A review by roksanalyasin
Hater, by David Moody
2.0
I wouldn't say I enjoyed this book - 'enjoyed' isn't the right word - but it certainly was interesting. It's a different take on the viral apocalypse story which has become a favourite in recent years. Rather than people being infected, a percentage of the population is genetically predisposed to becoming a 'Hater'. Haters are paranoid, violent, and virtually remorseless - they recognise others like them and kill those who are 'unchanged', feeling like they have no other option.
Through Danny, the narrator, Moody gives us a unique insight into the mind of a Hater following his change in the latter half of the book. This is a particularly frightening scenario because, unlike with zombies, Danny and the other Haters retain their faculties - they think and feel and react accordingly, making them very dangerous. The violence in the story reflects this; interspersed throughout are short third person POV narratives documenting the sudden change of a person to a Hater and the attacks and deaths that follow. Some of these effectively generated suspense, others merely demonstrated what I found to be an odd obsession with the mutilation of male genitalia - I suspect some of these were meant to add a shock factor, and that they're designed particularly to unsettle a primarily male target audience.
I'm not sure if I'll read the other two books in the trilogy at this stage. When it comes to apocalyptic stories, I'm most interested in the discovery and explanation of the trigger and the survival stories that follow, and I don't think following Danny as a Hater is going to give me satisfactory versions of those.
Through Danny, the narrator, Moody gives us a unique insight into the mind of a Hater following his change in the latter half of the book. This is a particularly frightening scenario because, unlike with zombies, Danny and the other Haters retain their faculties - they think and feel and react accordingly, making them very dangerous. The violence in the story reflects this; interspersed throughout are short third person POV narratives documenting the sudden change of a person to a Hater and the attacks and deaths that follow. Some of these effectively generated suspense, others merely demonstrated what I found to be an odd obsession with the mutilation of male genitalia - I suspect some of these were meant to add a shock factor, and that they're designed particularly to unsettle a primarily male target audience.
I'm not sure if I'll read the other two books in the trilogy at this stage. When it comes to apocalyptic stories, I'm most interested in the discovery and explanation of the trigger and the survival stories that follow, and I don't think following Danny as a Hater is going to give me satisfactory versions of those.