It is ok. The idea is promising, but just not executed well. It had me losing interest much of the time. ( )

I've heard such fantastic things about this author, but it seems I started with the wrong book. In truth, the more I think about this one, the less I like it, and that's never a good sign.

It's a page-turner through the first third--I have to give it that much. Early on, I was fully engaged and anxious to keep going, thinking it was a fantastic way to start off a new year of reading. But then things fizzled. One problem is the number of POV characters. There are so many POVs that, unique as they are, all of the main characters come across as somewhat superficial and undeveloped simply because of the sheer number of them. You may feel truly engaged by one, and then not come across it again for another sixty or seventy pages. Similarly, there are a number of chapters devoted to exploring particular characters' histories...but since we see so little of the characters in the present, and the backstory doesn't add much which couldn't be summed up quickly, all that backstory only separates us from the readers more, making it feel as if we're getting snapshots and ideas of who these people are rather than actually being allowed to engage with them.

But perhaps that brings us to the fact that, to Katsu's way of thinking/planning, these characters are based off of real people and real history. Unfortunately, my uncharitable view is that Katsu changed so much about the characters--oh, how I'd be mad if I were one of their ancestors!--and did so little justice to the actual history which supposedly inspired this book, that the only reason I can think for her to even bother connecting this book to the history is that she wanted to 'cash in' on the historical connection. I truly can't come up with any other rationale, much as I hate to say it, because the characters are so different and this could so easily have simply been fiction without any mention of history. And, it likely would have been better...after all, part fo the problem here is that the reader loosely knows what's coming because of the history Katsu supposedly focused on, which means that plot can only hold so much mystery. Leaving a reader to focus on character development and engagement, which doesn't get us very far.

All told, I'm not sure when (or if) I'll try Katsu again. The taste in my mouth from this book is, put bluntly, one of disrespect. That she disrespected the history and the real people involved by tying this book--this work of fiction--to their names and their tragedy. And when it comes right down to it, I'm not sure why I should support an author who'd do that when I have so many other choices demanding to be read.

Obviously, this isn't one I'd recommend. ( )

2.5 stars rounded up to 3 stars for sheer artistry.

The Hunger will be a great read for the right reader - if you like historical fiction with a bit of spookiness, or paranormal westerns, this book will probably be for you but it wasn't completely for me. I appreciated this novel but I did not love it.

With that being said The Hunger is a well written, well researched slow burn of a horror/historical fiction novel. In the prologue, set in April 1847, a team of rescuers sets out to find the last survivor of the expedition, Lewis Keseberg, but they locate only his abandoned cabin. “What looked like a human vertebra, cleaned of skin” and a “scattering of teeth” lie outside in the snow. Flash back to June 1846. George Donner is leading a wagon train to California. Those headed west often leave letters under rocks in the hope that an eastbound traveler will retrieve them and take them to the nearest post office. In one place, one of Donner’s teenage daughters finds hundreds of such letters, all with the ominous message: “Turn back or you will die.” Then a young boy disappears and is later found savagely mutilated, as if by an animal. The members of the party come to suspect that shape-changers are responsible for the carnage, and they encounter increasing challenges to their survival....The party states to discover further remains. One of their dogs tastes what little flesh remains, then bites his owner. And within little more than a week, the man will undergo a frightening transformation, from a meek, sickly individual to something aggressive, feral – and hungry. The identity of the creatures that have been trailing the wagon-train slide into focus: they are a form of lycanthrope (Lycanthropy is the mythological ability or power of a human being to undergo transformation into an animal like state, such as a werewolf) and they are deadly. As the party’s situation grows steadily worse, so does the creatures’ menace increase.

It is interesting that Katsu decides to opt out of making the lycanthrope a symbol for the Native Americans, but instead uses the ravenously hungry monsters as a trope for the appetites that drove many of the settlers to leave their homes and join the wagon train. The appetite or the "hunger" of the man-wolves symbolize the white man's desire to dominate women, to dominate land, to dominate others. I can appreciate this. To be honest, most of the men in the wagon party scared the shit out of me as they were as opposed them turning into man wolves. Many of the men were already brutes to begin with.

While the creatures' meance increase as our characters of the story glide to their inevitable fate, I never did feel the tension or the fear profoundly...maybe that's because I know the fate of the party? Maybe the thrill of horror is gone when you know the outcome (um, the party all dies)?

I must note the characterization of the book is completely well done (as stated I hated many of male characters - and I think that's to Katsu's credit), but sadly, I just didn't connect wholly to this one.

I enjoyed Alma Katsu's creativity, and despite my low rating for this book, I think Katsu is in fact a talented author who came up with a very intriguing novel. I just might not be a huge fan of historical fiction or paranormal westerns.

I'd love to hear your thoughts. ( )

I don't like rating books lower than 3 stars because of the amazon algorithm. Do not recommend! ( )

https://tamaranth.blogspot.com/2023/09/2023131-hunger-alma-katsu.html ( )