The Hunger is not a fast-paced book where people run into monsters right away, or you're kept in suspense about who will live and who will die. In this case, though, she's using real people. Like King, she frequently does this even for characters who are about to die. But like King, she fleshes out her characters with backstories describing what their lives were like before, why they're here, and what deep, dark secrets they're carrying. I jokingly called this 'The Oregon Trail written by Stephen King,' but that's kind of unfair to Alma Katsu, who has her own writing style which is quite smooth and descriptive and also suitable for the time period. They lost many of their cattle and provisions, some families were already low on food when they reached the mountains, and when the group was trapped over the winter, nearly half perished, with some of the survivors resorting to cannibalism.

The Donner-Reed party, made up of several families totaling about 90 people, was at the tail end of a much larger wagon train, but they decided to take an alternate route, called the Hastings Cutoff. The Donner-Reed party was a group of pioneers traveling west to California who were stuck in what became known as Donner Pass in the winter of 1846.Įven today, the Donner Pass can be a perilous drive in the winter. The Hunger retells the infamous story of the Donner Party, with a supernatural twist. 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.Įffortlessly combining the supernatural and the historical, The Hunger is an eerie, thrilling look at the volatility of human nature, pushed to its breaking point. 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 90 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. They cannot seem to escape tragedy.or the feelings that someone - or something - is stalking them. 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. Depleted rations, bitter quarrels, and the mysterious death of a little boy have driven the isolated travelers to the brink of madness.

That is the only way to explain the series of misfortunes that have plagued the wagon train known as the Donner Party. A tense and gripping reimagining of one of America's most fascinating historical moments: the Donner Party with a supernatural twist.Įvil is invisible, and it is everywhere.

Alma katsu the hunger