Reviews with content warning for Gore - The Hunger

Reviews tagging 'Gore'

randeerebecca's review

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

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nnelsonaut's review

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dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Not for the faint of heart, but a fascinating and imaginative retelling of the Donner Party. If you know that history, you'll *technically* know how it ends, but the way Katsu gets there, her answer to "how?" is quite compelling and twisty. And suitably horrific. She's a marvellous writer.

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thegayestghost's review

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dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

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phantomgecko's review

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challenging dark sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Gruesome twist on a true story. I'm not overly acquainted with the true story, so I don't feel like I was able to appreciate this book as much as perhaps I could have.

Adding a wendigo vibe to a tale of cannibalism isn't exactly groundbreaking, but it was still interesting. I don't feel like all the questions were answered sufficiently. Specifically I feel the part of the story with Edwin Bryant felt unfinished.

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esterie's review against another edition

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dark tense slow-paced

Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

well, there's an interesting story in here somewhere, i guess.

first off, i think historical fiction based on real events, involving real people, really isn't my cup of tea. the fictionalization of real people struck me as kind of.... dehumanizing. as netti90 said in their review (oh how i wish we could like reviews on here!): "I think it just weirds me out when real people are fictionalized because they actually existed."

tamsen being in love with her brother and being a "witch", a tryst between reed and snyder, the romance between stanton and mary

... these were real people, and man.... that just don't sit right with me treating them like characters.

second, the pacing was not great. a fair few great horror elements early on, with large swathes of boring droll in between and unnecessary "backstory" for certain characters, some of which served the narrative literally not at all. after reading up on the true account of the donner party whilst reading this, there's really no reason a book about their journey, even a fictionalized horror book, should be boring. but it was. i kept looking at my percentage read and feeling the sunk cost fallacy more and more. and the sheer number of "characters"! i take notes while reading (memory issues) and even then i kept having to search the book for names thinking 'who tf are you???'. keeping track of who was who, who was married into certain families, who was hired help, etc. was tedious. i know the donner party was large, but damn i felt like didn't know half these people when they were mentioned, they were integrated into the story so poorly.

how i imagined the story to go, before i started, would be to follow a fictional family on this journey, and their observations of the events. i think that would have fit so much better. OR, take this concept of a blood-born disease that fills one with an insatiable rage and hunger, and center it on a (fictional!!!) pioneer family. 10 people max. something stalking outside their cabin, cattle going missing, people acting weird, getting sick. all much smaller scale, but i think it would have been so so SO much more effective!!!

on the horror element btw, i was expecting it to be more of a skinwalker story. one very vicious malevolent entity sneaking into the group, changing appearance, sowing chaos. instead it was an.....

infectious.... rabid..... werewolf?

..... situation. hmm. okay then. the lil bit of gore there was, was good, very visceral and graphic, but just not.... quite what i hoped.

some plot points were just left up in the air? when

elitha started hearing whispers

i thought "oh like those native american stories, this is gonna spread amongst the group!" but no. she's just special like that i guess.

at least from this i heard about "The Indifferent Stars Above", which i've promptly added to my tbr. still jonesing for a good skinwalker horror story, unfortunately.

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narbine's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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glassflowrr's review

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Solid story with some amazing moments of terror and gore. I really enjoyed the pacing. There are a few too many POV characters to keep track of and some aren't very well-developed as voices, but the good ones are very interesting to be with.

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