Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Bite
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S): Merbeth, Kristyn
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://ksmerbeth.com/
CITY: Tucson
STATE: AZ
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
http://ksmerbeth.com/ABOUT
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born in Tucson, AZ.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer.
AVOCATIONS:Reading, gaming.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
K.S. Merbeth was born and raised in the arid, flat landscape around Tucson, Arizona. It is a locale reflected and amplified in her dystopian fiction. She told an interviewer at the Qwillery: “Growing up in Arizona, it wasn’t too hard to imagine the desert-like setting and what kind of challenges it would pose, but I wanted to include as much realism as I could. I researched things like heatstroke and dehydration, the longevity of various kinds of canned food, and how water would be purified. Bite is the story of a teenage girl who would have died in that desert without the support of a villainous gang that offered her a ride one fateful day.
Kid was born and raised by her father in a bomb shelter where the family survived a devastating nuclear war. Her father died, and sixteen-year-old Kid is alone in a wasteland that she is seeing for the first time. She is spotted by members of an outlaw gang of cannibals who, somewhat incongruously, welcome her into their fold when they could just as easily serve her up for dinner. The author tells interviewers that she wanted to offer a fresh perspective to the typical postapocalyptic setting by featuring the bad guys as protagonists. Kid is illiterate, naïve, and unschooled in life outside the bomb shelter, but she is a quick learner.
Ruthless in their fight for survival and food, Kid’s adoptive gang scavenges a countryside dotted with occasional nomads and ghost towns. When they are not raiding and pillaging, they relax into family mode, and Kid learns much about their oddly selective moral code and the circumstances that turned ordinary people into monsters. “The setting let me dig deep into the dark side of human nature and go all-out with the craziness and violence,” Merbeth told the author of the Paul Semel Home Page. Gang leader Wolf is a huge man with fierce dreadlocks, a foul-mouthed philosophy of pragmatism, and a cynical sense of humor. Other crew members reflect similarly mixed traits of good and evil, strength and cowardice, violence and principle. “They’re a crew of cannibalistic raiders,” Merbeth explained in an interview at My Life My Books My Escape, “but they’re also the closest thing that any of them have to family. The bond they share is distinct and powerful.” B.H. Shepherd commented at Lit Reactor: “Through Kid’s eyes, uncolored by prewar notions of morality, we get to see them as complex characters, who actually have real motivations and sympathetic backstories.”
The gang careens from one bloody foray to another in what a Publishers Weekly contributor called a “gleeful postapocalyptic gore-fest.” Kid narrates how they raid the terrorized townspeople without restraint and pulverize would-be rivals without compunction. In a review posted by Niall Alexander at Tor.com, part of the action is described: “through shootouts and severed limbs, the group must outrun everyone they’ve wronged.” Despite their savagery, wrote G.F. Willmetts at SF Crowsnest, “their opposition is often far worse.” Among the crew’s opponents is a man called Saint, who casts himself as the leader who will bring law and order to the wasteland, no matter what the cost. Wolf’s philosophy is one of balance: no single person (or group) should be able to dictate to the rest. The battle escalates. Kid, no longer a helpless novice, is in the thick of it.
Readers–and fans of comic books and online gaming–offered generous praise. “Bite is an impressive and fun debut novel,” observed Shepherd, in which “moments of metaphysical contemplation and morbid humor punctuate explosions of insane violence and slapstick carnage.” The novel is “filled with dark humor, wit, and a realistic dystopian setting,” Becky Spratford reported in her Booklist review. Emily Walton noted in Romantic Times Book Reviews that readers “with iron stomachs are in for a treat.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, July 1, 2016, Becky Spratford, review of Bite, p. 46.
Publishers Weekly, May 9, 2016, review of Bite, p. 51.
ONLINE
K.S. Merbeth Home Page, http://ksmerbeth.com (March 7, 2017).
Lit Reactor, https://litreactor.com/ (August 2, 2016), B.H. Shepherd, review of Bite.
Metapsychology, http://metapsychology.mentalhelp.net/ (November 22, 2016), Christian Perring, review of Bite.
My Life My Books My Escape, https://mylifemybooksmy escape.wordpress.com/ (July 26, 2016), author interview.
Paul Semel Home Page, http://paulsemel.com/ (September 23, 2016), author interview.
Qwillery, http://qwillery.blogspot.com/ (July 28, 2016), author interview.
Romantic Times Book Reviews, https://www.rtbookreviews.com/ (February 19, 2017), Emily Walton, review of Bite.
Sci Fi Now, https://www.scifinow.co.uk/ (August 26, 2016), Sarah Dobbs, review of Bite.
SF Crowsnest, http://sfcrowsnest.org.uk/ (July 28, 2016), G.F. Willmetts, review of Bite.
