Breed Reading Group Guide

R e a d i n g G r o u p G u i d e

BREED

a novel by

Chase Novak

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C H A S E N O V A K ’ S T H O U G H T S A B O U T H O R R O R

I don’t think it will be too surprising to learn that I am very takenwith Rosemary’s Baby. Ira Levin’s novel is a model of economy and un-derstatement, with the added pleasure that it lends itself to multipleinterpretations. I appreciate the care (and ease!) with which the every-day world of New York City is presented in this novel—no hauntedcastles, no super powers. Here evil is conjured by rather sad, nosyneighbors and a husband driven by actorly ambitions. In his filmadaptation of Levin’s novel, Roman Polanski barely deviated from thenarrative strategies of the novel. Often, movies suffer when the film-makers adhere too closely to the source material, but in the movieversion of Rosemary’s Baby everything is done just right—the actorsare brilliant and Polanski’s work is imbued with the hard-won knowl-edge that catastrophe lurks around every corner.Roman Polanski made another truly terrifying film, aptly titled

Repulsion, in 1965. Here Catherine Deneuve plays a manicurist wholives with her sister and her sister’s boyfriend. The Deneuve characteris repulsed by sex, and because she is so beautiful men are naturallydrawn to her, which plunges her constantly into states of madness. Thetorments inflicted on her by her ownmind are so powerful that the au-dience actually feels a bit of reliefwhen some poor guy wanders in closeenough to be brutally slain. The control of the filmmaker is so master-ful here that an apparition in a mirror or a sudden crack in a wall is asstartling and upsetting as being suddenly grabbed in the dark.


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I don’t think of novels as belonging to one genre or another. (Genreis about categorizing books, not writing or reading them.) But here area few of the ones that are normally filed under Horror that grabbedme and would not let go: The Stand, by Stephen King; Dracula, byBram Stoker; The Island of Dr. Moreau, by H. G. Wells; and The Other,by Tom Tryon. I suppose it could be said that I am a fan of “literaryhorror” novels, though Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw, routinelycited as a perfect example of how to blend high style with mountingfear and unease, leaves me restless and dissatisfied, and frankly a bitbored. Compare Henry James to, say, Edgar Allan Poe, and you real-ize that what makes tales of monsters, ghosts, hauntings, and cursesgreat is the writer’s ability to venture as deeply into the darkness ashumanly possible, and to go there without protection, without reser-vation, without hope.

R E A D I N G G R O U P G U I D E

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A C O N V E R S A T I O N W I T H T H E A U T H O R O FB R E E D

How did you come up with the name Chase Novak?

I know someone whose first name is Chase and I always liked thatname and I just seized upon it. And Novak is my mother’s maidenname, from back in the day when people had maiden names.

It’s almost an androgynous-sounding name. It could also be a woman’sname, right?

Yes, it could. And that was in the back of my mind as well. Becausewhen I first conceived of having this book come out, I thought myidentity would remain much more secret than it turned out to be. Ididn’t think there would be a picture, I didn’t think that my namewould be anywhere near it, so I thought Chase Novak would havemuch more of an independent life than he’s turned out to have.

Did you write Breed as Scott Spencer or as Chase Novak?

I wrote it as Chase Novak. I moved away from Scott Spencer’s desk.Chase didn’t even use Scott Spencer’s computer for this. He went to aseparate part of the house and did it on his own. I really felt right offthe bat that Scott Spencer couldn’t write that book. And I’m not surewhy I thought that, except that it didn’t really fit in with any of myother books and I didn’t want it to. And I just wanted to be free of thatand free of myself and do something completely different.



What are the advantages to writing under a pseudonym?

I think the dream of having a second identity is not that uncommon,and this was an opportunity to grab a little piece of that dreamwithoutgiving up my primary identity. Just walk away from that for a littlewhile and do something completely different. And I must say, it wasextremely liberating and very entertaining to just take on another per-sona and write a different kind of book with different kinds of goalsfor the book, and just have a lot of fun telling a classic story.

Is Chase Novak a faster writer than Scott Spencer?

One of the goals I had for the book is that it would move quickly. I’mnot asking someone to sit down with the book for a week and makethat sort of commitment. I wanted the book to go and go and go, notunlike the experience of seeing a movie. So in order to create that sortof momentum, I felt I should write with that sort of momentum. Ithink it got written in about a third of the time I would spend withScott Spencer’s novels.

