REVIEW: Hater by: David Moody

Society is rocked by a sudden increase in the number of violent assaults on individuals. Christened ‘Haters’ by the media, the attackers strike without warning, killing all who cross their path.

As a hundred random attacks become a thousand, then hundreds of thousands, it soon becomes clear that everyone irrespective or race, class or any other difference, has the potential to become a victim, or a Hater.

People are afraid to go to work, afraid to leave their homes, and, increasingly, afraid that at any moment their friends, even their closest family, could turn on them with ultra violent intent. Waking up each morning, no matter how well defended, everyone must now consider the fact that by the end of the day, they might be dead. Or become a killer themselves. As the status quo shifts, ‘attack first asks questions later’ becomes the order of the day, only; the answer might be far different than what you expect!

The first comment to be made about this book is whether or not the Haters in this book could be classified as a zombie or anything related to the undead. The Haters could think for themselves but they are not able to control their urges to kill those who are not Haters.

It’s a difficult thing to think because just like zombies, these Haters are able to fully control their emotions as opposed to the zombie not having any emotions what so ever. But I have heard by a various amount of reviewers that they would consider this a zombie novel and that is why I am going to review it anyways. (Even though I do not completely consider this a zombie novel.)

Plot: The plot is this book was very good. I enjoyed reading this book because the plot was unpredictable, fresh and it made for a tantalizing read. David Moody utilized a lot of elements of sounds and certain senses to really convey a creepy atmosphere within the book.

The development of tension throughout the book was fantastically woven and I applaud his ability to do this. This book has one of the best uses of tension I have ever seen; it was genuinely eerie and quite creepy. The premise itself is creative and it makes for a riveting story. Although it reminds me a little like “Blood Crazy” by Simon Clarke. ( except for the age thing)

Characters: The characters were kind of average but this was Moody’s intentions. Moody wanted to create characters that were perfectly relatable to the reader and he did this well. The main character was created to relate to a very wide range of readers because it is the average Joe, just trying to survive in every day life. For a large portion of the book, he delves into some character development and he did this very well. I really felt a strong connection for the main character. (Bravo to the author) The other characters on the other hand are a little dull, I hope he goes into some stronger development of the secondary characters along with the main character to add some texture to the story.

Pace: The story starts at a very slow pace, because he was trying to lay a foundation for the character’s life before the shit hits the fan. This is great to see because not very many authors do this anymore. Create scenes involving some of your pivotal characters BEFORE everything goes to hell, so that you can see how their lives change in comparison to the chapters before. It adds a really nice realistic element to the story that also helps with the character development. Not very many authors do this, and again I applaud moody for doing it!

Gore: In this story there is little to no gore. The author is veering away from a gore driven story and he is sticking with building onto a creepy atmosphere, as opposed to loading the pages with gore to please the reader. If you are looking for a book loaded with gore, this is not the book for you.

Realism: This book seems to keep a lot of things in check when it comes to realism. It is a realistic read (which works well with his realistically drawn main character) that does have a very creepy atmosphere to it.

Writing: The writing itself is something I am not very impressed with. I felt the author avoided a lot of the descriptive aspects of writing this story and mainly focused on the plot moving scenes. He could have added a bit more descriptive text. I have read Autumn from David Moody and I liked how he described certain things in that book, he did it delicately and it was really vivid. Now its like the author changed his writing style, and it was easily identifiable in his word choice and the lack of descriptive scenes. I read this book before I read Autumn, and when I read Autumn after reading Hater, it was like the two books weren’t even from the same author. Even when authors try to write with a different tone, they don’t veer too far away from their original writing style, but Moody’s style for Hater was so vastly different than that of Autumn. Now I doubt that these two books were written by two different authors, but something has definitely changed. I felt that the writing was lacklustre in Hater and it lacked a creative touch.

Overall: the book was an enjoyable read. The tension throughout the book was directed very well and it helped convey a eerie atmosphere. The main character is a very relatable average Joe, but all the secondary characters lack depth. The writing is lacklustre and needs a stronger creative touch, especially when it comes to the descriptive text. This was a fun read, despite my comments about the writing, it was a good piece of horror, and I recommend it for any horror fan.

Available at Amazon