Customer Reviews

The Breeze Horror (Onyx)

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Candace Caponegro, The Breeze Horror (Berkeley,1987)

Caponegro's sole novel has, over the past decade and a half or so, simultaneously languished in obscurity and gained a massive cult following in the horror underground. Reading it after finally acquiring a copy, I can see why the latter happened; I can only put the former down to someone's idiocy at the publishing house. The Breeze Horror should have been a blockbuster.

Sandy and her two-year-old boy are headed to the babysitter's one morning when it begins to rain. Nothing odd about that, right? Except this isn't normal rain; it's causing New York City to call for an evacuation. Sandy flees to her parents' summer home on Breeze Island to wait out the storm. After it passes, those who got sick from the rain are quarantined on the beach, but they're not getting sicker... they're getting better. And they're not happy.

Combine one part Animal Farm, one part Civil War historical novel, and one part Lucio Fulci film (The Breeze Horror has often been cited as the progenitor of the splatterpunk novel), and you have an idea of The Breeze Horror. Reading it fifteen years after its original release, a lot of it's going to seem oddly familiar to you. That's because you've seen it all in other places since. The Breeze Horror's influence can be felt in a thousand places, both in underground and mainstream horror books and films (both 28 Days Later... and the recent Dawn of the Dead remake lift scenes from the book almost verbatim, for example), but unlike some influential novels, that doesn't decrease The Breeze Horror's power in the least. It doesn't just come from being proto-splatterpunk (and despite the lengths to which Jacob, Lee, Devereaux, etc. have gone in the intervening time, The Breeze Horror still rates uncomfortably high on the squick factor), but from Caponegro's deft touch with the "some are more equal than others" power dynamic (thus the Animal Farm reference above). The plot is far more layered than that of your average horror novel, and it shows in how well the books still holds up this long after its release.

Well worth tracking down, and a book that cries out for another printing. Preferably a very large one, so that a legion of extreme horror fans can see part of its genesis as a viable art form. ****

I checked numerous sources for any other books written by Candace Caponegro. Oddly, "The Breeze Horror" seems to be the only book she ever released. "The Breeze Horror" is fairly obscure, probably due to its 1980's release date. I imagine it's been out of print for years. Its obscurity has nothing to do with the story; the prose is apt and the characters, at least the main ones, are all well developed.

This book is your typical apocalyptic tale. The space shuttle explodes in orbit while it is carrying a load of toxic waste. The resulting spill causes an unusual rain to develop over the face of the earth. Presumably, billions will die in this toxic rain. Unfortunately for the few survivors, Caponegro decides to throw in an odd side effect of the toxic rain: some people exposed to the rain turn into noxious zombies. The resulting story takes place on Breeze Island, where a group of zombies and survivors are trapped together. On the island are Sandy and her son, Jesse. Also on the island is Mason, a psychopath with a lifelong fascination for Sandy. Rounding out the cast is Stafford, a local cop, and Mrs. Morelli, a neighbor with an invalid husband and a grown son.

At first, the survivors try and isolate the victims of the rain by quarantining them on the beach (where they pick up the nickname "beachers"). As the days progress, the beachers start to undergo frightening transformations. The beachers begin to resent the presence of the "norms," and all heck breaks loose in the subsequent confrontations. Will Sandy and Jesse survive the assaults? Will Stafford and Sandy become a couple? What happens to the beachers that make them so frightening? You'll have to read the book to find out. Did you think I would spoil the story for you? Ha!

Overall, I say that this is so-so horror. Some of the beachers are well drawn, as is their descent into madness. Mason, since he is caught in the toxic storm, serves the purpose of personalizing this transformation. We experience the horrific changes through his eyes. The end of the book, which always serves as the final showdown in books like this, is better than average, but by no means great or awe inspiring. I think a little more gore thrown into the mix would have been helpful. We are dealing with zombies here! Zombies are gory; it's in their nature.

Is this worth seeking out? Probably, if you like a good apocalypse or zombie story. Otherwise, don't waste your time. Instead, read "The Stand," "Alas, Babylon," or any of the other millions of apocalyptic tales that are much better than this little story.

I remember seeing this book quite a few times since it first came out in the mid-80's. ... A friend who is also really into horror told me to pick it up, because it was good and 'one of this sickest things he'd ever read'. I smugly thought, "We'll see", but knew he had good taste and thought I'd give it a shot.

Not only is the cover art lame, it's deceptive- neither the cover art, the description on the back, or the excerpt on the front page mention the fact that this is basically a zombie novel, with a some new twists. Like a lot of the best zombie movies and fiction, what caused the disease is vague- nuclear waste, outer space, something like that. The book begins when a toxic chemical rain comes down, infecting everyone it touches. The setting of the novel is an island (Sea Breeze Island, hence the title) where the main characters are trapped. Things are already bad, because the electricity doesn't work, anything with a motor doesn't work, they're cut off from any communication with the rest of the world (if the rest of the world even still exists), there's a limited amount of food and water, there's no way for anyone to get off the island, and those that try are melted into goo. The unlucky people that are infected grow sick and rot, are in horrible pain, but they don't crave flesh. Having them simply be cannabalistic would be much more cheerful than what happens to them. Their minds still work, so unfortunately they're just as smart, and strong as before, and just to add to the fun, as they get sicker they start going completely insane. It doesn't take too long for the zombies or 'beachers' to get tired of being in quarantine with no food or medical supplies, and begin to organize to take over. They go from mean-spirited to flat out sadistic to...well, you'll see. The book is divided into 4 parts, and beginning with part 4, becomes an out-and-out, free-for-all horror-fest. I could definitely see some easily disturbed or upset readers putting down the book well before the climax, however. I'm pretty jaded, and there were times when I just shook my head in amazement and disgust, wondering how much more unpleasant things could get.

