We all have our guilty pleasures. Even after we are told that something is bad for us, we still want to do it. One of those things is eating meat. We meat eaters have all been told to cut back on meat. We know that it’s bad for our health, for the environment, and for the animals themselves. But it’s such a part of our lifestyle that, even when you learn how a hotdog is made, you still crave one. And you find that making a hamburger from ground meat rather than impossible meat is going to be cheaper and much more what you’re used to.
Straight facts rarely inspire the formation of new habits. But cautionary tales, horror stories, and methods that are less judgmental and more presentational can be more effective. Author Dane Cobain has incorporated his views on meat consumption into a horrific zombie tale in his novel, Meat. Below is my review of Meat along with my interview with Cobain about this unique zombie tale.
Meat plot summary
Tom Copeland has just started a new job as a vet at Sunnyvale, a giant farm owned by John MacDonald. The farm operates like a fortress and treats its animals poorly, putting profit over the animals’ wellbeing. But Copeland turns the other cheek, intent on staying out of trouble after a scandal caused him to leave his former veterinary position.
Slowly, though, the animals become sick, then aggressive, then finally, they attack the farm’s hundreds of employees as the disease spreads through the birds, four-legged animals, and fish. The surviving employees become trapped at the farm, which serves as ground zero of a global outbreak of the disease that eventually spreads to the humans, creating a zombie apocalypse born from the cruel treatment of Sunnyvale’s livestock.
As morale breaks down, the humans become as dangerous a threat to each other as the animals. And Tom finds himself promoted to and valued as the closest thing to a physician at the facility. His knowledge of animals and basic first aid becomes invaluable not only to his survival but the survival of humanity as a whole.
A zombie tale with a moral
Meat contains all of the basic ingredients for a classic zombie story: a deadly viral outbreak, a quarantine situation, a breakdown of civilization, and, eventually, an apocalyptic setting. What makes this story unique is its animal cruelty angle which serves as a jumping off point of the events.
From the beginning, it’s clear that Sunnyvale is committing numerous violations and is mistreating its animals. In turn, it makes the facility dangerous for the humans as well. We see just how dangerous as Copeland is called to help treat the staff injuries more often than he is called upon to care for the animals. When it comes to their livestock, his main task is to simply keep as many live for the slaughterhouse as possible.
It’s easy to see that this story is a cautionary tale about human dependence on meat and how it can and will come back to bite us…literally. The story does break down into three distinct acts: the calm before the storm, the outbreak and bunkering down of the survivors, and finally, the attempted escape from quarantine.
The characters
The book is a slow burn with the first one hundred pages or so dedicated to establishing the hierarchy and population of the farm, both human and animals. The main players are introduced along with their personality and personal motivations.
Copeland is your generic hero, someone with a flawed backstory, an estranged family, and a man who is making up for past mistakes. MacDonald plays the standard antagonist, the money-hungry CEO whose greed leads to a global disaster. Then, there are the numerous employees, several of whom get a backstory and a significant moment in the plot.
From “Big Jim Benton,” the head of security, to MacDonald’s young niece, Jill, and everyone in between, it can be hard to keep track of who is who. Luckily, Cobain includes an appendix listing the employees and their job titles along with various other facts about Sunnyvale, including its animal inventory, which creates near-impossible odds of escaping.
Aside from the diverse personalities and motivations, there is also a “big bad” villain, the Rat King, a monstrous creature that resides beneath the farm and adds a boogeyman element to an already horrific situation.
The horror element
Cobain is a skilled writer who expertly balances plot and characterization. The opening is a bit slow as the multitude of characters are established and the scene is set for disaster. However, once the action hits, it hits hard.
Gore is expected and even welcome in a zombie tale, and Cobain doesn’t hold back. At the same time, he doesn’t dwell on the gore, using it to beef up the horror. Instead, the horror comes in the anticipation of wondering what happens next and how the survivors can make it from one situation to the next, whether it’s battling the food shortage, John MacDonald’s continued tight hold on his staff, or the numerous hoards of animals that can attack at any moment.
It would be terrible to be trapped at work for months on end, particularly a place as terrible as Sunnyvale. And being the source of the outbreak, the staff are most susceptible to the virus that eventually reaches the human bloodstream and spreads fast.
The deaths are creative and unexpected as the cast dwindles one by one. There are multiple threats, and no one is safe. But there is hope, enough to keep the tension up and forward movement of the characters.
My recommendation
I recommend Meat to anyone who loves zombie stories, who likes a topical, underlying spin to their horror, and non-meat eaters who are looking for gratification for their lifestyle. Has Meat turned me into a vegan? No, it hasn’t. But it is a good reminder to cut back on meat consumption, to look for alternative food sources, and to call out bad business practices when you see them. Meat has made a zombie outbreak seem feasible, and it calls out our human nature to go with the flow, to mind our own business, and to shrug and turn a cold shoulder to terrible working and living conditions for both humans and animals.
