The Hunger

Starred review from January 1, 2018
Katsu (The Taker) injects the supernatural into this brilliant retelling of the ill-fated Donner Party. In the prologue, set in April 1847, a team of rescuers sets out to find the last survivor of the expedition, Lewis Keseberg, but they locate only his abandoned cabin. “What looked like a human vertebra, cleaned of skin” and a “scattering of teeth” lie outside in the snow. Flash back to June 1846. George Donner is leading a wagon train to California. Those headed west often leave letters under rocks in the hope that an eastbound traveler will retrieve them and take them to the nearest post office. In one place, one of Donner’s teenage daughters finds hundreds of such letters, all with the ominous message: “Turn back or you will die.” Then a young boy disappears and is later found savagely mutilated, as if by an animal. The members of the party come to suspect that shape-changers are responsible for the carnage, and they encounter increasing challenges to their survival. Fans of Dan Simmons’s The Terror will find familiar and welcome chills. Author tour. Agent: Richard Pine, Inkwell Management.

Alma Katsu adds suspense and horror to her supernatural account of the tragedy of the Donner Party, a group of American pioneers who set out for California in 1846 and ended up snowed in for months in the Sierra Nevadas. Narrator Kirsten Potter adds variety to the many different characters. Her voice is quiet yet mysterious when describing the rugged terrain and urgent and attention-grabbing during the most disturbing moments, when hungry, deranged men take over and people disappear. Potter depicts the eminence and points of view of leaders George Donner and James Reed, effectively portraying their differing personality traits. Other outstanding portrayals include Tamsen Donner, George's wife; Mary Graves, a young woman traveling with her family; and Charles Stanton, a traveling bachelor. D.Z. � AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine