Title: Bloody
Author: Roddy Doyle
Link: n/a
Collection: Stories – All New Tales Edited by Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio
Publisher: Headline
Release Date: Out 15 Jun 2010 in Hardback
A man become aware that all he wants to do is drink blood. How far will he go to satisfy his craving?
Roddy Doyle is known for his domestic dramas and if I had to put him in a category it wouldn’t have been one containing the overriding demand of it’s authors to make sure that ‘…and then what happened?’ is paramount.
Doyle does keep to his domestic setting as a husband starts by satisfying his craving for blood my licking meat, then eating raw steak, and building like any junkie to try something that is near enough to his need but only makes him ill.
There is a great little tension running through this story as you keep wondering how far he is willing to go? Will he attack something living and will it be human? And will his wife figure out what he is doing?
And there is the question of is he human or something more supernatural?
I also love the portrayal of his wife. She really balances out the inner madness of the main character.
An unexpected tale from Doyle but one works and one that definitely makes you ask ‘…and then what happened?’ especially at the end.
