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Childmare
London's schoolchildren begin a horrific, mindless rampage of violence, death, and destruction. What evil has taken possession of them, and can they be stopped before all of England is turned to rubble?
199 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1980
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
February 10, 2018
Back when I was a young horror fiction fan in the early 90s, I thought that gratuitous violence and gore in the genre got its start during the splatterpunk movement, initiated by the likes of Clive Barker and Skipp & Spector in the mid-80s. How very wrong I was. That was before I discovered the British nasties of the late 70s/early 80s, when seemingly everyone was trying to mimic the success of James Herbert's Rats, resorting to all kinds of havoc-wreaking creatures: crabs, worms, cats, jellyfish, slime, ants, slugs, etc. One of the better examples I've come across recently, Childmare features, yes, maniacal children. And the bloodshed and carnage here would probably make many of those splatterpunks blush.
Some sort of food poisoning has caused all the young students of a British school to suddenly turn into ruthless, indiscriminate killers who come up with increasingly brutal and sickening ways of dispatching their victims. AG Scott (aka Nick Sharman*) has a way of making the violence much more disturbing than the typical nasty writer. I mean, don't you think that being forced to lie back on a desk, forearm being held out off the edge, then having it bent backwards at the elbow is much more horrifying than someone's head being cut off? I sure as hell do.
But violence and gore isn't really what I look for in horror. I'm more interested in the fear factor, and while I wouldn't call Childmare overly scary, it does deliver its fair share of chilling scenes, such as when the teachers first start noticing the children's "dead" eyes and their emotionless gaze, and realize that they're in for a world of trouble. But the novel became a little repetitive after a while, even for a sub-200 page book. I'm not a really big fan of zombie novels, and this strayed a little too close to that sub-genre, though this was published well before that became an actual thing. Still, it was a quick, fun read overall.
Any fan of nasties and zombie-type fiction would probably have a great time with this. This is no-holds-barred horror, with several scenes that are honest-to-god hard to get through. So, if that's your thing...
3.0 Stars
*Childmare was published in the UK under the name Nick Sharman, who has a number of horror novels under his belt. No idea why this was published under a different name here in the states.
ETA: And thanks to Will Errickson of Too Much Horror Fiction for tipping me off on this one.
Some sort of food poisoning has caused all the young students of a British school to suddenly turn into ruthless, indiscriminate killers who come up with increasingly brutal and sickening ways of dispatching their victims. AG Scott (aka Nick Sharman*) has a way of making the violence much more disturbing than the typical nasty writer. I mean, don't you think that being forced to lie back on a desk, forearm being held out off the edge, then having it bent backwards at the elbow is much more horrifying than someone's head being cut off? I sure as hell do.
But violence and gore isn't really what I look for in horror. I'm more interested in the fear factor, and while I wouldn't call Childmare overly scary, it does deliver its fair share of chilling scenes, such as when the teachers first start noticing the children's "dead" eyes and their emotionless gaze, and realize that they're in for a world of trouble. But the novel became a little repetitive after a while, even for a sub-200 page book. I'm not a really big fan of zombie novels, and this strayed a little too close to that sub-genre, though this was published well before that became an actual thing. Still, it was a quick, fun read overall.
Any fan of nasties and zombie-type fiction would probably have a great time with this. This is no-holds-barred horror, with several scenes that are honest-to-god hard to get through. So, if that's your thing...
3.0 Stars
*Childmare was published in the UK under the name Nick Sharman, who has a number of horror novels under his belt. No idea why this was published under a different name here in the states.
ETA: And thanks to Will Errickson of Too Much Horror Fiction for tipping me off on this one.
June 23, 2023
Il start off by saying this one won't be for everyone. There are lots of intensely graphic scenes including rape, but I can't deny I was engrossed in this book and finished it quickly. It is well paced and had something to keep me reading on every page. I would say the ending is quite rushed though, and I could have done with a bit more closure at the end but I would definitely recommend this one.
Something doesn't seem right to a security guard at a highschool, all the children come down with a mysterious virus and become docile and distant in class. Things take a turn when the kids start violently killing their teachers and head to the streets to reek havoc on London. Can Donnely and his girlfriend survive whilst holding the cure? Or will they succumb to the rapidly spreading epidemic?
Something doesn't seem right to a security guard at a highschool, all the children come down with a mysterious virus and become docile and distant in class. Things take a turn when the kids start violently killing their teachers and head to the streets to reek havoc on London. Can Donnely and his girlfriend survive whilst holding the cure? Or will they succumb to the rapidly spreading epidemic?
