Then go read our most recent book preview. Want to

      6 min read

    • Article

      Story Time

      May 20, 2020

      Can true love conquer all? This is the question at the heart of Australian author Felicity Volk’s deeply affecting debut novel, and the answer is complex and devastating. Set over five decades from 1952 and told in alternating narratives, we piece to

      2 min read

    • Article

      Hot Off The Press

      Jan 17, 2020

      It’s great to see Robotham developing a new psychologist character. He’s hopefully moving away from Joe O’Loughlin, the star of his previous series who has no more interesting storylines left. Like Joe, Cyrus Haven is a forensic psychologist who help

      2 min read

    • Article

      Crime Book Of The MONTH

      Jul 21, 2021

      by Lesley Pearse (Penguin, RRP $37) “Neighbours, everybody needs good neighbours,” goes the slightly annoying theme song to the long-running Aussie soap. It’s a message the neighbours in this book seem to have missed. Young couple Nina and Conrad Bes

      1 min read

    • Article

      November’s BOOK CLUB

      Sep 23, 2021

      An enchanting retelling of The Nutcracker. Set in Edwardian society, we meet Marietta, who longs to be a ballerina. But her family has other ideas and want her to marry well. When the new neighbour, Dr Drosselmeier, turns up, Marietta is bewitched by

      2 min read

    • Article

      Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Kwan, Center, Iglesias, and More

      Jul 14, 2020

      Here’s a quick look at some notable books—new titles from the likes of Kevin Kwan, Katherine Center, Legna Rodríguez Iglesias, and more—that are publishing this week. The post Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Kwan, Center, Iglesias, and More appeare