I felt like the book ran a little too long in places and particularly dragged in the middle. There are also a ton of characters that are difficult to keep track of. But the ones that you need to remember are the ones that you do. And the basic plot points matter more than all of the intricate backstories and character studies meant to bring this story to life.
Meat is a wakeup call. And fiction tends to imitate life.
My rating
An interview with Dane Cobain
This story is heavily researched, and you incorporate a lot of diagrams and helpful lists and charts about the setting and characters. When did you decide to incorporate these into the final novel? How did you keep it all straight when writing the novel?
A lot of the resources that I included, such as the map and the character lists, were resources that I used myself when I was working on the first draft. Seeing as I had them anyway, I thought I might as well include them for readers, as some would find them useful and others could easily just ignore them if they weren’t interested.
The images at the start of each section were created by a friend of mine called Steve NAME. We’d worked together in the past as he’d created some similar illustrations for my poetry collection, Eyes Like Lighthouses When the Boats Come Home. I wanted to do something similar for Meat and so I reached out to him – and he said yes!
As for how I kept it all straight, I think it mostly comes back to planning and outlining. I’m a big planner and so I pretty much knew how it was going to pan out.
You also include your Q&A sessions with experts that you interviewed while doing research for the novel. What was a favorite fact that you learned or piece of information that you learned in doing research for this novel?
I’m not sure if it’s quite right to call it a favourite fact as pretty much everything that I learned was grim. However, I didn’t know that male chicks are routinely thrown alive into a meat grinder in many factory farms as the operators are only interested in the females when breeding layers. That fact, along with some of the things that I learned about dairy production, is the reason why I decided to switch from being vegetarian to being vegan.
Did you have the entire story planned out in advance, or did it develop as you wrote?
I had about 95% of it planned out, but a few things developed as a natural extension of the interactions between the characters. The scene towards the end where Jill MacDonald talks about repopulating came about almost by accident, in part because I thought how darkly ironic it would be if that happened in a post-apocalyptic movie and the only viable male had had a vasectomy.
Are any of the characters based on real people or contain elements of people from your life? Are there any parts of yourself that you injected into any of your characters?
I think I probably took bits from a variety of different people, but none of them are particularly inspired on specific people. There are parts of myself in Tom Copeland, but then I suppose there are parts of myself in all of them. I think I have less in common with the characters in Meat than I do with characters from some of my other books, but then you’d never catch me working for a factory farm.
Who is your favorite character?
Big Jim! Writing his dialogue made me chuckle, and he was also the one who sort of “came alive” the most, almost making his own decisions and dictating the way the story would evolve based upon the actions that he took.
What was your favorite part to write?
It’s hard to say, but I did find it cathartic to write the big scene about two thirds of the way through where the number of remaining characters is whittled down. I also liked the scene with Hamish and the chicken shredder. But perhaps that’s just because I find it fun to write gore!
What are your favorite zombie stories/movies?
Great question! I think 28 Days Later and the first Resident Evil movie would both be up there. Resident Evil actually scares me more because of the homicidal computer, which could easily be created. My indie friend Larry Weiner has written a great book called Paradise Rot, which should also go up there. And then I liked Z Nation and The Walking Dead.
How well do you think you’d do in a zombie apocalypse?
I’d probably die pretty quickly. I’d like to think that I’d last longer, I just don’t think it’s very realistic. I do have a vague plan, but that only works if the zombies can’t swim. If they can’t, I’d commandeer a houseboat and park it in the middle of the Thames. That’s about as far as I’ve got, though.
What do you want readers to most take away from your book?
I think that if people think about their food choices and where their food comes from, my job is done.
What’s next for you?
The third book in my Leipfold series of cosy mysteries, The Leipfold Files, is coming out on June 1st through Encircle Publications. I’ve also been editing the first draft of the fourth book, and I’m currently working on a novel called Greebos, although I don’t have as much time as I’d like and so I’ve been working on that for an embarrassingly long time and made very little process so far. I also have maybe half a dozen other books in varying states from first draft to ready to publish, so they’ll be coming out over the next few years. I’m currently working on the basis that one of my two unpublished poetry collections will be the next out, towards the end of 2022.
Author links
Links will open in a new tab
Buy it!
Buy a copy of Meat here, and help support local bookstores! This is an affiliate link, and I will earn a commission on any sales.
Pin it!
It’s super interesting that it’s a zombie tale but with morals. Thanks for sharing!