October 14, 2019
Before Stephen King's "Cell" came this interesting twist on the "zombie" genre. Actually, this is more reminiscent of the classic "animals amok" genre, and is really an ingenious reworking of Nick Sharman's earlier novel, "The Cats."
But this time, the marauding masses are young adolescents in school uniform. Sharman really knows how to throw a gut punch into a trope. It's easy to be disgusted by armies of the brainless undead or of whatever nasty creatures that might have come crawling from the pages of 70s and 80s horror fiction. Fans take delight in our heroes wrecking mass destruction on such obvious foes who offend our sensibilities at a primal level.
But this novel takes that pulp format and makes fans of that genre become disgusted with themselves. Our own children are now the zombies, the rats, the spiders, the giant crabs. And Sharman treats them in the same manner as any pulp horror writer would any mass enemy, but he does so with the purpose to take us out of the escapist formula to give us pause.
Though the science that "explains" the events of the novel is hokey and flawed, the novel asks serious questions about humanity that were very pertinent in Great Britain in the 80s, and are just as important for any Western society today. As older generations complain about "kids today," this book is there to ask, "And?"
Lead poisoning, the spread of heroin addiction, the dehumanizing effect of project housing, the destruction of the working class, the poor quality of education and nutrition, these were all concerns tackled in this novel, which forces the reader to watch the effect of all the efforts of older generations on the developing minds of the younger generations. Modern readers could also superimpose the impact of social media, perhaps, and can certainly identify with the heroin epidemic.
On the surface, this book contains all the elements of a good horror pulp to please the blood-and-guts fans. In fact, it contains some of the most disturbing depictions of torture and death that I've read outside of a splatterpunk piece. But despite the relentless action and gore, there is a self-awareness to this novel that delivers a far bleaker product than at first glance. It does lack the tongue-and-cheek humor of "Cats," and in fact, there is very little levity to be found here at all. This book is merely a power tool that uses the emotion of horror for an effective purpose.
But this time, the marauding masses are young adolescents in school uniform. Sharman really knows how to throw a gut punch into a trope. It's easy to be disgusted by armies of the brainless undead or of whatever nasty creatures that might have come crawling from the pages of 70s and 80s horror fiction. Fans take delight in our heroes wrecking mass destruction on such obvious foes who offend our sensibilities at a primal level.
But this novel takes that pulp format and makes fans of that genre become disgusted with themselves. Our own children are now the zombies, the rats, the spiders, the giant crabs. And Sharman treats them in the same manner as any pulp horror writer would any mass enemy, but he does so with the purpose to take us out of the escapist formula to give us pause.
Though the science that "explains" the events of the novel is hokey and flawed, the novel asks serious questions about humanity that were very pertinent in Great Britain in the 80s, and are just as important for any Western society today. As older generations complain about "kids today," this book is there to ask, "And?"
Lead poisoning, the spread of heroin addiction, the dehumanizing effect of project housing, the destruction of the working class, the poor quality of education and nutrition, these were all concerns tackled in this novel, which forces the reader to watch the effect of all the efforts of older generations on the developing minds of the younger generations. Modern readers could also superimpose the impact of social media, perhaps, and can certainly identify with the heroin epidemic.
On the surface, this book contains all the elements of a good horror pulp to please the blood-and-guts fans. In fact, it contains some of the most disturbing depictions of torture and death that I've read outside of a splatterpunk piece. But despite the relentless action and gore, there is a self-awareness to this novel that delivers a far bleaker product than at first glance. It does lack the tongue-and-cheek humor of "Cats," and in fact, there is very little levity to be found here at all. This book is merely a power tool that uses the emotion of horror for an effective purpose.
November 22, 2015
I'm a horrible person. Right now, Bleak House and the Brothers Karamazov are moldering on my shelves, while I use my precious little free time to read this nasty little relic.
What can I say? I'm a sucker for mass psychosis novels, and I'm a sucker for the way early 80s Brits wrote their pulp horror--strings of vicious vignettes in the service of a hokey B-movie narrative. Plus, the sheer tastelessness of the premise--"Crossed," grade-school edition--is unbeatable.
It's not nearly as good as The Fog (the gold standard of insanity-plague novels), and while what the children get up to is pretty sick (rape and infanticide, anyone?), it has yet to reach the sickening heights of tasteless yet effective horror that their compatriots in The Fog's notorious boarding-school sequences accomplish.
But "Sharman," or whoever the guy behind the psuedonym was, has a way with the material that works. Whether it's the evocative, Harry-Brown esque material with the pensioners' neighborhood watch, or the juxtaposition of a broken arm with a snapped pencil, there's enough here to make you forgive Sharman for having one of his protagonists read her murderous kids "Lord of the Flies" before they try to rape her.
