In The Children God Forgot, women are having severely deformed babies. Crews working on cleaning London’s Victorian-era sewers see ghostly children who have murderous intent. People are killing each other in deranged rages. What is going on? More importantly, how can we stop it?

Remember the pure and scary early Stephen King books like Salem’s Lot? The Children God Forgot has the same creepy but compelling feeling. The “I’m scared but I can’t stop reading because I have to know how the ending turns out” sensation. If you want to read a foreboding little thriller with a paranormal twist, look no further and read this excellent book. 5 stars and a favorite!

Thanks to Head of Zeus and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

The Children God Forgot starts with a woman in pain. It turns out she is pregnant, even though she insists that’s impossible. The doctor decides this baby must be born for the safety of the mother and child due to its deformity.

When the baby is delivered, it is a monster with a cherubic face. It then disappears from the baby unit.

Meanwhile, Gemma is working in the sewers with colleagues, she sees what seems to be a small child in the midst of a fat berg…...and things get dark and creepy.

DS Pardoe and DS Patel begin an investigation into recent events and what they find is the thing of nightmares.

This is a true, classic horror story with enough creepy moments to keep even a hardened horror fan happy. Yes, the way women are portrayed is a bit off putting at times, very heavy breasts and pouting lips, the police are homophobic and there is some casual racism too….it feels as if it’s set in the 70’s in that way. But overall this is a classic style horror story with dark sewers and creepy baby things and will certainly rattle your nerves.

Thank you to The publishers and NetGalley for an eARC of The Children God Forgot. This is my honest and unbiased review.

Minor spoilers

“Oh dear god I can’t believe this. What are they going to look like when they’re born? And what are you going to do with them, once they are?”

There were quite a few unexpected turns with Masterton’s latest release. The story was abhorrently crafted. Two English detectives who specialize in supernatural occurrences (they also appear in “Ghost Virus”, which I will also check out) put their habitual murder cases on hold after a couple of foul incidents start sweeping London, primarily a commercial sewer blockage. Investigators call it another industrial accident at first, but a project manager gets sucked into the fatberg, only to be found mutilated and covered in excrement once his body is retrieved.

At the same time, a hybridized storyline involving aborted fetuses who insert themselves into the wombs of innocent women surfaces. Both plots sound ridiculous, and they are at first. Masterton has a lot of ethnic and turd humor in the early chapters-the raunchy fart jokes are delivered fashionably with the smart-witted accents-and once he gets that off his chest, things take a violent turn-piles of dead bodies, graveyards, suicidal tendencies. Somehow, they all coincide with the runaway fetuses and mysterious sewers.

I wanted to give this a five, but the ending was rushed into delivery and seemed unfinished.

I still highly recommend.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing the free e-ARC.

This is a great horror story, the plot, the description was great, and I love Blizzard.
The description is horror: malformed fetuses in the womb or outside, body parts ripped off.
Thank you Netgalley for this nice book.

First off I will say that I honestly didn't want to set this book down, but alas, I have 3 kids who rely on me. That being said, if you plan to read this book, you will be staring at it in horror as you read it and still want more. This has to be one of the more gore laden books I have read in quite some time and I must say I absolutely love gore.



What I liked
¤ The gore and otherwise are very descriptive and if you have an active imagination then you will 100% be able to envision what you read.
¤ A good portion of it is very intense.
¤ it is told in multiple POVs
¤ Not all POVs are exactly the same, but similar.



TW:
Abortion/fetal death
Gore is extremely descriptive


This book is honestly horrifically beautiful and if you can stomach any gore I highly recommend this book!

Thank you Netgalley, Head of Zeus and Graham Masterton for this incredible horror novel!


Pub date: February 4, 2021

This book is truly scary. After a series of bizarre and horrifying attacks, DC Jerry Pardoe and DS Jamila Patel , the British version of Mulder and Scully, try to figure out what’s going on and how to stop it. All the incidents are different but seem to heave in common deformed children who could not possibly be alive. Female readers especially will find some of the attacks unspeakably terrifying. I was at a loss as to what was going to happen and whether the explanation would be real or supernatural. I liked the plot and the characters. The final part had me reading way past my bedtime, since the frantic rhythm makes it easy to fall in the “just one more chapter” trap distinctive of addictive novels. Jerry and Jamila allude to a previous case, which implies that this novel is part of a series, but it can be read as a stand-alone. I’d love to follow their adventures, especially if they include Blizzard the Dog!
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/Head of Zeus!

