Something’s causing ordinary people to abruptly explode with homicidal rage in David Moody’s novel Hater. The phenomenon is inexplicable, unpredictable and growing more widespread with every passing day. As government and military authorities struggle to maintain control in the face of escalating violence, low-level civil servant Danny McCoyne and his family seek shelter, only to learn they can trust no one; not even each other.
Hater is a fast-moving, tense piece of fiction that yanks readers out of their armchairs and flings them with maximum force into a paranoid world of bloody, explosive violence. It’s just the kind of thing that you would expect from Moody, whose Autumn series already ranks highly with fans of apocalyptic fiction.
I recently asked the author to share seven reasons why readers should give Hater a chance.
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Certain aspects of the worldwide horror market seem pretty stagnant right now. We seem to be drowning in a sea of pointless remakes, endless sequels and cheap ‘torture porn’ flicks where the gore level’s high but the scares are few and far between. Hater is something new and original, but at the same time it taps into a universal fear. You’ll hear the book being compared to King’s Cell, the 28 Days / Weeks Later films, The Signal etc. etc. Ignore the comparisons—this is different.
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The horror in Hater doesn’t stem from ghosts, demons, monsters, inter-dimensional beings or outer space… it comes from other people. Ordinary people. You and me and everyone else we know. The Hate becomes the new division; the great leveller. Forget about all other differences… sex, age, beliefs, culture, politics… they all count for nothing now.
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In some ways this is a very British book, but its themes (and its horror) are identifiable to everyone. Theoretically, this could happen anywhere there are two or more people together. It’s frightening enough thinking about that in the UK where our population is around 60 million. In the US there are more than 300 million people…
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This is very much a book of the moment. The world feels balanced on a knife-edge right now. The world’s in turmoil, much of its infrastructure screwed. The US is entering a new era under new leadership. Everyone’s counting on it all working out well. Hater shows what could happen if things continue to deteriorate…
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This is the story of the end of the world told through the eyes of the ordinary man on the street. There are no superheroes, no scientific geniuses, no heroic battle-scarred soldiers… just an ordinary guy trying to keep his head down and protect his family like the rest of us.
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All of this aside, at its black heart Hater is a damn good story, told in a relentless, fast-moving style. It’ll drag you in by the end of the first page and won’t let you go until it’s finished.
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Hater has gone from being a small, self-published novel to a major international book release. It’s been sold to many countries and the film rights were bought by Guillermo del Toro. The movie is in pre-production with J. A. Bayona (The Orphanage) to direct. The story of the book itself is almost as bizarre as the story it tells! With the UK and US release this is a chance to get right in at the start!