Oh, and that cover is a doozy!
What can I say? I'm a sucker for mass psychosis novels, and I'm a sucker for the way early 80s Brits wrote their pulp horror--strings of vicious vignettes in the service of a hokey B-movie narrative. Plus, the sheer tastelessness of the premise--"Crossed," grade-school edition--is unbeatable.
It's not nearly as good as The Fog (the gold standard of insanity-plague novels), and while what the children get up to is pretty sick (rape and infanticide, anyone?), it has yet to reach the sickening heights of tasteless yet effective horror that their compatriots in The Fog's notorious boarding-school sequences accomplish.
But "Sharman," or whoever the guy behind the psuedonym was, has a way with the material that works. Whether it's the evocative, Harry-Brown esque material with the pensioners' neighborhood watch, or the juxtaposition of a broken arm with a snapped pencil, there's enough here to make you forgive Sharman for having one of his protagonists read her murderous kids "Lord of the Flies" before they try to rape her.
Oh, and that cover is a doozy!
March 26, 2013
CHILDMARE is 100% in the James Herbert tradition of fast-paced, graphic pulp horror, filled with snippets of everyday British life and locales. But this is not a criticism at all, not for a moment. Think 'Dawn of the Dead'-style mayhem and striking set-ups just not with bloody tattered zombies, but hordes of uniformed teenagers. The pace never slackens in its 200 pages; the writing is powerful, direct, taut. It's an unapologetic horror novel that almost voyeuristically revels in death and destruction, both up close and at a distance. CHILDMARE is a rip-roaring ride with some nicely tasteless moments of bizarre violence and cruelty that I think will make quite an impression on horror fiction lovers.
January 16, 2020
A quick, bloody, and ultimately forgettable little novel from the early ‘80s, Childmare is a book with a wicked cover, some tense and emotional scenes, and . . . that’s about it.
I couldn’t connect to any of the characters, and I felt the concept was perhaps too big and complex for the relatively small page count (200 pages) . . . that is, the characters and apocalyptic ideas could’ve been fleshed out so much more.
This is far from the worst vintage horror novel I’ve read, but the reviews of this one are middling for a reason: it’s pretty mindless and ineffective overall.
I couldn’t connect to any of the characters, and I felt the concept was perhaps too big and complex for the relatively small page count (200 pages) . . . that is, the characters and apocalyptic ideas could’ve been fleshed out so much more.
This is far from the worst vintage horror novel I’ve read, but the reviews of this one are middling for a reason: it’s pretty mindless and ineffective overall.
May 21, 2019
In a very rough sense I would describe Childmare as like James Herbert's The Fog meets Village of the Damned (I say the film because I have yet to read John Wyndham's The Midwich Cuckoos).
Childmare follows a few main characters as they try to figure out what is happening to the children while also trying to survive. The main characters were all a bit one-dimensional and the gender roles were very of its time, but this was a fast-paced and action-packed story filled with interesting ideas and a lot of violence.
Their story is interspersed with vignettes of random characters and their encounters, and typically horrific outcomes, with the children. Each character is given a backstory which made the scenes all the more effective. One particular scene about a woman finding out she's pregnant and trying to get home on the Tube was surprisingly emotional. I also thought the claustrophobic nature of the Tube platform that the author conveyed was excellently done. As someone who lived in London for ten years I can testify to that feeling!
This book also contained what might be my favourite description of a character ever:
"Tarrant was sweating like a wheel of cheese." Brilliant.
Childmare follows a few main characters as they try to figure out what is happening to the children while also trying to survive. The main characters were all a bit one-dimensional and the gender roles were very of its time, but this was a fast-paced and action-packed story filled with interesting ideas and a lot of violence.
Their story is interspersed with vignettes of random characters and their encounters, and typically horrific outcomes, with the children. Each character is given a backstory which made the scenes all the more effective. One particular scene about a woman finding out she's pregnant and trying to get home on the Tube was surprisingly emotional. I also thought the claustrophobic nature of the Tube platform that the author conveyed was excellently done. As someone who lived in London for ten years I can testify to that feeling!
This book also contained what might be my favourite description of a character ever:
"Tarrant was sweating like a wheel of cheese." Brilliant.
January 16, 2009
American security officer, Max Donnelly has been assigned to police rough inner-city London school, Martin Balliol, but then a mysterious sickness affects the pupils, and it’s not long before their symptoms turn murderous as they rise up, murdering, raping and destroying everything in their path – and then the sickness spreads to other schools across the whole country.