Tor.com, http://www.tor.com/ (November 30, 2015), Niall Alexander, review of Bite.
About
My name is Kristyn Merbeth, and I’m a sci-fi/fantasy writer represented by Emmanuelle Morgen at Stonesong Literary Agency. I live in Tucson, Arizona, where I spend most of my time writing, reading, and gaming.
My debut novel, BITE, is coming from Orbit Books this summer. It’s a post-apocalyptic novel full of action and dark humor, and is inspired by my love of villains and desire to tell the stories that haven’t yet been told.
SEPTEMBER 23, 2016
Exclusive Interview: Bite Author K.S. Merbeth
In many works of fiction, we follow the story of the hero. But in her debut novel Bite (paperback, bite), K.S. Merbeth instead tells the tale of a kid who joins a group of bad guys in a post-apocalyptic wasteland…and fits right in. But what’s interesting is how this novel was, in part, inspired by some adventure games that are built around the idea of giving players the choice of being the hero, or being a bad guy.
k-s-merbeth-bite-author
I always like to start at the beginning. What is Bite about?
Bite is about a young girl wandering alone through a desert-like, post-apocalyptic wasteland. She joins a crew of outlaws who turn out to be more like a dysfunctional family, and they cause a shitload of trouble together.
Where did the idea for it come from, and how different is the finished version from that original idea?
The idea came from my desire to do something fresh with a post-apocalyptic setting, and my love of villains. I originally played with the concept in a short story, which was a love story about two cannibals. As the idea progressed into a novel, it gained a hefty dose of dark humor and lost the romantic aspect. Love stories were never really my thing, anyway.
The apocalypse has been shown a lot of different ways in different media. Sometimes it’s just anarchy out there, sometimes there’s a new society. Which way does Bite go, and why did you feel this was the best way for your story?
Bite‘s world is pretty damn close to pure anarchy. Since I was interested in writing the “bad guys,” I wanted to write an even badder world for them to inhabit, the kind of places where the lines between right and wrong are really blurry. [[The setting let me dig deep into the dark side of human nature, and go all-out with the craziness and violence.]]
What books and authors do you think were the biggest influence on Bite?
There are two main books that come to mind. One is The Road by Cormac McCarthy, which really kick-started my interest in the post-apocalyptic genre. The other is John Dies At The End by David Wong. While not at all similar to Bite, it showed me that a book could be completely hilarious while also including some truly horrifying scenes.
Your bio says you’re a big gamer. What games were an influence on Bite and in what ways?
Yes! If I’m not reading or writing, I’m probably gaming. A lot of games influenced Bite, but some of the big ones are Borderlands, with its over-the-top action sequences and twisted humor; Red Dead Redemption with its badass shootouts; and Dragon Age. Dragon Age might seem out of left field, but I was really inspired by the party banter in between quests. It really captures the characters and their dynamics in a natural way, which is something I tried to do in Bite.
Did you ever find yourself doing something in Bite only to realize it was too game-y? Like did you have a chapter where a someone has to gather three pieces of a small statue, then place that statue onto a larger statue, just so they could open the bathroom door?
Ha! Those item-gathering quests always make me want to smash my face into my keyboard, so nothing quite like that. An early reader did tell me that the face-offs with the villains felt like boss fights, but I thought that was more of a pro than a con, so I kept them the way they were.
Bite has been compared to the thrillers of Carl Hiaasen [which include Strip Tease], the movie Max Max: Fury Road, and the video game Fallout 4. First, do you think those comparisons are fair?
I’m not really familiar with Hiaasen, so I can’t comment on that, but I love both Fury Road and the Fallout series, so it’s really flattering to hear those comparisons. I think Bite has a lot of moral ambiguity like Fallout, along with the obvious similarity of the post-nuclear wastelands, and also contains nonstop action like Fury Road, so I’d say the comparisons are fair.
Were any of those things influences on Bite?
Fury Road wasn’t out until after I wrote Bite, so the timing on that was a happy coincidence. But Fallout 3 was an influence for sure. I absolutely love the rich post-apocalyptic setting, and the complex moral choices the game forces you to make. I love that you can play the game however you want to. It’s not a game where you have to be a hero, and a lot of the time there’s not a clear “right” thing to do, which was something I tried to do in Bite as well.
Given that Bite has been compared to both Max Max: Fury Road and Fallout 4, do you think Bite would work as a movie, TV show, or video game? Or all three?
I think it would work fantastically as a movie or game. The book is very fast-paced and action-packed, which I think would translate really well to a more visual medium. I’d love to see any of them, but as a gamer, I think I’d fangirl especially hard about being able to play my own book as a game.
If it was up to you, who would you like to see cast in the movie of Bite, and who would you want to make the game?
