Reviews tagging 'Violence'

The Hunger by Alma Katsu

67 reviews

dark tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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dark reflective slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Alma Katsu is a great writer, I can't deny that, but I was mostly ambivalent about this book the entire way through. it was slow, and a bit boring, and actually really light on the horror. If you're going to write horror fiction based on a real event that was already horrifying enough without monsters and spirits, well, add more of that.

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

This had the drama of a domestic thriler, the creeping dread of a quiet horror, and the high-stakes of a survival horror. Learning a bit about the Donner party while reading added to the experience for me (knowing what happened to who, what was accurate, what the author changed). It also helped keep all the characters straight (‘cause there are a lot of them).
 
Energy: Foreboding. Rash. Harried.
 
🐕 Howls: The book flipped between first and last names at times, which was annoying until I was familiar with everyone.

🐩 Tail Wags: Encouraged me to learn more about the Donner party & frontier life. The mix of paranormal dread horror and the horror of desperate, petty, selfish humans turning on each other. The pressure cooker of survival, power struggles, and groupthink. Entertaining secrets, tension, sketchy people, obnoxious families, simmering resentments, social dysfunction (I wanted some of these people to get eaten 😆). Atmospheric. Exploring character motivations and backstories. Entertaining storytelling, didn’t drag on or get cartoony. 

Scene: 🇺🇸 Western USA
Perspectives (multiple): Various characters on the journey including single adventurers, grieving widows, entire families, people fleeing their pasts, and people met along the way. We also read letters characters wrote or sent.
Timeline: Linear. 1846-1847. ☀️ 🥶 Summer heat to winter chills.
Narrative: Overhearing thoughts and feelings, being told a story (third person omniscient and bits of epistolary letters). 
Fuel: Getting to know the group dynamics and personalities. Drama bombs, power battles, and secrets. Creeping dread. Is something stalking the group? Who or what is it? 
Cred: Speculative realism
 
Mood Reading Match-Up:
Melting snow. Piney air. Human vertebra. Prairie grass. Fiddle. Children’s laughter. Stagnant puddles. Hungry whispers. 
  • Gritty, direct writing style
  • Mix of flawed, foolish, questionable, rude, self-righteous, unlikeable characters
  • Historical horror rooted in real events
  • Books to read by a campfire at night
  • Paranormal folklore
  • Claustrophobic group dynamics
  • Men are the real horror 
  • Body swapping / contagion / skinwalker energy
  • Old-timey road trip gone wrong
  • Saviour romance elements
  • Family burdens, guilt, and moral unraveling
  • Gossip, politics, petty bickering social experiment
  • Play stupid games, win stupid prizes frontier edition
 
Content Heads-Up: Animal death (dog, oxen). Blackmail. Cannibalism. Colonization. Corpses. Guns, gun violence. Homophobia (closeted, violence, slurs, internalized). Incest (child abuse). Infidelity. Loss of child. Misogyny. Physical violence (fights). Racism (against Indigenous peoples). Rape (attempted). Religious abuse. Religious persecution. Sexual assault (of minors; on page). Sexual harassment. Starvation. Suicidal ideation, attempt (descriptive). Suicide. Theft. Vomit. 

Rep: American. German American. Belgian American. Indigenous (Paiute, Washoe, Miwok, Sashona). Cis. Hetero. Gay. Chalk white, caramel, pale, and fair skin tones. Christian. Mormon. Catholic. 
 
📚 Format: Library Digital
 
My musings 💖 powered by puppy snuggles 🐶

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

CW: ALL of them, jeez 

What an odd book... VERY dark. I didn't NOT like it, but it was very interesting. A supernatural twist on the Donner Party incident. Slow burn character dynamics, development,  and intrigue with bursts of chaos. The timeline is so wild and jumps around. Multiple POVs, and even the way we get POVs changes. It will go from present day POV, to POV of someone writing a letter of what happened, then POV of someone's flashback. Very wild and disorienting, but to me it feels intentional and adds to the chaos and feeling of unease. 

There are so many loose ends that I can't tell if I am upset that I didn't get closure or if I should give props to the author for leaving the reader with a sense of unfinished unease that will never rest. 

I don't even know who I would recommend this book to. It is a slow burn with lots of suffering, so it is difficult to recommend that kind of story. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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dark mysterious slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Not worth the time. Let down ending.

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dark sad tense
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

La puntuación que le pongo es un poco mentirosa. A ver: es un libro entretenido? Si. Le da una vuelta de tuerca a la historia verdadera de la expedición Donner? También. Tiene personajes con los que uno engancha? Asimismo.
Mi principal problema con este libro es ue le falta desarrollo y cuando llega al climax de la historia se siente endeble, especialmente siendo una historia tan terrorífica. 
Capaz que mi problema es haber pensado que sería algo parecido a The Terror de Dan Simmons.
Igualmente es un buen libro si uno necesita una historia con gancho para pasar el rato.

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