Hater

Reminded me of Stephen King 's The Stand, at least at the beginning . Can't wait to read the the second book!

Sundays are when I normally visit my parents. And when I do, it's also the time when I'm forced to watch the 24 hours news programs for that's the only time such things as Fox News are ever viewed by myself). On these shows, I see things that makes the events of Hater by David Moody seem so apt, so now, so real. Hater is a riff on the ever popular zombie genre and includes many themes and devices employed by that medium, but does so in a paranoid way that really speaks to today. Hater begins with a first person account of someone walking on the street and deep in thought. Suddenly, he spots a woman through the crowd and freaks out; he knows she wants to kill him and so, overwhelmed with emotion, he charges her and bashes her head into the wall over and over again. The woman? A grandmother; an elderly person who couldn't harm a fly.Moody then quickly puts us in the shoes of his everyman protagonist, Danny. What's interesting is Moody's concept of an everyman: he's stuck in a dead end job, with a horrible boss and in a situation that will remind readers of the protagonist in the film Wanted. He goes from his job to his house where his kids are incredibly loud and obnoxious, his relationship with his wife is one you could describe as strained even though they love each other. All of it is written from the first person perspective, giving us a glimpse of Danny's interior monologue which is at times disturbing and other times incredibly sad and sometimes pathetic.Interspersed with sections involving his daily life and seeing what's happening to the world from his small perspective, we're given glimpses of horrific things happening to people in the world. In each case, someone turns on another person and murders him or her. Soon, the events start to escalate and, like a zombie novel, fear and paranoia run rampant, people start to isolate themselves and the really bad stuff starts to happen. The narrative takes a right turn though towards the end of the book and while I wouldn't call it a twist, it definitely twists the story into something more than what I thought it would be.By the end of the novel, I wasn't so sure what to think about the two sides that started to emerge. In fact, I think the strength of this narrative is better expressed than some simply due to the first person perspective. As the novel goes into different directions, it's still grounded by our protagonist and his personal story, one that we are vicariously living through, whether we want to or not.One of the strengths of this genre is to showcase societal ills in a way that's alarming and terrifying. I think I can say the following without spoiling anything that one of the aims in this type of story is to show that both sides are the same. One might be denoted as "Haters" or "zombies" or something else, and the other as "human" or "normal," but underneath when push comes to show it's "us" versus "them." It's the philosophical story of "the other" that I've mentioned before in my review of  Breathers: A Zombie's Lament , where a group will demonize/dehumanize a second group of individuals, furthering the justification to exploit the group.But in the case of Hater, who is "the other?"

In the post-apocalyptic world of HATER, there are two groups of people: 'Us' and 'Them.' This striking contrast between the 'Haters' and the ones who are being 'Hated,' while initially something that seems very simple, creates for very dynamic tension early on in the book.HATER begins as most apocalypses do--before it begins. Our main character, Daniel, is a government worker who hates his job, hates his position in life and is constantly having to deal with his oftentimes-overbearing children. He and his wife's relationship is suffering, his relationship with his father-in-law in less-than-stellar, and his overall quality of life is suffering due to his living situation. A house too small, a job too mundane, and a family almost in constant turmoil serves to make life one thing--misery.However--when a calamity strikes the world, thrusts the populace head-over-heels and creates a violent strain of violent outbreaks that may or may not be disease-related, Daniel, and his family's, world changes--for the worse.HATER is everything that anyone could ever want in an apocalypse novel. Fast-paced, intense, visceral--there's no lack of violence and tension in this book. It moves at a breakneck pace that makes it almost impossible to put down. I found myself glued to my seat (while at the airport) and transfixed (while reading before bed) at the brutal world that David Moody created in HATER. The speed of which the novel moves is, in my opinion, probably the best thing about it. Unlike a lot of apocalypse novels, which slow to a low lull in order to introduce certain aspects of the apocalyptic scenario, HATER never stops. The world, and the condition it is in, is quickly revealed in a rapid-fire succession, making the book constantly exciting and engrossing. My only qualm about the book is more of a personal one than one that stabs at Mr. Moody's writing. There comes a point in the novel where we are introduced to a Hater's psychology, and though the transformation from one who's Hated into a Hater seems to be a quick and sudden process, the act in which it happens is never really explained. As someone who loves reading about that sort of transformation, I would have loved to see that expanded upon. That still may happen in book 2 and 3 though, so I'm not going to discount it as a possibility.In a nutshell, HATER is brilliant. Fast-paced, utterly-engrossing, absolutely-terrifying--this book is impossible to put down. A definite to-read for any apocalyptic fiction fan.