Oh man, I honestly haven’t thought too much about it being a movie, it’s so hard to cast my own characters. The only person who comes to mind is maybe Dakota Blue Richards as Kid. I love her unique look in the show Skins from a few years back.
Seeing Bite as any kind of game would be awesome, but if I could choose, I’d especially love to see it as a Telltale game. They’re basically “choose your own adventure” novels in visual form, plus really fun action sequences, which I think would be so badass for Bite.
So is your plan that Bite will be just a one-off novel, or are you thinking it’s the first in the series?
I originally wrote it as a standalone, but when Orbit [the book’s publisher] wanted another book, I loved the idea of continuing the story. I felt that Kid’s adventure in Bite was just a tiny sliver of life in the wastelands, and I was dying to explore it more. The next book will feature new main characters, but the same gritty wastelands and crazy action.
How much of the series do you have planned out? Do you know how many book it will encompass, how it ends…?
To be honest, I have no idea. I don’t have much planned out at the moment. I’m a pantser at heart, and prefer to dive in and “discover” stories as I’m writing them, so right now I’m happy to just keep writing and see where the story takes me.
k-s-merbeth-bite-cover
Finally, if someone enjoys Bite, what would suggest they read next and why?
My number one recommendation would be the Newsflesh trilogy by Mira Grant [Feed, Deadline, Blackout]. After hearing a few people compare Bite to the series, I recently started reading it myself, and the action is absolutely awesome. I think it would definitely appeal to fans of Bite.
JUL 26 2016
4 COMMENTS
INTERVIEW
AUTHOR INTERVIEW: K.S. MERBETH
Merbeth-author-photo-1-240x300
Today I am interviewing K.S. Merbeth, author of the new post-apocalyptic novel Bite.
◊ ◊ ◊
DJ: Hey K.S.! Thanks for stopping by to do this interview!
For readers who aren’t familiar with you, could you tell us a little about yourself?
K.S. Merbeth: Hi, thanks for having me! I’m a proud nerd, cat enthusiast, and tragically unskilled gamer. I grew up in Tucson, Arizona, and recently moved to northern California. Bite is my first novel.
DJ: What is Bite about?
KSM: Bite begins with sixteen-year-old Kid wandering alone in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. She’s picked up by a crew of outlaws: foul-mouthed leader Wolf, quiet sharpshooter Dolly, scarred but warmhearted Tank, and good-looking but cowardly Pretty Boy. They introduce her to a lifestyle revolving around killing and looting, and soon prove to be magnets for trouble, despite claiming that they are the trouble.
DJ: What were some of your influences for Bite?
KSM: I drew inspiration from not only books, but movies, comics, and video games. Some of the major influences are The Road by Cormac Mccarthy, various Tarantino movies, and the games Fallout 3 and Borderlands. In general I love the post-apocalyptic genre, so I consumed a lot of stories of that type and thought: what can I do that hasn’t been done yet?
DJ: What is the universe for Bite like?
27415415
KSM: Bite takes place in a futuristic version of our own world, which has been ravaged by nuclear war. There’s no government or law, just the vast, unforgiving wastelands. The wastes are hot, dry, and sparsely populated by scattered towns and nomadic wanderers, all fighting tooth and nail over limited resources. It’s a world torn apart by violence, where people quite literally prey on one another to survive.
DJ: Could you briefly tell us a little your main characters? Do they have any cool quirks or habits, or any reason why readers with sympathize with them?
KSM: My main character, who is dubbed Kid by the crew, is a bit naïve and clumsy to start off. But she’s a lot scrappier than she seems, very resourceful, and perhaps most importantly, she’s able to view horrible situations in a light-hearted way. Overall she’s just trying to find a place she belongs in a crazy world, which I think is a feeling many people will relate to.
DJ: What was your goal when you began writing the Bite? Is there a particular message or meaning you are hoping to get across to readers when the story is finally told?
KSM: I didn’t set out with a goal in mind, but I think a message naturally emerged – about the nature of good and evil, heroes and villains, and how drawing a line between them is not always easy. Especially in such a brutal world, “right” and “wrong” are difficult to define, and really dependent on perspective. Everything is in shades of grey.
DJ: What was your favorite part about writing Bite?
KSM: I loved the action, which Bite has lots of! The crew runs into trouble at every turn, and I really enjoyed writing the fast-paced fight scenes. However, I had just as much fun with the dialogue. In between all the fights and craziness, there’s a lot of banter and joking around, which I loved writing.
DJ: What do you think readers will be talking about most once they finish it?
KSM: As I mentioned earlier, the story plays with the ideas of good and evil, right and wrong. I hope Bite will get readers talking about those concepts and how they apply to the characters. Kid and the crew are definitely not victims of a cruel world; they’re at the top of the food chain. They’re killers and cannibals, but they’re also very human. I’m curious how readers will respond to the characters, and whether or not they will find them relatable and sympathetic despite their status as the “bad guys.”