      5 min read

    Reviews for Breed

    3.5/5

    336 ratings43 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      That moment of blindness. How she wishes it could have lasted longer. Not just a moment - an hour. Not just an hour - an eternity. For what she sees now is by far the most gruesome sight she has ever beheld, or even imagined. What she sees now makes death preferable to having to live with the memory of what is right before her eyes. Page. 211Alex and Leslie seem to have it all. A perfect life filled with fulfilling careers, passionate love, and money to buy anything else they deem lacking. The only missing thing, and the one thing that all the money in the world can't seem to buy for them - a biological child to call their own. Just when they had given up all hope, an unknown doctor in Slovenia offers them an opportunity to take part in a new experimental injection that may very well be the birth of everything they have desired. The side effects? None, except that the cost for their own little slice of a miracle is one tenth savings, and nine tenths, humanity. If you are thinking, dreaming, fantasizing, desiring, or anything along the lines of remotely wanting children, this book is probably not for you. Now, if you are looking for a cost effective, alternate form of birth control, Breed could be exactly what the doctor prescribes. A creepy, horrifying blend of science gone wrong, and coveting something at the expense of everything else, Novak spins a chilling tale of an unorthodox family, to say the least. There were definitely moments of palpitating, being hunted, suspense interspersed with those familiar, you know you are going to regret opening those doors, moments. A recommended read for those looking for a little terror, and just in time for our yearly, horror-fest, Halloween.
    • 5/5
      My Summary: Alex and Leslie's relationship was always strong. They were happily married for years, and even the age difference couldn't make a dent in their blissfully happy lives.That is, until the couple began wishing for a child. After years of trying with no success, Alex and Leslie begin to look into unorthodox methods, with disastrous results.Ten years later, the Twisdens have everything they could ever have wanted: a pair of lovely twins, perfect in every way. But something is not quite right in the Twisden house, and the twin fleeing sparks a string of events that will call into question everything - especially how far people are willing to go for a child of their own.My Thoughts: Wow. Just... wow. I was struck speechless at the end of this novel, unable to put my thoughts into words for quite some time. Going into Breed, I had no idea what to expect. I've always been an avid fan of sci-fi, but this didn't seem like your run-of-the-mill sci-fi novel. Regardless, I dove in head-first. And I loved every minute of it. I devoured (ha!) every page, staying up well into the night to squeeze in any extra pages. Novak's style of narration was perfect for this eerie novel, revealing little tidbits of information at the perfect moments. I loved the dark, creepy atmosphere. Actually, I loved the whole book.Final Thoughts: I definitely recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys darker, creepier novels. Chase Novak has found a fan in me - I can't wait until his next novel is released. Seriously. I'm expecting nothing short of perfection!
    • 3/5
      Likeable, if a bit lightweight.
    • 4/5
      I received this as an advance copy from the Early Readers program. Breed is a good old fashioned scary horror story that should not be read by anyone who is pregnant, thinking about becoming pregnant, knows someone who has had fertility treatments - ok, I think you get the idea. Breed is Rosemary's Baby meets The Jungle Book. A wealthy couple yearns for children to make their lives complete and have the means to try some really out there fertility treatments in Slovania. What they don't know is that these wonderful shots contain something more than vitamins and begin to turn them into wild beasts. The beautiful twins seem to be innocent and don't understand why mommy and daddy lock them in their rooms at night until Adam borrows the old baby monitor to monitor his parents and starts to get worried. The 10 year old twins wise up and run away and that is when the story goes rapid fire.Others are out there as Adam and Alice discover and their only hope to survive is to stay on the run from mom and dad. After reading this I would think twice about hanging around Central Park!
    • 4/5
      A rip-roaring, gruesome and at times funny horror novel that certainly kept the thrills going for me. If you don't like a lot of bones crushing and blood dripping, then this might not be for you. Definitely not to be read while you're eating. Memorable scenes set in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Central Park. I love the cover of the book.
    • 4/5
      There is a quote of Richard Price on the dust jacket that says "A page-turner, classic yet original, filled with detail both subtle and unforgetable, unnerving in its MAD LOGIC and genuinely frightening." That pretty well explains reading this book. I am a Stephen King fan so I am used to traveling down roads I have never traveled before. What struck me about this book is the fact that in our search for having a baby, we as a people go to any lengths. This macobe story is kind of believable in its frightening detail. I found myself coming back to the fact that this could indeed happen.
    • 4/5
      I received this book from Librarything early reviewers giveaway in exchange for an honest review.Breed: A Novel by Chase Novak is about a very wealthy couple who can't obtain one thing with all their money-- children. Alex Twisden is determined to have children of his own, and Leslie, his wife, wants to make the man she loves happy. Through a series of creepy events, they find a fertility expert in Slovania, who makes their dreams... and nightmares come true. When the twins Adam and Alice realize there is something increasingly wrong with their lives and their parents, they fight to save their own lives.The book is well written and well paced. I was sitting on the edge of my chair for certain parts, flipping faster to see what would happen. I thought the characters were well fleshed out. While I enjoyed myself, there are a few things that bothered me.First, I wish there were more plot twists. There is a ton of gore, which makes sense in a horror novel, but I wanted to know more about what happened to the Twisdens and what affected other similar families. I wanted to know more about this fertility treatment that destroyed their lives. I also wish that we got more resolution dealing with Alex Twisden, but I can see how that might have been unavoidable.Overall, a fast paced and chilling read, but I personally would have loved more plot twists.
    • 2/5
      Decent story, but total waste of an ending. What the hell
    • 4/5
      Not a horror fan but wow, the writing! Happy to discover this author.
    • 5/5
      This book was very entertaining. The premise is a bit silly, but it's so well done and engaging / especially as an audiobook.
    • 5/5
      Great story!!! Now on to the next to find out what happened to the children.
      I do recommend this book!!
    • 4/5
      i would have given 5 star but the story really jumped around way to much. The writing was much better towards the end of the book. The story line is good. I really couldn't tell if the "jumping" was the writing or the Narration or both.
    • 5/5
      Great book! Imaginative and very well written!
    • 1/5
      This book started with so much promise and transcended into lunacy. It was just too too far fetched and ridiculous, even if one were to suspend reality. It was just preposterous.
    • 5/5
      I could not stop listening. Good book. Great book.
    • 5/5
      Strange. Riveting. Sometimes the writing rambled on but overall the story was great and I enjoyed listening to it.
    • 4/5
      I thought this book was quite well done! Cringe worthy to be sure in many parts, but done up in an artful and well written way. There was at least one part in the story that went on way too long, and another where I was afraid it was turning into a pro-tirade on gay rights. I’ve taken away one star because of these two areas. I was enjoying the book so immensely up until we hit the first snag, I was sure it was going to be a 5 star review!

      I think part of what made the audiobook so enjoyable was the narrator, who did a great job! He pulled off all the characters- male, female, as well as a myriad of accents- with great success.

      Overall, I would say this is a very entertaining and engaging listen, well worth the listening time. I am looking forward to listening to the sequel, “Brood”, as soon as it becomes available to me again on SCRIBD.