This is perhaps a somewhat controversial novel having children as rapists and murders, but it’s well written, with a brisk pace and rightly justifies its pulp status in the best way possible.
This is perhaps a somewhat controversial novel having children as rapists and murders, but it’s well written, with a brisk pace and rightly justifies its pulp status in the best way possible.
March 23, 2024
"To Donnelly, it was a familiar sight, yet startling in its present context. It was Vietnam." Impossible to read this rapid-paced, apocalyptic 1980 pulp horror piece now without hearing the voice of Garth Marenghi - while its characters voice the sexist and racist sentiments of shitty 1970s England. Sharman ensures this tale of the nation's school kids turning into savage drones thanks to an unholy combination of air pollution (from leaded petrol) and school dinners (an untested, fever-causing additive in sponge cake!), is rife with gleeful gore, rape, outrageous plot developments and a possibly unequalled enthusiasm for gruesome baby deaths. The finale, involving something named Operation Herod and the extermination of 600,000 kids, is astonishing even for this period in British paperback horror.
August 3, 2020
Lead poisoning + food poisoning = Thousands of murderous children whose hobbies include throwing babies out of second story windows and lighting senior citizens on fire. The solution to this problem? Blow up all the children! The only other Nick Sharman book I've read so far is The Cats, where thousands of cats become murderous and the solution is to blow them all up. Why mess with a perfect formula?? The insanity starts early on and continues to the last page, making for a fun read that hardly ever gets boring.
November 18, 2017
Evil children is probably the biggest cliché in horror fiction, at least horror paperbacks from the 70s/80s. That’s why A.G. Scott’s “Childmare” is noteworthy: it puts (what I consider) an original twist on a worn trope.
“Childmare” will work best for readers who don’t know anything beyond its premise. Indeed, as the story progresses the scope of events expands exponentially—one of the book’s many pleasures. Others are the quality of writing, the tautness of the narrative, and action scenes that come across as vivid and gripping, rather than dumb (Scott could’ve easily padded the story to get a longer novel, but it’s a gift to the reader that he didn’t [the only misgiving I have is that the narrative could’ve used a nominal nod to the parents of the rampaging children])… and don’t forget the pervasive tone of nastiness.
In short, “Childmare” is a good time, and much different from what that unfortunate cover would lead one to believe.
“Childmare” will work best for readers who don’t know anything beyond its premise. Indeed, as the story progresses the scope of events expands exponentially—one of the book’s many pleasures. Others are the quality of writing, the tautness of the narrative, and action scenes that come across as vivid and gripping, rather than dumb (Scott could’ve easily padded the story to get a longer novel, but it’s a gift to the reader that he didn’t [the only misgiving I have is that the narrative could’ve used a nominal nod to the parents of the rampaging children])… and don’t forget the pervasive tone of nastiness.
In short, “Childmare” is a good time, and much different from what that unfortunate cover would lead one to believe.
December 23, 2020
A decently-written old pulp horror novel that takes place in London. Follows a security guard named Donelly and his nondescript partner Tracy. Kids of London are having sporadic violent episodes.
Parents are murdered. An apartment complex is lit on fire. A headmaster is attacked. An actor is run over with a car.
Soon London descends into utter hell, and only Donnelly, using the findings of Dr. Chambers, can put a stop to it.
The action at the beginning was well-done and there were a few exciting death scenes. But this starts to get awfully dry around the 50% mark, and I just no longer cared for any of the characters.
Parents are murdered. An apartment complex is lit on fire. A headmaster is attacked. An actor is run over with a car.
Soon London descends into utter hell, and only Donnelly, using the findings of Dr. Chambers, can put a stop to it.
The action at the beginning was well-done and there were a few exciting death scenes. But this starts to get awfully dry around the 50% mark, and I just no longer cared for any of the characters.
January 27, 2021
The kids are not alright in Childmare, a 1980 Hamlyn original paperback from Nick Sharman, a pseudonym for one Scott Grønmark (1952-2020). A harmless food poisoning triggers a murderous rampage in the students of Britain's inner city schools, turning thousands of ordinary children into robotic but surprisingly imaginative killing machines. Pretty soon all of England is in chaos because of homicidal teenagers.
The formula is familiar from fellow Brit James Herbert's novels Rats (1974) or The Fog (1975), with an everyday element that suddenly creates an existential threat to mankind. Beginning with one kid bashing in his parents' heads with a cricket bat, the acts quickly escalate to widespread torture, rape, decapitations and just good mayhem. Nobody can withstand the kids' assault, except of course a manly hero can, in this case one Max Donnelly, an ex-everything security guard at a mid-London school. The kids begin their killing spree at the school and soon spread out all over London, taking over the streets.