DJ: What is that one thing you’d like readers to know about Bite that we haven’t talked about yet?
KSM: While I’ve talked about the characters, I haven’t really touched on the dynamic of the crew, which is one of my favorite aspects of the book. [[They’re a crew of cannibalistic raiders, but they’re also the closest thing that any of them have to family. The bond they share is distinct and powerful]], and Kid has a unique relationship with each of her crewmates.
DJ: When I read, I love to collect quotes – whether it be because they’re funny, foodie, or have a personal meaning to me. Do you have any favorite quotes from Bite that you can share with us?
KSM: Here’s one of my favorite excerpts!
“You know,” Wolf says, “it’s days like these that really make me appreciate humanity.”
His comment is met with silence. I assume everyone, like me, is trying to work out how that makes any sense.
“The fuck?” Tank finally says, effectively summing up my own thoughts.
“I’m serious. I mean, look at this place. Look at this fucking world we live in.” He sweeps his hands in a broad gesture, indicating the expanse of wastelands around us. “It’s unlivable. Or at least, it should be, you know? And yet here we are. I bet most of you weren’t even alive before the war, huh, Kid? Pretty Boy? Little post-bomb babies raised on radioactive milk, that’s what you are. Probably shouldn’t even be possible.” He lets out a low whistle and shakes his head. “People just do what they have to do, like always. Ain’t nothing that can kill us.”
“Like cockroaches,” I say.
“Right. That’s deep, Kid.”
DJ: Now that Bite is released, what is next for you?
KSM: I’m currently working on the sequel to Bite, which should be out next year!
DJ: Where can readers find out more about you?
Website: ksmerbeth.com
Twitter: @ksmerbeth
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ksmerbeth/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14590457.K_S_Merbeth
DJ: Is there anything else you would like add?
KSM: To my readers, future readers, on-the-fence potential readers: please feel free to reach out to me! I love to hear peoples’ thoughts and am more than happy to chat.
DJ: Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to answer my questions!
Thursday, July 28, 2016
Interview with K.S. Merbeth, author of Bite
Please welcome K.S. Merbeth to The Qwillery as part of the 2016 Debut Author Challenge Interviews. Bite was published on July 26th by Orbit.
TQ: Welcome to The Qwillery. When and why did you start writing?
KSM: Hi, thanks for having me! I’ve been writing as long as I can remember. As a kid I always had my face in a book and dreamed about being an author someday. I started writing my own stories in elementary school, and never stopped. My head is always full of ideas and characters and plots. I feel like I need to get them down on the page for my own peace of mind.
TQ: Are you a plotter, a pantser or a hybrid?
KSM: I’m a hybrid. When I first get an idea, I like to jump right in while I’m excited about it. After I word-vomit out the first few chapters, I pause and figure out where I’m going with it. As far as plotting, I use what I’ve heard called the “road trip” technique. I like to know where the story begins, where it ends, and some of the major stops along the way, but I figure out everything else as I go. It helps me maintain the sense of adventure while preventing me from getting lost.
TQ: What is the most challenging thing for you about writing?
KSM: The hardest thing for me is sticking with one idea. I have a long list of stories I’d love to write, and my brain would gladly jump around writing bits and pieces of each, but I’d never get anything finished that way. I’ve become a lot more disciplined over the years, but new ideas are still very tantalizing.
TQ: What has influenced / influences your writing?
KSM: Mostly, I just try to write the kinds of books I’d want to read – and I’m a picky reader. I like to be surprised. I like things that are fresh and different and thought-provoking. I like complicated morality and main characters who aren’t really “heroes” in a traditional sense. Whenever I’m reading, or watching a movie, or playing a game, I’m always thinking about what is working or not working for me in the story, and I bring that with me whenever I sit down to write.
TQ: Describe Bite in 140 characters or less.
KSM: In a brutal desert wasteland, a girl finds a family in a crew of outlaws, and they cause a shitload of trouble.
TQ: Tell us something about Bite that is not found in the book description.
KSM: While there’s a lot of violence and grit and horror in Bite, there’s also quite a bit of humor! Of course it’s very dark humor that mostly revolves around cannibalism and similarly unsavory topics, but still, I think the story will get more than a couple laughs out of readers.
TQ: In the About section on your website (here) you say that Bite is, in part, "...inspired by my love of villains... ." Who are some of your favorite villains? What else inspired Bite?
KSM: Ooh, there are so many! I love Harley Quinn and the Joker, Bellatrix Lestrange, Gogo Yubari, Negan from the Walking Dead... I have a soft spot for female villains, and for villains that are both evil and funny. As far as other inspiration, I really love the post-apocalyptic setting, but I wanted to take it in a direction that hadn’t been explored before. It’s a setting ripe for violence and villainy, and as soon as I started to wonder about the “bad guys” in such a bleak world, the story began to come together.