If you like your humor pitch-black, you might find some amusement in parts of the book, but it still starts out depressing and just gets grimmer and uglier. ...The 'beachers' not only are smart and seemingly indestructible, but they keep developing horrible new features just as the humans start to think they might come out on top. Things go spectacularly wrong in ways you never even thought of; just when you think you know what's going to happen, the author will surprise you by taking the story spiraling off in a bizarre new direction.

Try as you might, you can't help but care about the characters, especially the central character, Sandy, and her toddler. While others around her start to go crazy from the horrible events, or just not care anymore, she manages to keep it together. At first she seemed like kind of a Pollyanna to me, but less than 100 pages in something completely unexpected and horrifying happens to her which she not only survives but grows stronger as a result of. Even if I wanted to give this plot point away, there's no way this review would make it online if I described it. The catch-phrase "death is only the beginning' has kind of gotten over-used in horror media, but in describing this book, doesn't seem strong enough.

Since the author makes clear early on all bets are off, and she's not going to go easy on the reader, it's pretty hard to predict what will happen next and how far she and her son will make it, so the suspense makes you want to keep reading...if you can stand to. I'd be reading it and thinking, OK, this must be as nasty as this book can get, and then GOOD LORD! Some hideous image or event would unfold that made me surprised this book made it past a mainstream publisher. And by the way, don't even *think* about trying to eat while you're reading this. If you're hungry when you pick it up, food will be the last thing you want to think of by the time you put it down...

If you like horror fiction (or horror/Sci fi) and don't get upset or nauseated easily, I'd recommend this underrated, little seen book. The prose is great, the plot is extremely original (in fact, I'm now wondering if a couple more recently written novels [haven't been modled after it]) and genuinely frightening. Don't let the cover put you off- this is one genuinely frightening novel that delivers. ...I'm probably only going to recommend it to my friends that are into horror, though, and have read some pretty unpleasant, disturbing stuff already-otherwise they'll probably never want to read anything I recommend ever again. And even then I'm going to warn them, because this is one of the few things I've read that actually gave me nightmares. ...

This one will catch you off guard.

Where to start... Welp, it's well written, I will give it that. The story is tight and progresses from point A to point B in a natural way.

That said...

The sadism and downright - viciousness! - is in a class all it's own. The zombies here don't eat people, they instead want to inflict torment on them and the author brings those scenes to life with a special flair.

Hey, I love horror, and viciousness can work well in a story, but to subject characters (that are well written overall) to degradation, graphic tortures, humiliation and levels of cruelty that might make Ted Bundy queezy... Well, you'd better do it for a Reason. Not just "We [The "beachers"] are gonna take over" ...

Oh, did I mention some of the "zombies" develop low grade telekinesis? The scene where one "Beacher" controls his still living, elderly, Alzheimer's disease ridden father like a puppet pushes the envelope in cruelty on a Number of levels.

I got through it though, until near the end when a blow-torch was (briefly) take to the main charater's toddler - then I put it down and felt like I needed a shower. Badly.

I guess the bottom line is that while this is a horror book, it isn't a "Horror" book. The horror seems to be nothing but malice and meanness for its own sake.

If you like Pure Unadulterated MEANNESS with a healthy dose of unapologetic sadism thrown in for good measure - and oh yes, in a style that is Extremely well written, then this is the book for you.

THE BREEZE HORROR is about absolute destruction, about decay and death, about spite and resentment. Technically, it's not a zombie novel in the George Romero DAWN OF THE DEAD sense; it's about an island inhabited by the polluted living dead (but they're not cannibals!) and their hapless human neighbors. It's a very gross book with lots of splatterpunky details, and the plot follows a sort of "illogical but progressively more horrible" progression which is, sometimes, very surprising. I enjoyed it.

However, I feel that I must warn everyone that this is a novel with a character named "Mongrel" who talks about himself in the third person for no apparent reason. In other words, it's a little silly, it's not extraordinarily well-written, and the dialogue isn't always great. (The book's sole black character talks in a kind of "fo' sho'" accent which smells strongly of racism, crappy writing, or both.) Nor is it some kind of ANIMAL FARM/LORD OF THE FLIES social commentary on Man's Inhumanity to Man -- although it *does* provide an unblinking view of some really cruel, vicious and inhumane (or inhuman) behavior.

On the whole, THE BREEZE HORROR gives a feeling of having been written pretty quickly. (I can imagine it could've been a lot longer if written in a more padded-out, Stephen King style, instead of its current "Pow Pow Pow! Three more minor characters die! Pow! There goes another one!" pace.) There's not much in the way of 'good' characters, and it's hard to know where to put one's sympathies, but it's all in keeping with the general mood of hopelessness and cynicism.

Reading it purely as a pulpy horror novel, it's effective at being gut-wrenching and depressing, and that's what counts.

THESE ARE NOT THE ZOMBIES GEORGE ROMERO CREATED IN ''NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD''. FAR FROM IT.IN A FALLOUT RAVAGED WORLD,THE HEROINE MUST ADJUST TO A NEW WORLD POPULATED BY ROTTING HUSKS THAT STILL HAVE GREAT MENTAL CAPACITY.THIS IS JUST ONE OF MANY TWISTS TO BE FOUND IN THIS UNPREDICTABLE HORROR YARN.YOU NEVER KNOW WHERE THIS STORY IS GOING TO END UP,AND IT IS RELENTLESSLY DOWNBEAT.I RECOMMEND IT TO ALL HORROR FANS.