Thanks NetGalley and Head of Zeus for the advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

For me, this was actually a 3.5⭐ rounded up to 4.
There is some serious body horror involved.
A man being skinned alive, arms and legs being ripped off, malformed fetuses in expectant mothers' wombs, mutant babies trying to crawl back into the womb - true body horror.
Also, this book is centered on the sewers - with toilet paper, tampons, solidified grease, and poo. The smell was described and the scene was set well enough to make me need another shower.
This was a mystery novel as well, with detectives Jerry and Jamila having to learn way more about witches and abortions and the devil than they had ever wanted to know.
The book had some issues for me - some plot holes - some weak characters; but as a horror story, it delivered.

2/5 stars

I have a lot of mixed feelings about this book. It is definitely one of the stranger and more unique horror books that I have ever read, and I had fun with the weirder aspects of it. It was truly horrifying and disgusting, with quite a lot of body horror. Because this is a horror book, the fact that I was truly horrified and creeped out is obviously a huge plus. Since this book follows multiple storylines, it was fun to explore how the twisty and horrific series of events connected. Regardless of my gripes I had with the writing and the plot in general (which I will discuss next), it was undeniably entertaining and gripping.

My main issue with this book is the uncomfortable feeling I had about some undertones to the story. I don't know if it was the purpose of the author or not, but it definitely had a very strong anti-abortion feel to it. The 'monstrous' and horrifically malformed fetuses in the story came from women who had aborted their pregnancy. It just felt like a sort of punishment for these women. Additionally, the ghost woman (trying to keep this spoiler free so I won't describe her more) kept saying how all human life was sacred and was punishing people for choosing abortion. I just don't like the idea of a male author writing a book that seems to have such a strong anti-abortion message, although I will reiterate that I am not accusing the author of harbouring these feelings or intending this message, but it was just a feeling I couldn't shake while reading.

Similarly, a lot of the dialogue came across feeling either sexist or mildly racist. It is that kind of grey area in which people debate whether it is okay for characters to say discriminatory things without it reflecting badly on the author. But for me, since it added absolutely nothing to the story and felt completely unnecessary, it just left me feeling uncomfortable. The two main female characters in particular, both Gemma and DS Patel, were treated with many micro-aggressions and underhanded comments. While it felt like the author was not necessarily condoning these comments but rather commenting about the characters that said them, it still felt wholly unnecessary. The dialogue more generally was also just quite difficult to follower. It felt quite stilted and all over the place, which took a while to get used to.

While these negative feelings about the book didn't negate the overall uniqueness and enjoyability of the story, it did leave me with a bad taste in my mouth. I feel like we are at a place in literature in which it is no longer tolerable to have major insensitivities in books, no matter how unique or enjoyable the book itself is.

DNF @ Chapter 6

The premise of the book was exactly the thing I love to read but so much of it confused me and that was just in first 6 chapters.

“It’s so beautiful” she whispered, “How can anything so horrible be so beautiful.”
So difficult to review without giving away any of the gory, twisted details.
The beginning is an absolute crazy ride, nonstop cinematic tense action that forces you to keep reading. I caught myself muttering “no, no, no...” repeatedly and I felt violated like the words crawled up inside me and were burrowing around.
Beings in the sewers, deformed feotus’ striving to stay alive, a long dead witch, and two detectives trying to piece it all together...this book made me cringe and squirm.
“Nobody else wanted to have it on their service record that they had spent weeks chasing fortunes with eight legs and a hooded figure made of smoke.”
This book was so good that I didn’t want to read it because I didn’t want it to end. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫/5
Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of the ebook in exchange for an honest review.
•

Revenge of the dead babies? As a woman let me just say, what a horrifying beginning! Graham Masterton's writing is so vivid in this book that I could feel everything. The sewer was fantastically gross and Jerry and Mallett interview with Rusul had me cackling. This book has everything: an evil witch, nauseating body horror, likeable characters, a bit of comedy but still heart thumping suspense. The creepy weirdness of the nestlings pushed this novel into the 5 star zone for me. This one will be another hit for Masterton.