TQ: What appeals to you about writing post-apocalyptic SF?
KSM: I love the gritty, high stakes nature of the setting. The world has fallen apart, civilization has collapsed, and everyone is doing whatever they can to survive. In a world like that, you can really dig into the darker parts of human nature and explore exactly how far people will go to stay alive.
TQ: What sort of research did you do for Bite?
KSM: I did a lot of research into how people would survive in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. [[Growing up in Arizona, it wasn’t too hard to imagine the desert-like setting and what kind of survival challenges it would pose, but I wanted to include as much realism as I could. I researched things like heatstroke and dehydration, the longevity of various kinds of canned food, and how water would be purified.]]
TQ: In Bite who was the easiest character to write and why? The hardest and why?
KSM: Kid was the easiest to write. Her voice came really naturally – in part, I think, because her narration is so deeply entwined with the story in my mind. Bite wouldn’t be the story that it is without Kid telling it. I also relate to her because she’s not some badass or killing machine. She’s just a girl who’s figuring out where she belongs in the world.
The crew’s leader, Wolf, was the hardest for me. He wasn’t difficult to write on a surface level, but it was harder to figure out who he is beneath all the profanity and ridiculous one-liners, and harder still to get him to show it a little over the course of the book.
TQ: Which question about Bite do you wish someone would ask? Ask it and answer it!
KSM:
Q: Have you ever drawn inspiration from an unexpected source?
A: What a coincidence, this sets me up perfectly for a story I’ve been dying to tell! ;)
Early into the first draft of Bite, I was working on it at home. I had put Kid in a pretty shitty situation – dying of dehydration and separated from most of the crew – and was puzzling over how to get her out of it. While I was brainstorming, my little brother (who was 12 or 13 at the time) asked me what I was working on. I gave him a quick run-down, and he listened and nodded and advised, in a very serious voice: “You should put a lizard in it.”
And, just like that, I knew how to write myself out of the corner I was stuck in. Thanks, Lucas!
TQ: Give us one or two of your favorite non-spoilery quotes from Bite.
KSM: Here’s an excerpt!
“Is that a map?” I ask. I can’t read a word of it, but I recognize the shapes of mountains and roads.
“Again with the stupid questions,” Wolf says. “Of course it’s a damn map. See, it’s got all the towns and shit.”
“Wow.” This piece of paper holds more of the world than I’ve ever seen, not that it means much. Before I left town, I knew other places like it existed, but certainly not their locations or names. “You guys made this?”
“Got it off a caravan,” Pretty Boy says.
“So you stole it?”
“It doesn’t count as stealing if they’re dead,” Wolf objects.
“I think it still counts if you killed them for the map…”
“I never said we killed them,” he says. “And no. That would count as looting, ain’t that right?”
“Isn’t that worse than stealing?”
“Whatever.”
TQ: What's next?
KSM: Expect a sequel to BITE next year!
1/30/2017 General OneFile Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1485828662084 1/2
Print Marked Items
Bite
Becky Spratford
Booklist.
112.21 (July 1, 2016): p46.
COPYRIGHT 2016 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
Full Text:
* Bite. By K. S. Merbeth. Aug. 2016. 304p. Orbit, paper, $9.99 (9780316308700).
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Merbeth's actiondriven debut introduces us to Kid, a teenage girl who has known no world other than this postnuclear
apocalyptic one. She's barely surviving alone after the death of her father. Knowing she should not trust strangers but
too tired and hungry to care, Kid gets in a car with two ominous figures, the large, dreadlocked Wolf and the brightbluehaired
Dolly. And so begins a fastpaced ride through a barren world in which food and water are scarce,
"Raiders" and "Sharks" rule the trade routes, and cannibalism is a real survival option. The firstperson narration will
leave readers hanging on Kid's every word as she falls in with Wolf and his gang. The first battle scene comes
immediately and is closely followed by another and then another, constantly escalating. But in between the fighting,
there is compelling character development. Wolf's crewvillains all, but principled onescomes to be known and
loved by Kid. She watches and learns from each and, as a result, comes through the story stronger, because she now
has a "family" and has finally taken control of her own survival. [[Filled with dark humor, wit, and a realistic dystopian
setting]], Bite plays with the idea of who the good guys are in such a harsh world. Think Carl Hiaasen thriller set in a
Mad Max world, and you have an idea of what to expect.Becky Spratford
YA/M: Amid lots of violence and cannibalism, Kid's transformation from young victim to active player in her own
survival will greatly appeal to older teens. BS.
