First published back in October of 2019, Welsh author David Owain Hughes’ novel ‘Man Eating F**s: The Legacy’ formed the third instalment within the author’s blood-drenched ‘Man-Eating F*cks’ series.
Pregnant with Skull’s baby, Paula Harris, together Eight-Ball’s twin boys, are now all that remains of the cannibal tribe. The fate of the clan’s lifeblood rests entirely with this woman who’d once been one of the tribe’s captives. Now she’s the cannibal breed’s only remaining hope.
As the sole tribe leader, Paula changes her name to Hydra, purposefully and effectively killing off all remaining ties with her past life. Next, she names Eight-Ball’s twin boys Typhoon and Tempest and Skull’s soon-to-be-born baby Cerebus. The infants will all need to learn the way of the tribe. Then, over time their man-eating breed will grow once again.
Hydra has plans for the tribe. Plans involving vengeance, blood and murder. Plans that will wash the nearby town away in a river of gore. However, first see must establish a new home for her and the young offspring. A cave deep within the woodlands close to Bridgend becomes the perfect sanctuary from the bitter winter months ahead.
Then, when the tribe’s young offspring are of age, she’ll begin their training. She’ll raise them as cannibals, violent and blood-thirsty, and with an unforgiving desire for revenge. Revenge for those that slaughtered their breed all those years ago.
Meanwhile, in the nearby town of Bridgend, a secret cult, dedicated to the resurrection of the fallen cannibal family, has been venturing into the woods every full moon to try to raise the lost tribe. The cult’s numbers are many, with its many robed disciples coming from all areas of society. Men and women in positions of power. A cult with money and influence. A secret sect willing to do whatever it takes to resurrect the cannibal tribe.
That was then. That was what occurred in the years that followed the murder enacted upon Storm’s family. Now, decades later, the year is 2080 and the cannibal tribe Hydra’s fought to kept in existence has flourished.
Their numbers now extend far beyond those the tribe had before. The cannibals have infiltrated society. They remain hidden, but now only just out of sight. Watching. Waiting. Biding their time.
None of cannibals live in the woods any longer. They haven’t done so for decades. Instead, most of the clan reside within the small town of Twin Jesters, a town steeped in a bloody and violent past.
However, the clan’s leader, Betty, wants more for her tribe. She hungers for greater control over Twin Jesters and the rest of South Wales. She believes the answer could lay in black magic. If she can summon the ghosts of Ddu and Coch – the deranged jesters who terrorised the townspeople decades ago – then with their help, the cannibal breed might finally hold dominance across the land.
These two fights for the tribe’s existence might be many decades apart, however, the outcome will echo across the years to follow. The picturesque hills and deep valleys of South Wales will run red with generations of blood once again…
What the fuck have I just read? Ok, so this was not the novel I was expecting. It’s the third instalment within the author’s ‘Man-Eating F*cks’ series, however, it’s far from simply another slice of the same. Instead, Hughes has taken the overarching story and the whole cannibal tribe mythos to places I certainly wasn’t expecting it to go. He’s thickened out the legacy, the bloodline, and the cannibal tribe’s ingrained existence within the beating heart of South Wales.
Essentially, what we have is a novel divided into two. We have the chapters labelled “Then” which take up the story some five years after Storm’s father was murdered by Skull and his marauding tribe of cannibals. These chapters follow Storm, Paula (aka Hydra), and this weird cult’s creation of an underground temple, deep within the caves of the Welsh mountainside.
The other half of the novel is labelled “Now” and deals with the cannibals infiltrating society and then enacting a mass slaughter in the nearby town of Twin Jesters. These chapters follow cannibal leaders Liz and Betty, as well as a couple of reporters (Jim Hengroth and Owen Figs) who’re hot on the trail of the cannibals.
Honestly, it’s this second half, set in the year of 2080, where the direction Hughes has taken the series goes completely off the wall. No longer are we just dealing with a bloodthirsty breed of cannibals terrorising the local community. Now, the fucks are part of the community and their leader has drawn upon some decidedly fucked up ghosts (from back in the day when the town was first born), to help cause even more chaos.
As such, the novel generally bounces back and forth between the two time periods, with the “Then” chapters being closer to the style and setting of the first two books, and the “Now” chapters being an oddly off-the-wall but insanely action-heavy new direction for the ongoing story.
Obviously, with this being a David Owain Hughes offering, as well as another instalment into the gruesome ‘Man-Eating F*cks’ series, it’s plastered from head to toe in gore, guts and all sorts of nastiness. Furthermore, it exhibits even more unpredictability than we saw in the other books.
Lead characters are killed off in the blink of an eye. Or are they? Because later on they come back, at which point we find out they somehow managed to survive what we’d assumed was their death. Oh yeah, take fuck all for granted in this book. Unless their brains are mashed into the gravel and their lifeless body’s flung into a vat of acid, then there’s always a chance the fucker’s will come back.
As you’ve probably guessed from this write-up, the novel as a whole has an absolute shit tonne of stuff going on within its pages. Honestly, no chapter is without some wild, over-the-top mayhem spiralling off into a new direction. Some of the best and most engaging examples being the pages which follow Storm and her fight with the secret cannibal worshipping cabal. Honestly, these chapters are sheer class!
For those who’ve already read ‘Man Eating F*ckers’ (2017) and the bonus short ‘Experiment Of An Ancient Breed’ included within that publication, it should be noted that the short story actually forms Chapters 4 and 5 of this novel (set within the “Now” time period). Essentially, Hughes has woven the short story into the very fabric of the tale, extending on from it, and in doing so, bringing about this whole secondary side to the story set in the year 2080.
Anyway, all in all, the novel’s another solid addition to the series. The pacing and sheer imagination exhibited throughout the tale is more than enough to have you utterly engaged if not goddamn enthralled. Yeah, you have to suspend every ounce of disbelief throughout the tale. There’s not even a hint of plausibility here. But who wants believability when you’ve got cannibals marauding around the back and beyond of Bridgend? Not me!
The novel runs for a total of 342 pages.
© DLS Reviews
Other ‘Man-Eating F*cks’ instalments:
- ‘Man-Eating F*cks’ (2016)
- ‘Man Eating F*ckers’ (2017)
- ‘Man-Eating F**s: The Legacy’ (2019)