Words to describe this story: "bizarre" and "horrifically unique".

Thank you so much for allowing me to review it. I'll be posting my 5 star review on my Bookstagram, Goodreads, Twitter, Books of Horror reader group on Facebook (all a week before publication as requested) and after publication on Amazon. I'll update this Netgalley review with links at that time.

Murderous zombie fetuses, blood waves in the sewers and a witch in love with her octopuses babies oh my.

This book was off the wall and over the top. I would say half the book is a 5 and the other hf is a 4 and it takes turn throughout the book.

Its like aliens and X-Files made a baby in Pooting...which I couldn't stop giggling at and saying poot ...and I'm like in my 30s ...totally embarrassing I know

I really couldn't place the city there was a such a huge amount of diversity and languages so thats was interesting I liked the inclusion of different cultures beliefs and thoughts along the journey of this mystery horror ....it would make for an insane movie that probably would make me scream

"The Children God Forgot" is a good story, with good writing and interesting (and diverse) characters. For me, it felt a little forced, almost like Mr. Masterton didn't really want to write it, but the story demanded it be written. It's still a good read though, and if you're looking for weirdness, gory scenes, and a few shocks, you should pick this book up.

My thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley. This review was written voluntarily and is entirely my own, unbiased, opinion.

The Children God Forgot is not a book I will forget about soon! It is creepy, dark and chilling. Imagine aliens meets the Gerber baby meets a powerful witch and throw in an octopus. What!?! Yes, things get strange but in a delightfully creepy way!

This was a highly imaginative and creepy tale with some great detective work. There are things amiss in the sewers. Where else? But also, above ground as well. Great, just great. Nowhere is safe.

A woman goes to the hospital with severe stomach pains to learn that she is pregnant and after a C-Section is performed, the surviving infant is severely malformed? How is it still alive?????

In the sewer, Gemma and crew are attacked, but by what? Her supervisor does not make it out of the sewer with them, he just seems to disappear but is later found alive but missing his legs and eyes. Who or what did this and why????? Plus, yikes eye stuff grosses me out, luckily there is no graphic detail, or I would still be passed out on the floor.

Soon there are more mysterious pregnancies, green lights and deformed infants. Did I mention this is creepy and I may possibly never be able to enjoy smelling lemons again? This is only the beginning. The proverbial you-know-what really begins to hit the fan (and not because some of the book takes place in the sewer). Sewers, deformed babies/children and a witch all make for a sinister tale.

This book is original, creepy and fun at the same time. It is oddly compelling, and I hated when I had to put it down. I just had to keep reading to see what was going to happen next. This book reminded me of the movies my sister and I would sneak out of bed on Saturday nights to watch at midnight growing up. Most were black and white B horror films, and we could not get enough of them. This book brings on that sense of nostalgia. It is more creepy (how many times have I said 'creepy' in this review?) than gory, more sinister than straight out horror. I loved the vibe of this book. It has the right number of chills and scares without being over the top. The detectives and Gemma are likeable, and I was rooting for them while they were doing their detective work. I loved the "aha" moments as they learned more. The unraveling of the tale was spot on and nothing felt rushed.

Plus, I learned a few things while reading this book:
1. If there was no way you could have gotten pregnant and yet somehow you are...be afraid, be very afraid...
2. Dogs are the best! (ok, I already knew this but they really are the best)
3. Nothing good can come out of going down in the sewer - you have been warned!

An overall enjoyable book that was creepy (I had to mention it one last time!), original, dark, interesting and captivating.

Thank you to Head of Zeus and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

This was one of the strangest most visceral horror books I’ve read in awhile. Parts made me visibly shudder in disgust.

Jamila and Jerry are detectives working on a strange case involving mutated, killer fetuses, smokey, mystery mothers and exploding sewers. How does all this tie together? You’ll have to read the book. And I suggest you do!

At first I was confused by some of the British slang (being a lame American) but by the middle of the book I was wishing I lived in London and spoke like that!

Some of the action was gore filled and wonderful! The imagery describing the scenes in the sewer were a claustrophobic decent into hell. You could smell the stench and feel the slosh of sewer water. I found myself fluctuating between feeling sorry for the poor children in the middle of the madness, and feeling disgust. Which caused me lots of guilt.

I loved the two main characters and from the way this read, I believe there was a previous book centered around this detective duo. The side characters were also very fleshed out and I loved the addition of Gemma, the female sewer worker who felt like the sewer was home.

If you’re looking for some bloody gore, lots of body parts and a strange and engaging plot this book is for you!

A massive fatberg leads to a supernatural and bloody stink in south London

Upon arrival at our mid-seventies, most of us might be thinking of slowing down and pulling out the pipe and slippers for a snooze beside the fireplace, not so for Graham Masterton. If anything, the king of Scottish horror fiction is more prolific than ever, releasing high quality novels with frightening regularity. However, the maestro of gory and over-the-top horror is not cashing in by publishing unpublished lesser works of yesteryear which might be lurking in his sock drawer, he has no need, as his recent fiction is truly superb. Should you have lost track of his recent output, or not sampled him since the 1980s horror heyday, now is the perfect time to reacquaint yourself with some outlandish fiction. An outstanding example is the recently published House of a Hundred Whispers, which was amongst the very best ghost stories of 2020. Such is Masterton’s class, although it was only recently released, it is widely different in both style and substance from this latest effort.

The Children That God Forgot is a sequel to Ghost Virus (2018), which was one of my favourite novels of that year and, impossibly, is probably a more ridiculous read than the original! The books are connected by the investigating police officers, DC Jerry Pardoe, and DS Jamila Patel, otherwise The Children That God Forgot works fine as a standalone novel. The original investigation involved killer clothes, jumpers, and hoodies etc, which came to life and killed lots of people very gruesomely. After Pardoe and Patel solved the case, they picked up a ‘Ghostbuster’ reputation within the police force and whenever something weird happens they are given the case. “Who are you gonna call?” You all know the answer.

The Children That God Forgot picks up the action nine months after Ghost Virus with Pardoe and Patel reunited to work the latest case to have the top brass in the police scratching their heads. The story is set in south London, around the Tooting and Peckham areas, which is very close to where I live, and I enjoy picking up on some of the local references. Masterton said in a previous interview with Ginger Nuts that he once had a girlfriend who lived in Tooting and paid a few more recent visits whilst researching Ghost Virus. Pardoe, who is divorced, has a slight crush on Patel, but as she is ranked higher than him, it bubbles away in the background and as Patel is of Pakistani origin there is a culture clash which raises its head at various times in the novel. How many British Pakistani women are in the London Met? Not very many I would guess….

Is this Graham Masterton horror novel the first (or for that fact any?) to feature a fatberg? Possibly so…. After a huge fatberg is discovered in the sewers of south London a team of engineering experts are sent to investigate and discover human body parts which seem to have been severed with a saw. The team also reported seeing illuminous green lights and swore they saw horribly disformed children before one of the engineers disappears, only to reappear later, horribly disfigured, mutilated, but barely alive.

Elsewhere a young woman, who swears she had an abortion some months only, is rushed to hospital with terrible pains in her stomach. The chief surgeon delivers a living child with the face of an angel and the body of a tentacled monster. The doctors are unanimous that the baby must be terminated and decide to euthanise, as there is no way it could survive independently, however, before the opportunity to do so, the foetus disappears. They are at a loss as to where it might have gone or who might have stolen it.

Slowly the two stories merge, with Pardoe and Patel scratching their heads at a mystery which has them rushing haphazardly across south London whilst fighting for their lives. Once you accept that the plot is totally ridiculous, and akin to the novels Masterton was writing thirty years ago, there is a huge amount of fun to be had here. It might slightly lack the overall flow of Ghost Virus, but that is because there is probably more going on this this sequel, so prepare yourself for a very gory blood-soaked rollercoaster which pulls no punches. These days the world is a very grim place, and this type of very British, trashy, and pulpy horror is the perfect antidote for forgetting reality and your troubles for a few hours. Things could always be worse…..

