The Starved: Inception
Rick Ochre
Carson Five
May 4, 2015
Reviewed by Tim Potter
The Starved: Inception by Rick Ochre is an interesting new horror novel set against a unique and genuinely creepy backdrop. The story is set between the years 1944 and 1958, turbulent times when one of the world’s greatest concerns was the recovery of Europe from the second World War. One of the most pressing issues was how to feed people affected by the war, where infrastructures that would provide nutrition were destroyed, and how to treat those who had been malnourished during the war, how to return them to health.
Author Rick Ochre does a very good job of rendering the world of the story in the era in which it is set. The characters feel like they really live in the 1940s and 1950s and the world around them is consistently that of the time. The time frame is key to the story, without it the motivations of the characters would not work. The main characters, Carl Yoder and Hank Phipps, are sharp and realistic and the arcs of the characters through more than ten years of life are compelling. The supporting characters are likewise good, mainly existing in one time, not over the same decade, and they serve to support the main players and advance the plot.
The real highlight of the book is the University of Minnesota scientific study Yoder and Phipps volunteer to be subjects for.
“Minnesota Starvation Experiment, 1944: ‘Will you starve that they may eat?’”
The men subject themselves willingly to allow the effects of starvation to be studied in an academic, scientific environment. The researchers want to see what effects starvation has on the human body and mind, and what can be done to help people recover from serious starvation. Impressively, the men’s motivations for entering the study are actually reasonable. The real horror of the story pops up here as the reader is forced to endure the brutal realities of starvation along with the main players.
The only real flaw in the book is present throughout the second act. Too much of the narrative focuses on the relationship between Yoder and his self-conscious, suspicious wife. There is certainly good reason for playing up this marital dynamic, but the author spends altogether too much time on it.
The Starved: Inception is the first of two Starved books. Inception is set for early May with the second set for September. After reading the first book, readers will be looking forward to the second, much in part to a great one-two-punch of twists at the end of the book. Few will see the twists coming, but once they hit they make sense as the only way the book should have ended.
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