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
Spratford, Becky. "Bite." Booklist, 1 July 2016, p. 46. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA459889027&it=r&asid=41ef60ff08b38adcddd27ea0e79a973e.
Accessed 30 Jan. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A459889027
1/30/2017 General OneFile Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1485828662084 2/2
Bite
Publishers Weekly.
263.19 (May 9, 2016): p51.
COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Bite
K.S. Merbeth. Orbit, $9.99 mass market (416p) ISBN 9780316308700
Merbeth centers the humanity of the bad guys in her [[gleeful postapocalyptic gorefest]] debut. A crew of raiders and
cannibals take in a wandering 16yearold girl, dub her Kid, and shove her suddenly into their lifestyle of killing off
townies, taking their stuff, and enjoying dinners of canned beans and fresh meat amid wound care and cautious
camaraderie. When they hear that a mysterious figure named Saint is trying to return law and order to the wastes and
has a reward out to anyone who brings in their crew alive, they decide to take the fight to him. The setting is barely
sketched out and the action sometimes feels like a text description of a firstperson shooter game, but McKenna makes
it hard not to root for her quirky, amoral killing machines: gaptoothed, dreadlocked team leader Wolf; creepy Dolly
with "blue hair and an assault rifle"; lowkey, solid Tank; and Pretty Boy, who always runs away. Agent: Emmanuelle
Morgen, Stonesong Literary. (July)
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
"Bite." Publishers Weekly, 9 May 2016, p. 51. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA452883326&it=r&asid=ab89e48a37629b1f17158ac61134a5ca.
Accessed 30 Jan. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A452883326
BITE
Image of Bite (Wastelanders)
Author(s): K. S. Merbeth
Readers with queasy constitutions need not read any further, but those [[with iron stomachs are in for a treat]]. Merbeth crafts a world that calls to mind the roving lawless wasteland of the Mad Max films, but Merbeth’s protagonists aren’t townsfolk in need of a protective gunslinger. They’re the bad guys. Luckily, the author doesn’t try to soften the blow, which makes for an interesting take on the tropes. Her characters do whatever they need to do to survive, and for some of them this means resorting to the biggest faux pas of the wasteland — cannibalism. While gruesome when it comes to details, the story manages to keep a quick and lighthearted pace — though it occasionally begs to reach the violent fever pitch and insanity of its forbearers (see: Beyond Thunderdome ). With clever dialogue and without ever pulling its punches, this is definitely a story to chew on.
The world’s been pulverized in a nuclear disaster that has left a once-thriving world a barren dust ball. That’s the world Kid was born into, and that’s the world she’s trying to survive. But when she accepts a ride from two strangers, Wolf and Dolly, she gets wrapped up in a race to survive that she may not be able to endure. Wolf and Dolly and the rest of their crew — Tank and Pretty Boy — are what the wastelanders call “sharks.” In a lawless world they’ve committed the universally heinous act of consuming human flesh, and now Kid’s along for the ride. The self-proclaimed bad guys, this raiding crew begins being targeted by a new name in the wasteland: Saint. He plans to bring law and order back to the wastes, and the first order of business is wiping out the sharks. But even amongst murderers and thieves, Kid finally begins to feel like she belongs, and these sharks aren’t going down without a fight. (ORBIT, Aug., 416 pp., $9.99)
Reviewed by:
Emily Walton
Bookshots: 'Bite' by K.S. Merbeth
REVIEW BY BH SHEPHERD AUGUST 2, 2016
IN: BOOKSHOTS HORROR K.S. MERBETH REVIEW
16
0
Stumble
0
Reddit
0
0
78
Bookshots: 'Bite' by K.S. Merbeth
Bookshots: Pumping new life into the corpse of the book review
Title:
Bite
Who wrote it?
[[Moments of metaphysical contemplation and morbid humor punctuate explosions of insane violence and slapstick carnage.]]
K.S. Merbeth
Plot in a Box:
A young girl runs away from home in the middle of a post-apocalyptic wasteland. She is taken in by a crew of “sharks” (cannibal raiders) who teach her to survive in a harsh world whilst hunted by the various factions that inhabit it.
Invent a new title for this book:
Kid Shark
Read this if you like(d):
Fallout and Mad Max
Meet the books lead(s):
Kid, a young girl born in a bomb shelter after the nukes fell. Although she begins the book dangerously naive, she is quite clever, has a powerful will to live, and learns very fast. She is unsettled by the more extreme behavior of her cannibal comrades, but reserves judgement and realizes that they are her best chance at surviving the wastelands.
Said lead(s) would be portrayed in a movie by:
Oleysa Rulin, who is currently playing Retro Girl on Powers.
Setting: Would you want to live there?