While the contents might be bloodshed mostly as usual, Sharman's style is anything but. The tone of the novel is oddly cold and unfeeling, especially as things escalate towards the end. The kids are quickly depicted as incurable, inhuman zombies, which gives the good guys license to mow them down with guns, cars, helicopter blades and so on. The final operation to get rid of the kids is named "Operation Herod", an apt name if there ever was one, and perhaps an indication of the mindset in Thatcher's Britain. No kid-glove treatment for these troublemakers! Also trying very hard not to read anything into the fact that only state schools are affected, but not private schools. Strangely enough, after the initial killings there are no parents in the novel, so apparently none of them were all that worried about their offspring.
The usual criticisms apply, for this is not a character-driven novel, all characters both teenage and adult are as thin as tissue paper. The writing in general feels rushed towards the end, probably because Sharman had a deadline and got a little bored with a book he must've known was very, very silly indeed. The action, however, delivers throughout, with barely any lulls between the first bashed-in heads and the final fire-bombing of the Thames. Politically correct Childmare obviously and empathically is not, everyone from a bullied fat kid to a black West-Indian is firmly stuck in their worst stereotypes. Childmare is trash, it's nasty, it's very dated, but in the end, that's just how we like 'em.
The formula is familiar from fellow Brit James Herbert's novels Rats (1974) or The Fog (1975), with an everyday element that suddenly creates an existential threat to mankind. Beginning with one kid bashing in his parents' heads with a cricket bat, the acts quickly escalate to widespread torture, rape, decapitations and just good mayhem. Nobody can withstand the kids' assault, except of course a manly hero can, in this case one Max Donnelly, an ex-everything security guard at a mid-London school. The kids begin their killing spree at the school and soon spread out all over London, taking over the streets.
While the contents might be bloodshed mostly as usual, Sharman's style is anything but. The tone of the novel is oddly cold and unfeeling, especially as things escalate towards the end. The kids are quickly depicted as incurable, inhuman zombies, which gives the good guys license to mow them down with guns, cars, helicopter blades and so on. The final operation to get rid of the kids is named "Operation Herod", an apt name if there ever was one, and perhaps an indication of the mindset in Thatcher's Britain. No kid-glove treatment for these troublemakers! Also trying very hard not to read anything into the fact that only state schools are affected, but not private schools. Strangely enough, after the initial killings there are no parents in the novel, so apparently none of them were all that worried about their offspring.
The usual criticisms apply, for this is not a character-driven novel, all characters both teenage and adult are as thin as tissue paper. The writing in general feels rushed towards the end, probably because Sharman had a deadline and got a little bored with a book he must've known was very, very silly indeed. The action, however, delivers throughout, with barely any lulls between the first bashed-in heads and the final fire-bombing of the Thames. Politically correct Childmare obviously and empathically is not, everyone from a bullied fat kid to a black West-Indian is firmly stuck in their worst stereotypes. Childmare is trash, it's nasty, it's very dated, but in the end, that's just how we like 'em.
April 12, 2022
Love me an apocalyptic type novel but instead of zombies it’s murderous children. Creepy but really good
May 30, 2022
What a ride this was.. I went in thinking I would get a nice horror thriller and what I got was a Hollywood styled action / horror blockbuster! Childmageddon is more like it!
July 8, 2022
Turns out ADULTS are the real evil children
July 27, 2022
Better than I expected it to be
I don’t particularly enjoy books set in London as much as others (perhaps because I live there) but this was ok.
I don’t particularly enjoy books set in London as much as others (perhaps because I live there) but this was ok.
April 4, 2025
A less than satisfying ending to a horror read with a promising beginning. A two-star rating is a generous one.
September 2, 2025
Could have been so good. But Sharman seems afraid to go for the jugular. If you don't have the guts to be nasty, you shouldn't be writing horror novels.
June 30, 2023
Holy crap this was so messed up and totally worth the read!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 18, 2020
Pupiless kids white eyes shining bending teachers elbows backwards, driving over human heads, burning people alive in apartment blocks and caving skulls in with cricket bats. Forget animals on the rampage these kids are on the loose in London. Food and lead poisoning is a bitch. This cover is the best out of all editions.
November 4, 2020
Pretty disappointed by this one. I kept getting the feeling that this Kindle version must've been edited, because every punch seemed to be pulled back. I'm used to Sharman going pushing the envelope. But not in this book.
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