Meat, by Joseph D’Lacey
MEAT, The Novel
Meat was my first published novel – number six of eight I’ve written so far. It was a disturbing and difficult book to write in ways I didn’t anticipate.
I intended to write something bloody and unsettling. The process of slaughter was always going to form the central theme. I wanted the book to have authenticity and authority and that meant – for a change, in my case! – some research. I did it much of it online, viewing many hours of factory farming, animal transport and slaughter footage. Some of it was ‘authorised’, the better part of it was clandestine. I read articles on modern methods of relieving many kinds of animals of their flesh. How to keep them healthy until slaughter, how to slaughter them without ruining their flavour, how to slaughter them at high speed, how to minimise cost and maximise profit.
The taking and eating of flesh is a business on a scale no one likes to think about. In business, especially corporate business, making money comes before animal welfare. Anything approaching respect for animals is way, way down the list of priorities.
Suddenly, here was a new dilemma: was I writing a horror novel or was I making a point about the moral issues involved with farming animals for their flesh? I couldn’t just ignore everything I’d discovered. Similarly, I didn’t want to browbeat readers when I should have been entertaining them.
I tried to navigate a channel between my thoughts.
It didn’t go well at the start. About a third of the way into the first draft, disgusted and repulsed by what I was creating, I stopped. I was having real problems holding the horror of it in my mind. It wasn’t until I told Bloody Books about the project and they expressed serious interest that I started writing again – this time with the possibility of publication urging me on.
And so, MEAT was published in Feb ’08 and people started reading it. 90% of the feedback I’ve received from the public and reviewers has been incredibly positive. Some people were merely entertained – the most important job of a fiction writer fulfilled. Some people were happily horrified. Some people gave up eating meat. And a few interpreted the novel as me preaching a vegetarian doctrine – those few didn’t like it!
Here are some of the nice comments…
“Joseph D’Lacey rocks!” Stephen King
“Without reservation, MEAT is one of the most literate, astonishing, and intriguing books I’ve read in years.” David Niall Wilson
“An outstandingly rich novel.” Sharon Ring, Dark Fiction Review
“Memorable and thoroughly satisfying.” Black Static
“Not for the weak of stomach…a book you won’t forget in a hurry.” Gorezone
“From the first paragraph I was hooked…Meat will stun you.” Fatally Yours
“Engrossing and incredibly brutal…a damned good horror story.” Bloodtype Online
“His name is Joseph D’Lacey, and he is seriously talented… horror at it’s most horrific.” The Big Green Bookshop
“Strangely compelling…a damn good read.” Greatest Uncommon Denominator Magazine
“Atmospheric and chilling… an irresistibly intense debut novel with the potential to become a controversial horror classic.” The Harrow
“Meat is a damning and workmanlike commentary on the human race’s ceaseless appetite for meat…an undeniably powerful read.” Bookgeeks
“A fabulous book…not for the squeamish.” Waterstones Coventry
“A disturbing tale of a violent future ruled by corruption…vividly graphic.” Press and Sun Bulletin
“Meat is horror, gruesome, and it has a message…compelling reading, and it will haunt me forever.” Café Doom
“A rare piece of horror fiction; thought provoking, and well done.” Hellnotes
“Strikes the reader like a cleaver.” Monster Librarian
“Disturbing…I couldn’t stop reading…a wonderful debut.” Horrorscope
“I love this book!” Dread Media
“People are going to discover that “Meat” is not just a speculative fiction novel with an underlying social statement, but that “Meat” is actually an important book and it should be required high school reading.” Shroud Magazine
“Brutal and tender…so much more than a horror novel…highly accomplished.” Morpheus Tales
“Gripping, horrific and at times genuinely scary… a cracking read.” Necro Carnival
“A real page turner, and a real stomach churner.” Frazer Lee, writer and director of Red Lines and On Edge
“Top-notch, page-turning horror.” TQR Stories
“Bleak, observant and quietly authoritative.” Waterstones Northampton
“D’Lacey is an up and coming force to be reckoned with.” ShriekFreak Quarterly
My answer to anyone who wonders is: I’m not preaching but if my fiction is thought-provoking, so much the better. And, since writing the afterword to MEAT, I have become a vegetarian. Who’d have believed it?
If you pick up a copy, I hope you enjoy it for what it is: a rather grim tale…
MEAT, The Movie
Almost the day MEAT hit the bookshops, a producer approached me about turning the novel into a film. Seven months later, we signed the option agreement and the script is being written as I write this.
Here’s our latest press release:
Film producer Antshake Ltd has just optioned the film rights to Meat, the novel by Joseph D’Lacey. The screenplay is to be written by John Costello, screenwriting lecturer and author of ‘Science Fiction Films’, ‘Writing a Screenplay’ and ‘David Cronenbourg’ in the Pocket Essentials series.
Sean Kelly of Antshake says “As a new production company, we have chosen our first feature film carefully. Quality writing is the foundation of successful film, so we’re delighted to be working with Joseph and John, and excited to be making Meat. The story is complex and vivid, with strong moral and ethical themes. It’s different in all the right ways.”
MEAT, The First JD’L Interview
You can find an early interview with yours truly, originally featured on the book’s dedicated website www.meatnovel.com
Paul Kent is the interviewer and we recorded the conversation in the Bloody Books offices in Soho.
MEAT, The UK Tour
We took the book on the road in a specially designed marketing vehicle which we ended up calling The Meatwagon. Here’s a short video of our adventures promoting the novel around the UK.
MEAT, The Audio Book
A free short excerpt from the novel read by Sorcha Cusack is available here. This brave and talented lady spoke the entire novel, unabridged, for Beautiful Sounds. It took her about twelve hours and, apparently, she didn’t find it a pleasant job!
The whole novel is available here http://beautifulsounds.co.uk/product+M5748df369c1.html as an MP3 download.
To date, MEAT has been translated into German, French, Hungarian and Turkish…