A desolate radioactive wasteland populated almost entirely by paranoid townsfolk, heavily-armed sociopaths and would-be dictators. The kind of place where you can meet a gang of a cannibals and think “These guys are all right.” I wouldn’t even want to visit.
What was your favorite sentence?
There’s nothing but empty desert and the ruins of old cities in every direction. Nuclear war can do that to a place, I guess.
The Verdict:
[[Bite is an impressive and fun debut novel]], an interesting twist on the traditional “babe in the woods” tale. Kid begins the story as a wide-eyed innocent, who seems to have survived on luck alone thus far. But instead of resisting the depredations of the wasteland to remain true and pure, she joins a band of cannibals who teach her to be the thing people run from rather than the person running. Wolf and Dolly would be just another pair of faceless villains in the typical post-apocalyptic fable, but [[through Kid’s eyes, uncolored by pre-war notions of morality, we get to see them as complex characters, who actually have real motivations and sympathetic backstories.]] Although they have done terrible things, they are the only people who don’t immediately try to kill, rape or exploit Kid upon meeting her. The wasteland is a nasty place full of ruthless people, but Kid comes to learn that none of them are monsters by choice. When a would-be ruler of the rubble puts a bounty on their heads, Wolf and Dolly teach Kid survival skills by handing her a knife and throwing her into the deep-end. They can’t seem to go anywhere without kicking off a Miller-esque action set piece that destroys what little was left standing. Bite is certainly never boring, moments of metaphysical contemplation and morbid humor punctuating explosions of insane violence and slapstick carnage.
Bite by K.S. Merbeth (book review)
July 28, 2016 | By UncleGeoff | Reply
Although you only build up a picture of what K.S. Merbeth’s reality is from reading this novel, ‘Bite’, you can’t mistake its somewhat ‘Mad Max’ post-apocalypse world for what it really is. Lots of crazy people, life is cheap, authority by who has the biggest or most guns and who you are scared of. There is a shortage of everything and survival is literally living hand to mouth.
Bite
When a sixteen year-old girl is picked up on the road by Wolf and Dolly, her chances of survival somewhat go up. That’s not their real names and even they or rather Wolf calls her ‘Kid’ than wanting to know what she’s really called. Despite their depiction as traders, after the first town skirmish where they also team up with their advance party of Tank and Pretty Boy, Kid is accepted into their gang and realises that these are also the ‘sharks’ that townsfolk fear. Mind you, they are no better than them neither. Everyone is out for themselves. However, there is a need for an element of trust for visitors because trading is the only way to get fresh supplies, although you do have to wonder how long before everything runs out. To top that, anything dead is considered meat, including human. If you don’t care for cannibalism, at least while its recognisable before being the meat is cut up, there seems to be a surplus of canned beans to eat. It’s a kill or be killed world and no one is trusted. Even in your own team…mostly. Survival is everything although a rite of passage is permitted.
How much to say about this story without turning spoiler is difficult because this particular group jumps from crisis to crisis in a page-turning book. Merbeth’s first novel gets off to a roaring start and although these sharks are not particularly likable, [[their opposition is often far worse]] which sort of balances things out. She also writes strong characters and although there are certain stereotypes amongst them, they don’t tend to be instantly identifiable as them.
I should point out that ‘Bite’ isn’t just a series of random adventures because everything does lead to something which they have to overcome at the end. The main preoccupation of Wolf is that no one should have too much power in the wastelands because it goes to their heads and is often determined to see that they lose theirs.
The story is also a first person narrative through Kid’s (notice ‘Kid’ not ‘the Kid’, she doesn’t like being called that) eyes so she’s obviously the insight to the reader. If I have to be critical of anything and it’s a common problem with first person stories is not taking into account the literary skills of the narrator. Kid is supposed to be illiterate, which we are reminded of from time to time, yet she can use words like ‘stoic’ which she certainly wouldn’t have come across in conversation with other illiterates. Granted there are always concessions to the readers so a story can be understood but, equally, the reader should be thought of as smart enough to get a simpler vocabulary.
This isn’t a world you would want to live in but I suspect a film company would delight in making this into a rather scary film.
GF Willmetts
July 2016
Need a Ride? BITE by K. S. Merbeth
Niall Alexander
Mon Nov 30, 2015 11:35am Post a comment 1 Favorite [+]
Back in the distant past, when Mad Max: Fury Road was still a big hit in cinemas, Orbit announced—not coincidentally, I think—that it had acquired “a dark debut” complete with “an amazing world” and a “strong female main character” sure to prove perfect for fans of George Miller’s movie.
The book in question was BITE by Kristyn S. Merbeth, “the stark and darkly comedic story of a young girl who joins a crew of bandits in a lawless, post-nuclear world,” and last week, its publisher showed it off properly.
Let’s begin with the blurb:
Kid has no name, no family and no survival skills whatsoever. But that hasn’t stopped her from striking out on her own in the wasteland that the world has become.
