The Hunger

Our Review

The Hunger by Alma Katsu is based on the true story of the journey of the ‘Donner party’ from Illinois to California. I knew this when I set out to read it, so I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it not only fell into the category of historical fiction but also that of supernatural thriller. 

In 1846 the Donner and Reed family set out on a perilous journey from Illinois to California, a journey that would end with most of that party dead.

Along the way they joined up with a larger wagon train and continued the journey together. They encountered severe bad weather and near starvation many times.

Then children started to go missing and the small party began to turn on each other with suspicion.

The prologue of The Hunger is set in April 1847 and talks of the bad weather the previous Winter.

“A couple of Paiutes even said they’d seen a crazy white man who had managed to survive through the god-awful winter, skimming over the frozen lake like a ghost.

That had to be their man: a fellow named Lewis Keesburg. The last known survivor of the Donner Party tragedy. The Salvage group had been sent out to find Keesburg and bring him back alive, if at all possible.”

The prologue is certainly intriguing and eerie but some of the book itself doesn’t live up to this. There are lost of areas that are full of suspense but also a large amount of the book where it is necessary for the author to character build or to describe historical details necessary for the plot.

One of the creepiest elements of the plot for me came during the prologue when the salvage group come upon a cabin in the woods.

“Several unexpected items lay discarded in the snow: a pocket prayer book, a ribbon bookmark fluttering in the breeze.

A scattering of teeth.

What looked like a human vertebrae, cleaned of skin.”

The book is told in split narrative form and features many key characters from the real Donner Party. On the one hand this enables the reader to associate with the characters and to care about the events of the book but on the other hand it can sometimes interrupt the flow of the story.

Whilst the party are on their journey a boy goes missing and what is left of the boy is just the beginning of a very dark tale.

Some believe that wolves are to blame, other people’s prejudices against the Indians lead them to suggest it is some kind of local ritual. Rumours suggest Indian skinwalkers are to blame or witchcraft. But it the answer closer to home. After all, how well do they know the people they live among when they were mostly strangers prior to starting their journey.

Things become more tense when the weather turns and the psychological tension of it all begins to get to them and they start to turn on one another. The rich on the poor, the weak on the powerful and so on.

Then there are the strange humanlike creatures that appear to be following them.

Where will it all end?

Our Final Rating...

Mon, 12th March 2018