The Hunger
"Deeply, deeply disturbing, hard to put down, not recommended reading after dark." --Stephen King
A tense and gripping reimagining of one of America's most haunting human disasters: the Donner Party with a supernatural twist.
Evil is invisible, and it is everywhere. That is the only way to explain the series of misfortunes that have plagued the wagon train known as the Donner Party. Depleted rations, bitter quarrels, and the mysterious death of a little boy have driven the isolated travelers to the brink of madness. Though they dream of what awaits them in the West, long-buried secrets begin to emerge, and dissent among them escalates to the point of murder and chaos, unknowingly propelling them into one of the deadliest and most disastrous Western adventures in American history.
As members of the group begin to disappear, the survivors start to wonder if there really is something disturbing, and hungry, waiting for them in the mountains...and whether the evil that has unfolded around them may have in fact been growing within them all along. Effortlessly combining the supernatural and the historical, The Hunger is an eerie, thrilling look at the volatility of human nature, pushed to its breaking point.
A tense and gripping reimagining of one of America's most haunting human disasters: the Donner Party with a supernatural twist.
Evil is invisible, and it is everywhere. That is the only way to explain the series of misfortunes that have plagued the wagon train known as the Donner Party. Depleted rations, bitter quarrels, and the mysterious death of a little boy have driven the isolated travelers to the brink of madness. Though they dream of what awaits them in the West, long-buried secrets begin to emerge, and dissent among them escalates to the point of murder and chaos, unknowingly propelling them into one of the deadliest and most disastrous Western adventures in American history.
As members of the group begin to disappear, the survivors start to wonder if there really is something disturbing, and hungry, waiting for them in the mountains...and whether the evil that has unfolded around them may have in fact been growing within them all along. Effortlessly combining the supernatural and the historical, The Hunger is an eerie, thrilling look at the volatility of human nature, pushed to its breaking point.
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Community Reviews
Alma Katsu's masterfully weaves a chilling layer of fear, paranoia, and the unsettling sensation of being constantly watched. Set against the unforgiving backdrop of the Oregon Trail, the story follows a group of hopeful pioneers journeying towards a promised land in California. However, their dreams of a better life soon devolve into a terrifying struggle for survival. This book held me captive from the first page to the last, and with the help of a few puffs of hybrid Mochi RNTZ, I was taken to another world where I felt like I was actually on the trail with them. Katsu expertly cultivates an atmosphere of distrust, leaving me constantly questioning the true nature of the threat and the identity of the potential villain lurking among them. Very easy read as the chapters are short and its easy to follow along with the story line. Next time Ill read the book with a Sativa strain to really get the imagination going.
This book does an amazing job of combining a genuine moment in history with that of fiction. It takes a horrifying moment in history and spins it so it is all the more horrific. Definitely recommend for those of us who enjoy horror and historical fiction.
There were so many points while reading “The Hunger” where I simply wanted to stop reading. I haven’t DNF’d a book in a long, long time, and I was so close to doing it to this one.
To put it plainly, there isn’t much here. Having recently read “The Indifferent Stars Above”, I knew the tale of the Donner Party, so I hesitantly went into this, knowing that it wasn’t going to be accurate. And that was absolutely a correct assumption - there were so many changes from the base party that it felt like this was just loosely inspired by the party, rather than the actual people. Granted, I understand that this is a fictionalization of the story, but it still felt a bit disrespectful to change these people so drastically.
I’m always down for a slow read, don’t get me wrong. But, with that, there needs to be something pushing me along to want to read, and I was missing that from this novel. Nothing motivated me to want to finish reading, other than the idea that I was going to eventually be done with it. And, after all of the time reading, the ending felt far too rushed, leaving you feeling a bit defeated for actually giving this entire novel a read.
It’s entertaining at times, especially at the end of the novel, but so much was left for interpretation that it felt like the author wasn’t sure what they wanted to write about. Some characters were interesting, Elitha, Tamsen, and Stanton being the most compelling, but most of the others felt pretty underdeveloped.
Overall, I just wasn’t a fan of this one. I can see why it has allure, but this one just wasn’t for me.
To put it plainly, there isn’t much here. Having recently read “The Indifferent Stars Above”, I knew the tale of the Donner Party, so I hesitantly went into this, knowing that it wasn’t going to be accurate. And that was absolutely a correct assumption - there were so many changes from the base party that it felt like this was just loosely inspired by the party, rather than the actual people. Granted, I understand that this is a fictionalization of the story, but it still felt a bit disrespectful to change these people so drastically.
I’m always down for a slow read, don’t get me wrong. But, with that, there needs to be something pushing me along to want to read, and I was missing that from this novel. Nothing motivated me to want to finish reading, other than the idea that I was going to eventually be done with it. And, after all of the time reading, the ending felt far too rushed, leaving you feeling a bit defeated for actually giving this entire novel a read.
It’s entertaining at times, especially at the end of the novel, but so much was left for interpretation that it felt like the author wasn’t sure what they wanted to write about. Some characters were interesting, Elitha, Tamsen, and Stanton being the most compelling, but most of the others felt pretty underdeveloped.
Overall, I just wasn’t a fan of this one. I can see why it has allure, but this one just wasn’t for me.
Man…
I wanted to like this one but it was so all over the place. When it was scary it was scary but when it slowed down it SLOOOOOWWWED down.
:/
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