Hater by David Moody

Reader Rating:

A couple of people at work read this book and said it was really good. Apparently this is going to be made into a movie. I thought it was okay. To me, it was one of those stories I've heard before. It's about a city where random people all of a sudden start killing people. These people are called "Haters" by the community and pretty soon the number of Haters grows until people can't leave their homes. Throughout the book you get to see the perspective of people as they turn into Haters. They are fine one minute and the next minute, they have an overwhelming urge to kill certain people out of survival and fear that they will be killed. As the book progresses you are trying to figure out if it's some kind of virus spreading but it turns out to be some dormant genetic trait that separates everyone into two groups that end up trying to kill each other for survival.

This book reminded me of 28 Days, I am Legend or any other virus spreading apocalypse type movie/story. This story doesn't make any sense at parts. When the Haters start changing, they are able to tell the difference between those who carry the same genetic trait, even if they haven't changed yet. They apparently start to attack because of some kind of kill or be killed instinct, but in most cases, the attacks are unprovoked. The Haters end up getting rounded up which kind of makes their name ironic because they are actually the ones that are being hated on. When you first start to see people change, it makes it seems like they have no control over themselves as they attack their friends and loved ones. Later in the book when they are rounded up, they submit to being taken away so that they don't get killed. They explained this in the book earlier saying they were more aggressive when they first change but it still doesn't make sense that they would be less aggressive when their lives are actually in danger than when they first change and attack people without warning. Anyways, this author self published his book on the internet and sold the movie rights to Guillermo del Toro. I wish I could publish an unoriginal story and make loads of money!