I would also like to provide a trigger warning; because of the nature of the story much of the violence is inflicted on women and it is very gory body horror which might leave you wincing, particularly if you are female, but this can be forgiven as it is a crucial part of the story concerning anatomy. If you have watched the Alien franchise films and were grossed out by the ‘face-hugger’ creatures I would avoid this book, as what goes on here is a thousand times worse. As is usually the case with Masterton novels, things get crazier and crazier as we enter the realms of the supernatural, witchcraft and exorcism. But do not worry nobody ‘exorcises’ the fatberg! However, I would question the repeated assumption that notes that Patel is the ‘expert’ on supernatural matters because of her Pakistani heritage.

I really have no idea how Masterton can keep churning out these outlandish plots with such frequency and even though some of the police dialogue comes across as outdated and hammy, it was incredibly easy to get sucked into the plot, with some of the action sequences being terrific. There is no rest for the wicked and the ‘Ghostbusting’ team of Jerry Pardoe and Jamila Patel return in The Shadow People, a tale of a cannibalistic cult terrorising London. I am already sold!

Tony Jones

I read a lot of horror, and I mean a LOT. Horror is my happy place. But I very rarely get freaked out by what I read. However, the night I started reading this book I had the most awful nightmare about it!

Women in London who swear there is no way they can possibly be pregnant are finding out that they are carrying catastrophically malformed foetuses. Also in London an enormous fatburg is blocking part of a sewer and when a team goes down to investigate they experience events that have no logical, perhaps even no earthly explanation. Glowing green lights and luminous child-like apparitions, but so deformed they couldn't possibly be actual children. Enter DC Padoe and DS Patel, the Met Police's answer to Mulder and Scully. They have form, having dealt with seemingly paranormal evens previously but even they cannot believe what is happening in Hospitals and sewers around the city.

A fantastic, incredibly creepy read that I will remember for a long time.

The Children God Forgot by Graham Masterton is one of the creepiest horror books I’ve read in a while. The story focuses on different police investigations that appear to be a bit supernatural. There is a woman who is rushed to the hospital where she delivers a baby who has tentacles and an odd encounter with ghostly children in the sewer systems. This is just how the novel starts! What follows is an investigation that is entertaining. I devoured this book in one sitting. This book also was a bit philosophical on who determines the value of human life? If a fetus has abnormalities which are visible on an ultrasound, should that fetus be terminated, especially if the baby would likely have severe pain and little chance to survive? This is a pretty heavy topic for a horror novel. I won’t go into any further detail because I don’t want to spoil anything.

Oh boy, where do I begin with this book ...

The Children God Forgot follows three storylines; doctors at a hospital performing a C-Section on a woman that denies being pregnant, a crew uncovering a massive block in the sewer system, and a man being arrested for stabbing another man after he terminated his girlfriends pregnancy. At first, I found this book difficult to get into, I really only found one of these storylines even remotely interesting. Then the storylines slowly started to blend together and that's when shit hit the fan.

The children themselves and the horrific things happening to the people involved in the children were so detailed and it evoked a lot of the emotions I look for in horror. There were several times reading this book where I actually said aloud, "Oh shit!" or "What are you doing, RUN!" The supernatural twist was unexpected and the buildup to the final showdown was a good pace with the rest of the book.

I struggled a lot with some of the dialogue of the characters and some of the word choices. At one point a character makes a comment and he follows it with something like oh that was sexist, then why even say it?! It adds nothing to the story. I originally thought this was set in England, a lot of the references and dialogue made it seem that way but then much of the story line and side characters were from Pakistan and it was ended up being a confusing cultural mix. I also think there's a larger discussion that could be had around treating every life as sacred or ending a life before it's begun, but that's not a discussion I'll be getting into here.

All in all, I would recommend this book to readers who are looking for something that falls in the "weird" bucket or readers who are looking for a good night time scare. I've always had Graham Masterton on my want to read and I'm so thankful to the NetGally and the publisher for an opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I’m not sure reading a book that is so detailed in anatomical horrors is a good idea in the midst of a global pandemic but it was certainly a great distraction from the doom and gloom that is going on outside my abode, it’s a gory rollercoaster but well written and well told