Lou Yardley is no stranger to the horror-fantasy genre, and I have been impressed with her previous work which includes the Werewolf novel Hellhounds and the short story When the Sun Sets. In her latest novel, Lou Yardley reaches back in time to bring dinosaurs into the modern world, with disastrous consequences.
Autumn Buck is the type of person who avoids drama at all costs, but after a chance encounter with scientists Wilfred Campbell and Liam Finch in a coffee shop, she finds herself in the centre of life-changing – and world changing – events. The kind of events that bring ravenous dinosaurs to your local high street.
Desperate not to become a light snack for a tyrannosaurus rex, a tasty morsel for a mosasaurus or an hors d’oeuvre for a carnotaurus, the new friends must find a way to survive and a way to reverse the things they started. Failure is not an option.
Inspired by the pure escapism of the b-movie creature features, Rise of the Carnivores is intended as a homage to the sub-genre. Written with a more playful style to some of her previous books, there is a tongue in cheek approach to the delivery, which manages to keep both the characters and readers on their toes.
Like a made for TV Syfy movie the book delivers a light-hearted suspension of reality, where the rules are thrown out of the window or more accurately thrown into a wormhole. Whilst cleverly acknowledging the implausibility of the events it still proceeds without need for justification. It does offer subtle hints at an explanation, but for the most part looks to avoid the unnecessary hows or whys – so you just enjoy the ride.
The book starts with a more serene introduction to the main characters in the quite cafe and what seems to be the most impressive shed extension in the UK. However, once the carnivorous dinosaurs make an appearance the story starts to move at a more frantic pace and from there it is almost non-stop action.
The story itself evolving primarily around the main three characters who themselves are not short of action; although there are several splinter stories which occur throughout the book. These additional stories are often connected as they are occurring simultaneously to main events, but also take the story in a different direction to what you have anticipated. They work well in addition to the main arc story that ties the events together and creates a wider perspective of the destruction and chaos that the dinosaurs are causing in the modern world.
The threats continue to escalate as the dinosaurs become bigger and more ferocious as the book goes on and we learn early on that none of the characters are safe. With dangers appearing at every turn it becomes a constant fight or flight situation, which is where the book throws in a few surprises. It is interesting how people react when it comes to survival and when it comes to dinosaurs and their food, everyone is fair game.
Once again the personalities of the characters draw you into the story, each with their own unique personality, strengths and weaknesses – although it is often the sharp wit of the characters that make them stand especially in the most desperate situations. The violence and humour have always been a trademark of Lou’s writing and this is fully exploited fully in Rise of the Carnivores which had me constantly laughing out loud especially with the addition of more sophomoric humour which was thrown into the mix.
Although I liked the personalities and the interesting alliances in the main group despite their differences, the most interesting character for me was Scott; who forms part of a splintering story as a store worker. Once again we are guided regarding our initial perceptions of the character, before uncovering a very different side to him later on in the book. This certainly helped to make Scott more memorable and adds a very unique twist to the story.
One of the most surprising elements I found amongst the fun and violence (I am looking at this from a perspective of a b-movie horror fan) I began to myself sympathising with the dinosaurs. Even the velociraptors who are given a bad rap find themselves in a vulnerable position, and you begin to realise the modern world is very different to what they are used to.
Unlike some of the b-movie titles where the poster artwork promises more than the final result, Rise of the Carnivores delivers exactly what it suggests and more. Lou Yardley takes the reader on a thrill ride, by creating a Syfy channel twist on Jurassic Park which has been written for a Deadpool generation. With Dinosaurs finding themselves in a unfamiliar world, which is filled with a tasty new moving buffet menu, it creates a graphically violent fantasy-horror. Filled with blood, violence, witty humour and more importantly characters who you really care about.
Rise of the Carnivores mat be intended as pure escapism but it is still brilliantly written and definitely somewhere that I hope Lou Yardley will let us visit again in the future.
You can purchase Rise of the Carnivores and other books from Lou Yardley on the website
You can see my review of When the Sun sets here
Published in various websites, Philip is a reviewer who is best known for his interviews and media coverage of independent projects including; films, books, theatre and live events. Always on the lookout for something different to cover!
