First published back in December of 2017, Welsh author David Owain Hughes’ novel ‘Man Eating F*ckers’ formed the sequel to the author’s novel ‘Man-Eating F*cks’ (2016).
The novel was released through Hellbound Books which included the previously unpublished bonus short story from the series ‘Experiment Of An Ancient Breed’.
Out in the depths of the dense woods, an old tunnel connecting Swansea to Treherbert had remained closed and blocked off for decades. However, the council were now considering re-opening the old tunnel. Investigating the potential for undertaking remedial repairs to bring it back into use.
They’d sent two railway men and a council woman to the old tunnel to undertake an assessment. However, unbeknown to the hapless trio, they weren’t alone in the woods around Swansea.
The few surviving cannibals led by Skull had been living out in that isolated spot. Fully recovered now, Skull was now the fittest he’d felt in a long time. His healing had taken a little over two years, with his sister, Eight-Ball, who was also the mother to their twins, nursing him back to health.
The arrival of the workers into Skull’s territory was like a gift from the gods. The tribe had almost been wiped out. But the council woman could provide new blood to their numbers, if she was captured and kept alive to breed with. The two railway workers would need to be killed outright. Skull knew it was a chance worth taking. It was finally time for the cannibals to strike back once again.
Not far away, in the neighbouring town of Bridgend, Storm Davies was still trying to get over the ordeal she’d suffered in Blaengarw with the inbred cannibals. Although it’d been two years since she’d been abducted and raped by nomadic tribe, Storm still hadn’t fully recovered from the trauma. She’d been attending regular sessions with her therapist, Dr Samantha Veech. But the memory of those man-eating fucks, continued to haunt her mind.
With news breaking of the disappearance of the council woman and slaughter of the railway workers in the woods close to Swansea, those nightmarish memories came flooding back like a tsunami of horror. Storm knew Skull and his cannibal tribe were responsible for the recent murders. The signs were all there. This was the bloodthirsty work of the tribe. The breed had to be stopped, once and for all. Storm knew there was no other way, and so did her father.
Meanwhile, psychotic thug, Chester Nailfree, had just been released after serving a twelve-year sentence at Cardiff prison. A sentence which Chester considered one man to be responsible for. It was Huw Davies that put him away for all that time, and now Chester planned to get his revenge upon the retired pig.
For Storm and Huw, their world is about to be torn apart once again. Father and daughter are about to be reminded that the world is a fucking terrifying place, where nowhere is safe, and absolutely no one can be trusted…
Oh boy, here we go again! Hughes is back with another bloodbath of insanely over-the-top cannibal savagery set in our beloved Wales. The story picks up some two years after the events of the first book, with Storm now the mother to her infant daughter Stevie, and her father, Huw Davies, is also now retired from the force.
Interestingly, rather than focussing solely upon a full-blown cannibal story ala ‘Man-Eating F*cks’ (2016), the author has instead spun in a whole secondary plot – a grisly dark crime thriller involving Chester Nailfree and his lust for revenge. In fact, we even have a whole gangland substory woven into this whole setup, with early vibes of the gritty gang rivalry which Hughes later explored much further within his ‘South By Southwest Wales’ series.
The cannibal side to the story, however, follows in the blood splattered footsteps of the first book, although the cannibals are now just a threadbare tribe consisting of Skull, Eight-Ball and their inbred twin babies. However, despite the injuries he received, Skull is everything he was in the first book and more. A colossal beast of a man; savage and hellbent on further bloodshed, rape and murder.
Of course, our protagonist, Huw, is coerced back into hunting down Skull and his tribe. All the while we have this psycho, Chester Nailfree, hot on his tail, seeking to reap his revenge on the ex-copper. The result of these converging storylines is a veritable maelstrom of action, with the threat constantly coming from every fucking angle.
But Hughes doesn’t end the layers of madness with just that. We all know Hughes is no stranger to Richard Laymon’s work and indeed throwing in some massively exaggerated Stockholm Syndrome shenanigans. As such, we see the abducted council woman, Paula Harris, jumping sides and subsequently immersing herself in the ways of the breed. Then there’s the good Dr Veech, who’s pretty much the fucked up female equivalent of Dr. Phillip Decker from Barker’s ‘Cabal’ (1988) / ‘Nightbreed’ (1990). Yeah, this shit’s got it all going on!
Honestly, the madness woven into this story is as wild as the cannibals themselves. Each chapter jumps from one storyline to the next. And all the time, absolutely no one is safe. No character is guaranteed to survive the shitstorm coming. It’s pure unadulterated fucking carnage from start to finish.
Which leads me nicely onto the extremity within the novel. This my gore-hungry friends, is a novel which wallows in graphic splatter and deviancy. Chester Nailfree offers up his own blend of psychotic nastiness. He’s the very definition of a coldblooded psychopathic killer, who’ll stop at nothing to get to Huw and his family. Ergo wherever this lunatic goes, there’s violence, torture and a pile of bodies.
Then we have the cannibals and their feral savagery. Once again, Hughes has taken a leaf out of Ketchum’s ‘Off Season’ (1981) and gone to town with serving up copious bouts of barbaric violence – all in the name of the clan.
It’s a wild and utterly over-the-top gore-drenched read. There’s zero predictability, and absolutely no bastard is safe from being killed off in the blink of the eye. Hellishly entertaining all the way to the absolute bloodbath of an ending.
The novel runs for a total of 280 pages.
Experiment Of An Ancient Breed – 29 Pages
It had been sixty years since the incident in Bridgend when the pack of cannibals who’d been living in the woods went on a bloodthirsty rampage. For two years the cannibals had laid low before the tribespeople attacked again. One woman who’d been snatched and impregnated by Skull remained, looking after the tribe’s offspring. Over the years that followed, the breed had grown. Incest was a way of life for the cannibals. And now they were many once again.
Liz, the sole manager and proprietor of the Lamb and Flag pub, was a direct descendant of the tribe. She’d kept her family hidden from the eyes of the world. Fed and looked after them. And given them the opportunity to kill.
But one man had uncovered her secret. The death of his son led him to the doorstep of the cannibals. And now he wanted revenge. It was time the man-eating fucks paid for the blood they’d spilt…
Oh, this one’s pure unadulterated David Owain Hughes through and through! It picks up the story some sixty years after the events of the first two books, with the remaining cannibals now hidden away within our very communities. Of course, they’re existence is uncovered and what follows is a plot of vengeance that last decades.
For a large part of the short story, we follow the owner of this pub, where our lone vigilante quietly observes this tough-as-old-nails proprietor. Then we’re suddenly flung headfirst into an escalating sequence of violence which leads to a brutal and wildly gory showdown. It’s absolute carnage, blending the guts and gore of ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ (1974), Ketchum’s ‘Offspring’ (1991) and Hughes’ own novel ‘The Rack & Cue’ (2017).
The change in pace within the story is purposefully and utterly jarring. It works so damn well, knocking the reader of their seat with the sudden ferocity of the piece. A spiralling of violence and mayhem, that explodes into a free-for-all of cannibalistic savagery. As I said, this one’s textbook David Owain Hughes. A hellishly fun read for your entire inbred family to enjoy!
The short story was later reprinted within the ‘All The F*cks’ (2025) special 10th Anniversary Hardcover edition of the first novel in the series.
The paperback as a whole runs for a total of 309 pages.
© DLS Reviews
Other ‘Man-Eating F*cks’ instalments:
- ‘Man-Eating F*cks’ (2016)
- ‘Man Eating F*ckers’ (2017)
