Hater
David Moody
272 pp. Thomas Dunne. $21.95
Pub. Date: 2/17/2009
ISBN-13: 978-0312384838
Reviewed by Paul Stotts
It’s a normal day in suburbia. Bright and sunny; the smell of lemon freshener in the air. You’re at home, relaxing, a chorus of dogs barking outside, your spouse happily chit-chatting. Your mind wanders. Only for a few moments. Maybe just a few seconds. But long enough.
Long enough to be confused by the sudden silence, an eerie silence. The air’s suddenly pregnant with tension, thick with it.
You look at your spouse, searching for a clue, looking to understand. Hoping the answer to the silence lies in a loved one’s eyes. But when you look in their eyes, you aren’t greeted by love. You’re greeted by terror, a face filled with fear. A face filled with hate. Puzzled, you’re taken off-guard when your spouse suddenly lunges at you, grabbing a nearby kitchen knife. And starts stabbing you. Furiously. Fighting like a cornered animal. A whirling dervish of arms, glistening steel, and blood.
Your blood.
And you wonder—why? As the knife repeatedly slices your flesh—why? As you bleed out on your living room floor—why? As you look into your spouse’s eyes one final time, grasping to understand the betrayal, before the light dims. To understand how this person can go from honey—to Hater.
It’s not a normal day in suburbia. Or downtown, or in the countryside. Violent incidents are increasing, daily. Exponentially. People are being attacked randomly, maybe by a stranger, maybe by a loved one, all the assailants dubbed Haters by the media. It’s an epidemic, of violence, of hate. And no one seems to know why.
David Moody masterfully plays upon a multitude of primal fears in his new novel “Hater.” Fears about isolation, ignorance, random inexplicable violence, betrayal, and mass hysteria. It’s us against them in a race of kill or be killed. An endless cycle of violence; a snapshot of a world in which fear is the overwhelming motivation to kill. In which fear is used to justify pre-emptive violence. It’s not a pretty picture, but the underlying motto should be familiar—if we don’t get them, they’ll get us.
It’s the ideology behind the war on terrorism, and
Much has been made of Moody selling the film rights of “Hater” to Guillermo del Toro—the director of the Hellboy series and Pan’s Labyrinth—after initially self-publishing the novel online. After reading it, I can see why it would be attractive source material for a film. It’s highly cinematic, both visceral and intense. The book flows easily through a course of memorable scenes, amping up the drama all the way to the end. Sections of the novel strongly reminded me of the George Romero’s classic zombie film Dawn of the Dead. Both feature characters that isolate themselves, seeking refuge from a world spiraling into madness, having no clue why. All they can do is sit, and wait, while their situation grows increasingly more dismal. And more deadly.
Last Word:
Moody has crafted an intelligent and powerful novel. And an isolating one. One that traps you in your own skin, forcing you into self-reliance. Not because of the stranger on the street who’s a Hater, but because of your wife, or child, who suddenly becomes one. What do you do when those closest turn on you? Who other than yourself can you ever trust? Scary thoughts. But utterly engaging reading.
Suddenly it’s cool to hate.
Final Grade: 80 out of 100
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"The Judas Strain" by James Rollins (HarperCollins)
1 comments:
Hater Rocks!
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