Book Review: "Cows" by Matthew Stokoe

I know what you're thinking. It's one of two things. The first one is probably: when is she going to get on to a new thing? She's been stuck on indie horror for a while now, I'm getting kind of sick of it. Or, you'll probably thinking: what kind of a name for a book is that? And both are perfectly valid. Though I do think that if you're expecting something different to reading horror, thriller or psychologically dark novels from me then you don't really know me at all. I recently reviewed The Travelling Vampire Show and so, we're going to be here for some time.

Within the squalid living spaces of London city, there's a 25-year-old man named Steven. He's a bit depressing and honestly, you can't really blame him. He lives with his emotionally abusive mother referred to only as 'the Hagbeast'. She often force-feeds him meals he finds disgusting and crushes any spirit and confidence he tries to muster up. He has these dreams of a perfect life and his only real friend in reality is his pet dog. Honestly, not a lot could get much worse for him if I'm being fair. I know, if you read the book he seems like an unlikeable guy but you have to cut him some slack too.

He goes to work at a slaughterhouse, where someone introduces him to a man named Cripps. He constantly preaches his weird ideas and becomes a sort of mentor to Steven. He encourages Steven to become desensitised to the violence and gruesome nature of the job, encouraging his further alienation. I didn't think this was a good idea and the way its described sort of reminded me of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle - especially the idea of a gross-as-hell slaughterhouse with crazy management. Slowly, but surely, the violence of the slaughterhouse becomes a ritualistic behaviour for Steven and Cripps.

We are then introduced to Lucy, a strange woman who believes in odd medical advice that no doctor would give. But as Steven is starting to become less passive, Lucy sort of pulls him into her world. They have quite the toxic relationship: nihilistic and twisted. They both seek escape but are both too useless to actually commit to escaping their positions because of their self-destruction. Running away will actually solve nothing and only the reader realises this. They are so alienated and weird that they actually belong together.

The strangest thing in this book is that the cows start speaking to Steven from the sewers underneath the city. They want him to overthrow Cripps in some violent revolution and restore order. In a very Animal Farm way, the cows have a vision of rebellion against human exploitation and well, it is just a freaky situation. We can tell that Steven is going crazy but the problem is we only have his narrative and so is this really happening or not - how could we possibly know?

As Steven continues on his journey, it becomes clearer and clearer as to what he must do. I'm not going to lie to you - this novel is more depressing and gore-for-gore's sake rather than deep and meaningful. There's definitely something to be said for subtlety but I don't think this book was that subtle in the end. It starts off better than how it finishes. But, on the other hand, the story is quite original and explores areas of alienation that other writers are quite reluctant to explore. For example: the reality of madness and this almost oppressive nature of violent 'cabin fever' style of personality.

All in all, I did enjoy this book. The storyline is often quite original, the themes are sometimes explored in depth and the character - well, I can understand the 'why' behind him. However, there were a few things that didn't sit right with me and more than often, it lacked the subtle hinting that a horror novel often requires to build atmosphere and eerieness. I don't know whether that was the writer's intention but it simply wasn't for me. On the whole, it did well - but I think this is definitely more of a horror novel for a newer age.