New Arival: Review of Alma Katsu's The Hunger

Historical fiction is a genre not readily associated with horror. Works from authors like Philipa Gregory and Tracy Chevalier aren’t trying to necessarily teach history and should not be taken as historically accurate. They are, to paraphrase Stephen King, only using just enough truth to tell a convincing lie (a lie, in this case, that becomes a book of over 300 pages). There seemed to be no examples of literary fiction in the horror genre until Alma Katsu’s The Hunger.

What allows this merging of history and horror in The Hunger is the subject matter; namely, the book follows the ill-fated members of the Donner Party as they succumb to the hardships of the trail, eventually resorting to cannibalism before perishing. The reader, thanks to pop culture, has probably heard of the Donner Party and knows their ultimate fate, but this story should be thought of like a tragedy. Tragedies, like trips, aren’t always about the destination but the journey, and Katsu’s story is a wagon train whose journey ends thanks to its people’s hubris and lack of understanding what truly awaits them.

The book takes its time introducing the members of this expedition, from blustery George Donner to his calculating wife Tamsen (who Katsu portrays as maybe having the smarts and gumption to survive this ordeal) to the noble pariah Stanton. Katsu, however, goes beyond these four and introduces the reader to seemingly the entire wagon train, all of them coming from different walks of life but all working toward the goal of traveling west. Katsu manages quite a feat of juggling in keeping all these stories straight, giving backstory through flashbacks and journal entries which reveals a lot about their individual, personal motivations. The reader can know these characters and empathize when the horrors of the trail finally descend on them.  

Make no mistake, this is definitely a horror book, even if the horror comes in drips and drabs. A lot of the book’s content is creating conflicts from without, and especially from within, that slow the group until they and the reader realize just how dire their circumstances are, including ritual sacrifices and the teasing of something waiting for them beyond the woods. Near the end of the book is where the horror really ratchets up, where the characters that Katsu so quietly introduces are all damned by their choices. The denouement of this tale, even when the reader knows the ending, is one that should leave the readers feeling satisfied and perhaps slightly nauseous. The book doesn’t profess to be historically accurate (there are other writings out there with more historical accuracy) but this book fulfills its purpose of letting the reader experience the horror caused by the Donner Party’s isolation and abandonment of hope.