    • 4/5
      Unique premise, well-written, and haunting. Took off one star because I find the ending a little dissatisfying. Don't try to read while eating, some parts are a bit gruesome.
    • 2/5
      If you listen up to the point where it jumps ahead ten years, what you have is a 4 Star short story that could easily be one of the best in an anthology like Dark Delicacies. However as a book, this falls very flat. What could have left you in suspense with an abrupt frightening ending instead turns into a poorly thought out fantastical tale that includes gangs of children-beasts wandering Central Park and disgusting hamster & dog eating. Rather than scary it’s unappetizing. This could have been so much more than it is.
    • 5/5
      very exciting usually I'm not into Fiction but this was well worth it
    • 2/5
      Nicely written but not very scary, or otherwise engaging. I lost interest as things went along.
    • 5/5
      What a book! Review coming soon...
    • 3/5
      This was just oK in my book. Perhaps because my expectations were too high. Interesting concept but not quite scary enough.
    • 4/5
      Had me gripped from the first paragraph. Read it in just over two sittings, first time in ages a book has held my attention like that.

      Looking forward to part 2.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this book. I thought the writing was good, with lots of interesting imagery. He's definitely got his own storytelling style. The characters were all well written, and the story was pretty intense. Sometimes a bit gory, but never boring. I would recommend it to anyone who likes Stephen King or books of his genre. It was more of a horror novel than a thriller, fast paced and bloody.
    • 5/5
      This was such an original story - not at all like "Rosemary's Baby". I won't go into the plot as it has been discussed by many others. I was surprised by how much I liked the story. The main characters each had their own personalities and I ended up caring about what happened to them. The brother and sister were so endearing. They kept hoping - against hope that their parents would be okay . Even though they feared their parents and feared for their lives with their parents , the kids showed deep love for them. As the parents began to fall apart and devolve , their love for their kids never waivered. The father tried to maintain some outward life of normalcy so the kids could believe they would be okay. And the mother making the sacrifice for the kids sake was very unexpected and showed such maternal love for her children. The kids teacher and his lover becoming victims of the parents made me cheer for them. It was an interesting story... not quite horror , but horrible things did happen. I'll probably listen to it again ten years from now after I've forgotten the story line.
    • 3/5
      For a horror novel about the evils of infertility treatments, it got weirdly sentimental about motherhood there at the end.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 2/5
      This book was just okay for me. Being a huge fan of Rosemary's Baby, I had high hopes for this....but it all fell just a bit flat for me. Nothing horrifying. Nothing shocking. I didn't have any trouble finishing it......it kept me reading, I just wanted a bit more from it.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      But at that moment, Adam tightens his grip on Michael’s hand, and Alice likewise squeezes his other hand, and with the childish, trusting touch of these twins, his fate is sealed. He cannot and he will not betray them.I have to start this review by saying that I don't normally read horror books. Horror is not my favorite genre but I am always willing to read different things. Oddly enough when I finished this I didn't feel like it was horror enough. Yes there were some really creepy and freaky things but for most of this book I was a bit bored.This book follows a family who is definitely not normal after the mother and father undergo odd fertility treatments to conceive the children, Adam and Alice. I never liked the mother and father, Alex and Leslie. The more I read this the more I hated them. I didn't really like some of the side effects of what they were going through (like the memory loss and especially the loss of their vocabulary). Quite frankly I didn't really connect with any of these characters.There just wasn't enough creepy and freaky in this. It was a lot of running and hiding and that got old fast. My favorite creepy part was definitely the showdown between Alex and Michael. It was gory but it was fast paced and interesting. I was also left unsatisfied with the ending. It kind of felt like the author just gave up on the book. I don't really see what the sequel will be on but as I have already committed myself on Netgalley to reading it I guess I'll find out. This book wasn't bad but it also wasn't good; it was just okay.
    • 3/5
      Rating: 3 of 5Breed started off with terrific momentum and intrigue, then it sort of ... petered out. I don't know what happened or why Novak lost me so abruptly around page 167, but from that point forward I was pushing myself through to the end. Perhaps it was the heavy-handed foreshadowing that ruined the mystery and anticipation? It was SO obvious what was going to happen in the Twisden family. Or maybe this should've been a short story/novella where it would pack more punch? The strongest aspect of the entire story was its exploration of obsession and going against nature for one's own desires.