Genre: Historical Fiction
Length: 416 pages
Audiobook Length: 10 hours and 34 minutes
First Published: 2018
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Rachael’s Review
Alma Katsu tells a fictional account of the real-life Donner Party but with a supernatural twist. As the pioneer company makes its way across the Great Plains to California, they are plagued by hardships as a sinister force seems to be brewing. With supplies running low and members disappearing, the group begins to wonder if evil has been residing among them all along. I was skeptical about adding a horror angle to a true tale, and though it was obviously a bit loose with historical accuracy, the overwhelming sense of dread made for a fun read.
Publisher’s Description
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.
Quotes from The Hunger
I don’t believe in monsters. Only men who behave like them.
But like many truths, no one wanted to hear it.
She was continually shocked by the fact that the others seemed to forget the obvious: that the mountains, like most beautiful things in this world, were deadly.
Evil was invisible, and it was everywhere.
About Alma Katsu
Alma Katsu is a former senior intelligence analyst and author of Red Widow, The Fervor, The Deep, The Hunger, and The Taker trilogy. She currently lives outside Washington, D.C. Visit the author’s website →
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