"The truth is coming, and it's hungry."
"On Halloween night, 1953, Blackwood Mercy Hospital burned to the ground. The building collapsed long before the fire was put out, and by end of the rescue team’s tireless search, forty-one bodies were recovered from the smoking ruin. Six were not. Five children, one adult. Town council said the hospital fire was a freak accident, an Open-and-Shut Case, but the kids of Blackwood know better. They say Benny Rose did it"
— On Benny Rose
Benny Rose, the Cannibal King is a 2020 horror novel by Hailey Piper.
A legendary monster stalks the town of Blackwood, Vermont and its name is Benny Rose, the Cannibal King. A legendary figure, Benny Rose has become the stuff of nightmares to all the people who inhabit Blackwood. In 1987, a group of high school teenagers led by Desiree St. Fleur decide to pull a prank on a newcomer to the town using Benny Rose. However, their prank is interrupted by a ferocious storm that batters Blackwood. The girls end up in a bizarre neighbourhood where they're being stalked, with the reveal that Benny Rose may be be more real than anyone thought.
Benny Rose, the Cannibal King provides examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Desiree's mother isn't physically abusive but treats her horribly emotionally, destroying the most beloved of Desiree's belongings specifically to hurt her.
- Antagonist Title: The book is named after the Serial Killer and cannibal monster Benny Rose, who is stalking and murdering the children of the town of Blackwoods.
- Child Eater: The main antagonist of the novel, Benny Rose has a special hunger for children. During the 50s, he ended up trapped with five kids in the basement of a hospital that caught fire and consumed them to stay alive, which caused him to become a supernatural entity of some kind. Now, every Halloween night, he strikes and feasts upon the trick-and-treaters who are filling the streets.
- Child Hater: The senior citizens of the suburb that the teenage protagonists are in despise children and teenagers to the point they even happily help a Serial Killer monster who preys on them to hunt his victims in their suburb at long as he keeps it free of kids.
- Eaten Alive: Benny Rose doesn't just feed off his child victims, but consumes them piece by piece while they're still alive. This is how he meets his end, as the protagonists turn the tables on him and consume him piece by piece.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: The implied true origin of Benny Rose is that of a normal morgue worker who, after a hospital caught on fire, ended up trapped in the hospital basement with five children. Benny consumed them to keep himself alive and became a supernatural entity who is feared throughout the town of Blackwoods as the bogeyman of children.
- Hook Hand: Benny Rose has a hook in place of his left hand, which he uses to slash at and kill his victims.
- I'm a Humanitarian: Benny Rose is a cannibal monster who feeds off children. He has been hunting and killing the children of the town of Blackwoods to eat for decades.
- Multiple-Choice Past: The exact origins of Benny Rose are never given, with it, being left unclear if he was a Serial Killer before or after a fire that burned down the hospital he worked at. It's left deliberately unclear whether he always hunted and ate children or only started it to save himself from dying in the basement of the hospital after the fire but than gained a taste for it which he now continues. The novel does lean in the direction at the end that he was a normal person before the fire at the hospital, but it's still left up to the reader to decide which, if any, is the real origin.
- Our Slashers Are Different: Benny Rose is a supernatural slasher killer. He has a deformed face, ghoulish white skin and a touch that can corrode his victims. He also has a Hook Hand on his left wrist, which he uses to slash at his victims. Benny is cannibalistic and feeds on children.
- Poisonous Person: Benny Rose's touch has corrosive abilities and can literally melt flesh off the bones of his victims.
- Real After All: The teenage protagonists of the book think that the Serial Killer Benny Rose is a make believe fairy tale meant to scare kids. Benny turns out to be a living and very dangerous monster who is killing kids.
- Red Baron: Serial Killer and supernatural monster Benny Rose is known to the townsfolk by nicknames, which include the Blackwoods Monster and the Cannibal King.
- Resurrected Murderer: A possible origin for Benny Rose that is given is that he was a sadistic child serial killer in life who eventually became a cannibalistic slasher killer in death. That said emphasis is given on it being a possiblity as the ending implies just as much that Benny may have once genuinely been a normal person before his transformation.
- Serial Killer: In life, Benny Rose is indicated to have possibly been a cannibalistic serial killer who preyed on kids. Benny is now a supernatural entity of some sort and continues to hunt and devour children. If he wasn’t a serial killer in life, he certainly is now.
- Silent Antagonist: Benny Rose, the main antagonist of the book, never speaks but instead communicates in glares and sadistic body language.
- Suburban Gothic: The book is set in a seemingly peaceful town, in a an area that seems to just be a normal and quiet suburb filled with senior citizens. This, though belies the fact that the senior citizens have made a deal with a monstrous Serial Killer named Benny Rose, who they're allowing to stalk kids in the suburb.
- Urban Legends: The book centers on the Urban Legend of a cannibalistic killer known as Benny Rose who is rumoured to prey on the children of the town of Blackwoods. He has become a mythical figure to the townsfolk as the stuff of the kids' nightmares, but is revealed to a real, evil entity.
- Was Once a Man: Benny Rose used to be a normal human but transformed into a horrific cannibalistic monster, most likely after he was trapped under a burned hospital with several children and ate them to prolong his life. It is implied, however, that the thing roaming the neighborhood is more like a “footprint” of that event rather than the transformed body or spirit of the original Benny Rose.
- Would Hurt a Child:
- Benny Rose preys on children and teenagers and eats them while they're still alive. He turns out to have been like this even before his transformation into a supernatural entity.
- The senior citizens of the suburb that Benny Rose haunts turn out to be in on his plans to murder and devour kids. They hate children, so they made a deal with him that he can hunt the kids in their neighborhood so so that he rids the neighborhood of them.