When Kid accepts a ride from two strangers, she suddenly becomes the newest member of a bloodthirsty raider crew. Propelled on a messy chase, [[through shootouts and severed limbs, the group must outrun everyone they’ve wronged]]. In a world that’s lost its humanity, not everything is as it seems—and this time it isn’t the monsters that crave flesh…
It’s us! Or rather the cannibalistic characters at the heart of this narrative—characters Merbeth drilled a little deeper into when asked in August about the inspiration behind BITE:
In post-apocalyptic stories, there are always groups of gun-toting psychos looting and killing their way through life. They’re usually presented as mindless villains, by-products of the craziness of the world, without backstories or motivations or anything that makes them seem human. And yet, they are human. So I started to wonder—who are these people? How’d they end up this way? What are their lives like behind the scenes? And those questions spawned the idea of a story with typical “bad guys,” a crew of raiders, as the protagonists.
An interesting premise, yes?
And thanks to Lauren Panepinto, BITE has a good look, too:
Bite-by-K-S-Merbeth
A good look, to be sure… but not, at a glance, particularly original. Panepinto has obviously amped up the red and the rust, and made the placement of the text’s title more prominent, but the centrepiece of BITE’s cover does rather resemble the bloodstained Wraith that adorned Gollancz’s out-of-print first editions of NOS4R2 by Joe Hill, doesn’t it?
NOS4R2-by-Joe-Hill
Not that that should take away one whit from what’s within, which sounds—even to my miserable old man mind—like a whole bunch of fun.
Be ready for BITE to take a bloody chunk out of your summer when Orbit publishes it in the UK and elsewhere late next July.
BITE BY KS MERBETH BOOK REVIEW
The world’s a wasteland in KS Merbeth’s debut novel, Bite
By Sarah Dobbs 26-08-16 64,744 0
Share on Facebook Share via Twiter Share on Google Plus Add to your Stumbleupon Likes Share via Email
Author:
KS Merbeth
Publisher:
Orbit
Released:
26 July 2016
Buy on Amazon
When you’re a teenage girl travelling by yourself across a post-apocalyptic wasteland, jumping into a car with cannibals seems like the worst idea. But for Kid, it works out pretty well.
Her new travelling companions – the manic Wolf, bad-ass Dolly, cowardly Pretty Boy and enormous Tank – might not be the good guys, but they’re not all bad, either. There are far worse things in the wastes…
Structurally, Bite’s plot is a pretty standard on-the-road one; Kid and her crew are the kind of scavengers who need to keep moving, both to find new people to trade with and because their previous encounters have left a trail of enemies in their wake.
What gives the book its edge is the ever-shifting moral code of its main characters. In any other story they’d be the villains – after all, they happily lie, steal, kill, and even eat human flesh in their efforts to survive. But after civilisation has collapsed, the definitions of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ have loosened a bit, and even murderous bandits have to go somewhere after they’ve finished wreaking havoc.
Debut author KS Merbeth keeps things pretty light, and doesn’t dig too deeply into her characters’ anarchism-lite philosophy. She focuses on the action. The whole book rattles along at a breakneck pace – neither the characters nor the reader gets much room to reflect on anything that happens before the next catastrophe has arrived.
It’s a fun read, and fans of shows like Firefly should find it very much to their taste.
Review - Bite
by K.S. Merbeth
Hachette Audio, 2016
Review by Christian Perring
Nov 22nd 2016 (Volume 20, Issue 47)
It's the future after nuclear war, and life is nasty, brutish and short, at least for a lot of people. Kid is a 16-year old androgynous girl who joins a gang of violent survivors. The gang is led by psychopathic but charismatic Wolf, partnered by an Asian woman, Dolly, and then Pretty Boy and Tank. They pick up and lose others along the way: the rule is that they don't use real names because they don't want to get too attached to anyone. But the point is that they do become important to each other anyway, despite major tensions between them. Trust is hard to come by, especially when the group regularly resorts to eating human flesh. It's a fast moving plot with death on most pages. The crew keep the tone light with lots of jokes, and since they are engaged in stealing and trading in human meat, as well as raiding towns, that kind of balance is necessary. Kid starts out being pretty useless, but she gradually learns to fight and kill. She also maintains some moral core in this apocalyptic future. There is an overarching plot about Wolf's group resisting the schemes of another group that is trying to clean up society, and that keeps the book going, although it seems more of a hook on which to hang more violence and close calls. The writing is proficient, and is brought alive in a strong performance by Stephanie Willis who reads the unabridged audiobook. Bite has a comic book feel to it, and by this stage science fiction with a young female narrator is pretty familiar, if not formulaic, but it is an entertaining novel.
© 2016 Christian Perring