As children, we grow up seeing our parents as invincible.  They are our protectors, our teachers and our central support system.  But what if those same people were also your greatest fear?

Breed tells the story of Alex and Leslie Twisden, passionately in love, successful in their jobs but full of desperation over their inability to have children.  As a last resort, the two travel to Slovenia to visit a controversal doctor, who performs costly, dangerous and horrifying procedures that almost always result in pregnancy.  With the promise that this will be the last thing they try, the couple hand over the ridiculous sum of money and endure Dr. Kis’ experiment.

Ten years later, twins Adam and Alice Twisden have finally decided to run away.  Using a baby monitor that he found in storage and slipped under his parents bed, Adam listens each night to the primal sounds that come from their bedroom.  His dreams of monsters watching him sleep seem so real that Adam wonders if perhaps, they are.  Each night, as the sun sets, Adam and his sister are locked in their rooms.  But are they being locked in?  Or are their parents keeping themselves locked out?  Desperate to escape their nightly captivity and discover the truth about their parents, Adam and Alice flee and discover that they are not the only children living this way.  And so ensues a chase, as Alex and Leslie search for their young and Adam and Alice discover the terrifying and disturbing truth about their mother and father.

I must admit that the synopsis of Breed had my head spinning.  It was compared to Ira Levin’s 1960′s cult classic, Rosemary’s Baby (which I loved) and I couldn’t wait to dive in.  As much as Breed was a fast-paced story, I just could not get into it.  Novak definitely hyped up the creep factor, but I often felt that it was hyped up just to be creepy and not to serve as purpose to the story.  What I did truly enjoy, was the descriptions of Slovenia, and the eerie back streets the Twisdens find themselves careening through in their search for Dr. Kis.

Ultimately, Breed had a brilliant concept, but the path Novak chose to tell it, sadly, lost me.  Though not for the faint of heart, this novel is definitely something that will strike a chord with horror fans who revel in the creep factor of their novels.  Breed may have not been for me, but the audience for skin-crawling stories definitely exists.  This is a book for them!