BABYCAKES by Neil Gaiman

Short Story Review: BABYCAKES by Neil Gaiman

This story opens with the line, ‘A few years back all the animals went away.’ And this sets you up with everything you need to know.

No one knows how or why the animals vanished; they just weren’t around anymore. Someone points out that life shouldn’t change just because the animals have gone. There is no reason to change eating habits, or stop product testing.

We still have babies.

So babies replace animals. They’re eaten, ‘Baby flesh is tender and succulent.’ Their skin is flayed and worn, ‘Baby leather is soft and comfortable.’ They are tested on, and everything goes back to normal. Until… ‘Yesterday, all the babies were gone.’

I think this story is a great narration on humanity, with an excellent first line that sucks you in immediately. It’s especially relevant now considering the controversial Palm Oil industry. With only 6,000 orang-utans left in the world, this story is scarily familiar.

This story makes you think. The thoughts it conjures towards the end last longer than the 500-odd words it takes to tell. Humans treat animals like tools or ingredients for their own satisfaction. But when does it go too far? As the author writes, ‘Babies can’t talk. They can hardly move. A baby is not a rational, thinking creature.’ If this is true for animals, how long before we can shift the thinking onto babies?

I would hope that the target audience is the thinking person. Neil Gaiman wrote it for a publication to benefit PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). It is quite disturbing, and as someone who wears leather and eats meat it doesn't come across as preachy. It makes you step back and think about things. I hope it does anyway.

Tension is successfully created with the way the author writes. He puts important lines in their own paragraphs – and there are many of them.

The conflict is the human way of life. It’s not sustainable, and something needs to change. After animals, babies are the next most vulnerable. Humans see the small picture and can’t see in the end they are destroying themselves.

The plot is believable because he’s making a point, and okay, perhaps people won’t go so far as to eat babies. Nothing is resolved at the end but I don’t think it is meant to be. You’re  left on the edge – thinking. This story haunts you.

This short story is perfect for what it is, and what it was written for.