As people get angrier and road rage happens daily, this book tells the story of people living in fear. Its live or die, the Haters v the others.Working for local government, he had a mundane job, working 9-5 to support his wife and 3 kids. Danny hated confrontation and as the trouble started he tried to keep himself and his family safe. Written in 3rd person POV, it was easy to follow Danny’s story. There were times when you realised just how despondent Danny was, a family that didn’t appreciate him, a boring job with a boss who was on a constant power trip and cracks begin to show in his life.The book starts off with an unexplained attack, violent and unprovoked. As the story continues you get introduced to the Haters. A group of people that just snap, attacking anyone they feel a threat. No explanation why, their attitude “Kill them before they get killed”. As more people turn the violence escalates and some of the deaths are quite ingenious. This was a quick read as I wanted to find out what caused the change. As the army began to move in the story became more urgent and it was a story of survival. The story keeps building to the end and slowly things are started to be explained. Ending on a cliff hanger, I will have to buy book 2 to find out what happened.As I was reading this I did start to think of what I would do if this really happened and possible it will be a form of discussion with the children instead of what if there was a zombie outbreak.

Just a thoroughly outstanding book. Well written and the pacing is incredible. I raced through itI've seen some people complain about the way it's written, so it may not be for everyone. But it was definitely for meAll I would say is that I found the change in narration jarring at first but I quickly grew accustomed to it and then enjoyed it as it led to expectations about what was going to happen and when.It followed the classic old school horror method of James Herbert and Shaun Hutson. If you're a fan of those authors then you should definitely pick this up.Can't wait to read the next in the series

Who is near you right now? A stranger? Your partner? Your child? Your mother? Imagine that at any moment they could suddenly attack you in a fit of violence, for no visible reason. No warning, no explanation, just a murderous attack from anyone at any time. The Haters are all around, you have no idea who they are until they attack. Neither do they.It could be anyone. Complete strangers, those closest to you, your taxi driver, your doctor, the nun you pass on the street.It could be you.David Moody's Hater is an tour-de-force of fear and paranoia with some social commentary thrown in for good measure. The protagonist is about as far from the cliché'd hero as you can get - a distinctly average man who is miserable in his marriage, fed up with his kids, and can barely afford to stay afloat. Mr. Moody portrays the modern life brilliantly, the unfulfilling ritual daily grind of our protagonist with the rise of the Haters playing out in the background of their lives slowly getting harder to ignore.Give Hater a read and see for yourself, my description cannot do it justice. The end of the book leaves you thirsty to know what happens next, so much so that I would recommend buying the second book (and possibly the third!) when you buy Hater, just to save yourself time! Have you ordered it yet? No? Why not!?

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and was glad that I bought it together with the follow up, Dog Blood, so that I could get straight on with the story once I finished this one!The central character, Danny, is someone you really feel for as the world around him just crumbles, and there is absolutely nothing he can do about it. It's a thought-provoking book, and for a long time after reading it, I was oddly thankful for having the 'normality' of the kids arguing, day to day life being boring or being short of money!!!

The thing about this is, its not a bad book at all, the premise is excellent and the first few chapters build the tension brilliantly, the trouble is the author seems to think we all need descriptions of how this "doesn't make sense" or how the "media is lying to us" every two seconds, its clear he's trying to get across a political message in between his writing but when you spell out the political message because you don't trust your audience to 'catch on' it says gives the impression he's putting in the message purely for the sake of it, like its the 'cool' thing to do, Brett Eastern Ellis's American Psycho adopts the same method of underlying themes, such as the attack on 80's wall street, but assumes its audience is clever enough to catch on, which we are! The second half of the book also seems to fall a little flat, as if he didn't actually know where to take it once the 'Haters' had been certified as a threat, also, where does the character's resentment of them come from, he knows that its an illness which turns people insane, and they can't help but succumb to it, but even so he says things like "I hope the bastards get what they deserve," which comes out of nowhere, its seems Moody is trying to build up a psychologically intense atmosphere, but skips the diagnosis and cuts to the mental breakdown.