The Hunger
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The Hunger
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Narrated by:
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Kirsten Potter
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Written by:
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Alma Katsu
About this listen
"Supernatural suspense at its finest...The best thing about The Hunger is that it will scare the pants off you."—The New York Times Book Review
"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 fascinating historical moments: 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. They cannot seem to escape tragedy...or the feelings that someone—or something—is stalking them. Whether it's a curse from the beautiful Tamsen Donner (who some think might be a witch), their ill-advised choice of route through uncharted terrain, or just plain bad luck, the ninety men, women, and children of the Donner Party are heading into one of 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.
©2018 Alma Katsu (P)2018 Penguin AudioWhat the critics say
An NPR Best Horror Novel
A Suspense Magazine Best Book of the Year
Winner of the Western Heritage Award
Finalist for the Bram Stoker Award
Finalist for the Locus Award
And one of...
The New York Times's 50 States, 50 Scares Picks
O, The Oprah Magazine's Scariest Books of All Time
Women's Republic's Ten Horror Books by Women to Read This October
TODAY.com's 13 Scary Books, From Classics to Modern Fiction, to Read for Halloween
AARP Magazine's 20 Scary Books for Grownups
Forbes's The Five Best Horror Books of 2018-2019
Vulture’s 13 Great Horror Books Written by Women
Refinery29's 20 Terrifying Books for When You've Already Read All The Spooky Season Classics
BookRiot's 15 Favorite Historical Thrillers
BookRiot's 9 Great Camping Horror Books
BookRiot's Best Horror Books of the Decade
The Observer's Best Books of 2018
InsideHook's New Wester Canon Selections
Mental Floss’ 13 Essential Horror Novels From The Last Five Years
Goodreads’ The Most Popular Horror Novels of the Past Five Years
Shondaland’s 16 Spine-Tingling Reads for Halloween
Men’s Health’s Best Horror Books
“Supernatural suspense at its finest...It is strangely ethereal, yet gritty...But the best thing about The Hunger is that it will scare the pants off you....Enjoy the journey, one so entertaining that you almost don't mind feeling queasy at dinner.”—The New York Times Book Review
"Not only will Alma Katsu's acclaimed novel haunt you, it will give you empathy for the people forced to undergo such horrors."—O, The Oprah Magazine
“Katsu shows an acute understanding of human nature.…[She] is at her best when she forces her readers to stare at the almost unimaginable meeting of ordinary people and extraordinary desperation, using her sharp, haunting language.”—USA Today
What listeners say about The Hunger
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Andrea H.
- 2022-11-22
Chilling Account of the Donner Party
This was definitely a glimpse into the reality of our history. A bit gory but good storyline with an unexpected twist at the end.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Karen
- 2019-11-30
Not what I expected
Like many people, I'm fascinated by the story of the Donner Party. Also a fan of horror fiction, I was looking forward to this adaptation of the Donner story. The author took a bit too much license, in my opinion. I understand the author was asked to write the story as the basis for a future screenplay. However, I found it more like a soap-opera drama rather than horror. There was not much creepy atmosphere or build-up to the real action. And when it came it was nothing really shocking or scary. Just okay.
The narrator was just okay, too. She was reading with an attitude and sounded contemptuous when narrating simple descriptions of characters and events. Strange.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- A
- 2019-05-11
a good historical horror story
this is not the typical type of book I would read it, but the fact that it is historical fiction and a western theme made it more accessible. the story was very interesting and well laid out. the characters are also different from what you would typically expect. although I don't think that the ending was the best. Good narration
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Johannah
- 2019-08-25
Fun listen
fun but predictable story. author tries to drag out the supposed plot-twists for too long. It could have been a shorter novel. Parts of it feel unnecessarily salacious like the author is trying to rely on drama rather than talent as a writer to create a more interesting story. It could have been a better story if it played more with the subtleties and the depths of fear as the wagon train progressed. instead it relied on constant flash backs that revealed the dramatic pasts of each character. these flash backs sometimes gave us insight into the character's psychology but usually just felt like a ploy to add more "juicy details" so that it ended up as a wagon train filled with the most interesting people in the world... in the 1800s.... it was a bit over the top in that sense.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Cat Street Art
- 2021-07-15
Absolutely worth a read
What a refreshing and engaging read! I am left thinking about the fate of the characters, rooting for even the most heinous. For those interested look up the Donner Party, it is interesting to see how the book is rooted in history.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Kaitlyn Vetters
- 2024-05-08
Very engaging, loved the ending.
Very good horror suspense. Paints an amazing story, the dynamics between characters is so well build. The ending was shocking yet still believable and seemed to be the perfect end to a great book.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Greg at 2 Book Lovers Reviews
- 2019-02-16
4.5 Stars! Who's the real monster?
History is filled with many fabulous stories that can skillfully be turned into fictional horror. The less we know, the fewer the survivors, the more horrific the actions of the participants, all the more readily we are to accept the involvement of evil.
The Donner Party’s trek across America in 1846 wasn’t really all that long ago, not even 175 years. The events are fairly well-documented, the survival rate above fifty percent, not bad considering, but what those people had to do to survive…Katsu took this story and brought it to life. She delved into the nitty gritty details of life on the wagon train. The image that I think we all have is of the flat plains that roll across the country. I always forget that the most difficult part of this voyage would have been the Rocky Mountains. The true trials would have been during the last half of that voyage. Katsu played off of this, creating a monster to instill fear in all of us.
I love how Katsu kept her casting to the historical records, it lends a certain plausibility/possibility to her story. She changed perspectives during the story so that her audience could get the full picture of events, a peek into everyone’s head.
My experience of The Hunger was through the audiobook. I found that the narrator did an excellent job. Kirsten Potter enhanced the creepy factor to an already eerie story.
Listening to The Hunger, I was constantly pulled back to the feeling that I had while reading The Terror. What’s funny (peculiar, not ha-ha) is that these two events are so similar while completely different and only a year apart. This was a time of exploration, when people thought they were masters of the world. Although, in both of these stories Mother Nature showed them who was really in charge – something she still likes to do from time to time.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Trevor
- 2018-06-13
Good story
The best thing about the book was the narrator. Ms. Potter is excellent. The story itself was very good. I will listen to other books by this author and will look for other books narrated by Ms. Potter.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Debbie
- 2019-07-14
Great listen!
I throughly enjoyed this book from the very beginning to the last word.
1 con - SHOULD HAVE BEEN LONGER! I didn't want it to end yet.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 2020-04-11
Good story
I was originally buying this book as a hard cover as a gift. After googling top rated scary books, I found this as the top choice. I have to say that, even though, the story was really good and different from what I usually read, I did not find this book scary..at times I was bored of it. The ending didn’t seem to tie everything together. I had to re-listen to some parts of the book to connect the dots.
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