Speaking of movies, you’ve also written screenplays. Was that a help inwriting this novel?

It was more influenced by my experience of horror movies. My nos-talgia for a certain kind of horror movie that you don’t see muchanymore. Obviously, there’s a lot of Rosemary’s Baby here, in the NewYork sociology of it. And I’m a great fan of those old Hammer films inwhich there is a kind of operatic sense of evil and doom. What I havevery little interest in is these sort of slasher/serial-killer movies. Whenthe body count gets up high, my interest starts going low.

Are there any common threads linking Breed to your other novels?

It’s probably more like my other novels than even I realize. If there’sone thing I can think of that connects this to Scott Spencer’s novels,


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it’s that sense of the fatal decision, the fatal act that the action turns onand that leaves the lives of the characters inalterably changed. WhenDavid starts the fire in Endless Love, or in Waking the Dead when themain character’s lover is killed (in an explosion). I’m drawn towardthat moment. But I suppose it’s not all that uncommon in fiction, howstories are built. In John O’Hara’s Appointment in Samarra, someonejust throws a drink in someone’s face.

You went to Comic Con in San Diego on behalf of Breed. How did youfind it?

It was an overwhelming experience. It’s massive. There are like150,000 people there. And a large percentage of them are in costumeof one sort or another. I got communication from the Comic Con peo-ple telling me what the parameters were of the costume I could wear.What kind of sword I could have. What sort of sword would not beallowed. So I had never gone to a literary conference in which it wouldbe assumed that I might be carrying a sword.

Will Chase Novak be heard from again?

Yes, the story in Breed is going to continue. The next book will pickup with the lives of the children a few years later. I’m also working ona Scott Spencer book now, so we’ll see who gets there first.

This interview was conducted by Ken Salikof, the author of Spy In a Little

Black Dress and Paris to Die For. He can be followed on twitter at@kensalikof.

This interview first appeared onNYDaily News’s Page Views blog. Reprinted

with permission.


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Q U E S T I O N S A N D T O P I C S F O R D I S C U S S I O N

1. On their way to meet with Dr. Kis, Leslie tells Alex thatsometimes she believes life would be easier if they had lessmoney. Why does she say this? Do you agree with her?

2. Leslie and Alex undergo the fertility treatment in Sloveniaas a sort of last resort. When in life have you wanted some-thing desperately? Did you put yourself in a less than desir-able or risky situation to come closer to your goal? Wouldyou have done the same as Leslie and Alex?

3. In Part Two, we learn that the Twisden residence is fallingapart and many family heirlooms have been sold off. Recallthat Alex had insisted on not adopting because he felt heowed it to his lineage to have a child by blood. What doesthe derelict state of the house say about his decision? Hashe managed to preserve his heritage? What has he lost orgained?

4. Adam’s parents tried to instill in him a fear of what canbefall a child at night, but instead they made him more ter-rified of the click of his bedroom door’s lock each evening.Did your parents tell you cautionary tales as a child?Whichscared you the most? What dangers do you think they weretrying to shield you from? If you have children, what warn-ings do you dispense to keep them safe?



5. Alex believes it is language and memory that make us hu-man. Do you agree? Why or why not? What faculty wouldyou have to lose to make you feel less human?

6. Safe in Amelie’s apartment after the incident in the park,Leslie observes Adam and Alice playing video games, care-free, and wonders, “How can they listen to those sirensand not be reliving what happened right before their eyes?Where do they put their experiences? How do they live?”Do you feel Adam and Alice fully grasped what happenedto Michael and their father’s crime? What do you think en-ables children to compartmentalize experiences?

7. The last scene in the book is powerful and gruesome. Wasit what you expected? Did it make for a satisfying ending?

8. Breed is gory and shocking, but it’s also darkly humorous.How did the humor affect your reading? Imagine the bookwithout any of its comedic elements. Howwould your read-ing experience have been different?

9. The author is hard at work on Brood, a sequel to the book.What lingering questions do you hope it will answer foryou?

10. What message did you take away from Breed? If this bookis a commentary on modern parenting, what do you thinkthe author is trying to say about it?


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Breed Reading Group Guide

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