Bite by K.S.Merbeth Review

Now this is an idea I can get behind – a mashup of Borderlands and Mad Max. In Bite we follow a teenage girl, picked up but a small gang in the middle of the desert and taken along to a small town where things soon go a bit wonky. It soon becomes apparent that the people she’s met up with are cannibals, roaming the wastelands of a post-apocalyptic world trying to survive by whatever means possible, and it just so happens that their preferred means are killing people and eating them. Tasty.

It’s a pretty gruesome book at times, but also such a length that you can get through it in a few dedicated sittings – I polished off the final third of the book without really realising where the time had gone, I picked up the book after dinner and before I knew it I’d reached the end and I’d lost several hours that I didn’t realise had gone by. But it’s an exciting ride, that’s for sure. There’s a lot of self-doubt in Kid (we never find out her real name, all of the main gang use nicknames) and between a few “that hasn’t really happened has it…” moments she grows to become far more confident and part of the group. There are some life lessons buried in there if you care to look for them, but don’t look too hard otherwise you might end up tucking into the weird guy down the road for lunch before too long, and nobody wants that. Especially the weird guy down the road.

Bite though is an excellent read, it’s exciting from the start, rarely slows down and has enough uncertain moments to keep you guessing throughout the closing moments. I’m looking forward to seeing what else comes from this great debut.