Hater [Paperback]

David Moody (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 17, 2006

Society is rocked by a sudden increase in the number of violent assaults on individuals. Christened 'Haters' by the media, the attackers strike without warning. Their attacks are brutal, remorseless and extreme. There are no apparent links between the Haters or their victims and no obvious reason for their violence. In seconds rational, controlled people become vicious killers. Everyone - irrespective of race, gender, age, sexuality or any other imaginable difference - has the potential to become either a Hater or a victim. This is a terror which knows no boundaries. You can no longer trust anyone, no matter how well you think you know them. You can no longer trust yourself. By the end of today you could be a killer. By the end of today you could be dead. HATER - a new nightmare from the author of the AUTUMN series.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Originally self-published, Moody's nail-biter of a debut plausibly creates a nightmare world. Danny McCoyne, an employee of the Parking Fine Processing office in an unnamed, possibly British city, barely manages to support his wife and children. Things get a lot worse after incidents of random violence escalate to a condition that threatens the social fabric of the country. Those afflicted with the violent impulse are dubbed Haters. The rapid onset of the disorder, exacerbated by the frighteningly inadequate government response, leaves Danny and his family virtual prisoners in their own home. While the major twist and the final payoff aren't particularly surprising, the sections building up to them perfectly evoke the quiet desperation of an ordinary life. Moody might have been better off explaining less, but this intelligent, well-written chiller heralds a significant new talent. Guillermo Del Toro has bought film rights. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* One day Danny McCoyne’s life tends toward the humdrum: job, family, the usual. The next day, suddenly, without warning or explanation, people are turning into killers, murdering their loved ones, attacking perfect strangers. Soon Danny is trying desperately to keep his family safe, while all around him society seems to be self-destructing, as ordinary men and women turn into animals, filled with hate and violence. This is a truly frightening book because, like Danny, we’re constantly scrambling to process what’s going on. Moody, who self-published the novel in 2006, writes as though his novel were a zombie movie, and readers familiar with the genre will have no difficulty seeing, in their mind’s eye, the rapid dissolution of society played out in front of them. (Is it purely a coincidence that the protagonist has the same first name as Danny Boyle, director of the movie 28 Days Later, whose zombielike creatures were infected with something that filled them with uncontrollable rage?) It’s a risky undertaking, giving literary form to a type of story that is traditionally told in pictures, but Moody completely pulls it off. The movie rights to the book have been sold, and it’ll be interesting to see if the film is as good as the novel. It’s hard to imagine how it could be. --David Pitt --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 244 pages
• Publisher: INFECTED BOOKS (July 17, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0955005167
• ISBN-13: 978-0955005169
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (101 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,890,042 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Here are my biographies from my UK and US publishers. They both seem to tell half the story each!

David Moody was born in 1970 and grew up in Birmingham on a diet of trashy horror and pulp science fiction books and movies. He worked as a bank manager and as operations manager for a number of financial institutions before giving up the day job to write about the end of the world for a living. He has written a number of horror novels, including AUTUMN, which has been downloaded more than half a million times since publication in 2001 and has spawned a series of sequels and a movie starring Dexter Fletcher and David Carradine. Film rights to HATER have been bought by Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy, Pan's Labyrinth) and Mark Johnson (producer of the Chronicles of Narnia films). Moody lives outside Birmingham (UK) with his wife and a houseful of daughters and stepdaughters, which may explain his pre-occupation with Armageddon.

DAVID MOODY self published Hater online in 2006, and without an agent, succeeded in selling film rights to Guillermo del Toro (director, Hellboy 1 & 2, Pan's Labyrinth and the upcoming Hobbit series) and Mark Johnson (producer, The Chronicles of Narnia). With the official publication of Hater, David is poised to make a significant mark as a writer of "farther out" fiction of all varieties.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Survival for the rest of us., December 11, 2011

By 

M.C. O'Neill (Des Plaines) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Hater (Paperback)

Many survival/post-apocalypse works focus on a person or group who is "fully-prepped" and ready to rock against (insert world-killer here). Not the main character of "Hater." Danny is a regular schmuck who pushes files all day that go off somewhere to be filed - again. The only military training he possesses is the ability to fling paperclips dead-center into your eyeball. He probably listened to The Cure in high school. Hell, he probably still does. Unlike novels such as "Patriots" where the characters have been preparing for (insert world-killer here) since Reagan was president, Danny can barely make it to payday. He's like so many of us and I enjoy that aspect about him. David Moody really illustrates this well and it brings humanity to a hero that so many of these kinds of novels render as a cartoon (think Duke Nuke'em). Read this and you will most likely identify with the guy on some level. Not to spoil, but later on, fate tips the tables in Danny's favor which color him blood red. At that point, the novel becomes a frightening commentary on the service-sector, post-industrial lemminghood that has been forced upon so many of us. Wonderful read!

12 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the scariest things I've ever read..., February 9, 2011

By 

Dena - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hater (Hardcover)

If you're considering this book for the gore and action, you'll be fairly disappointed. Hater is a lot more interesting than that - it's terrifying because it's believable, realistic and easy to relate to. I know at least one reviewer had the impression that it showed people doing illogical things, searching for a great purpose in some sort of trite philosophical quest etc... but I'm going to disagree - to try and squeeze Hater into a neat little cynical box is to miss the important subtleties that make this book so extraordinary. But really, it's done so simply that it doesn't get ahead of itself. Can you imagine a disease or a virus that makes you turn on the people you love the most? Hater makes it real. It turned my stomach and had me up at night in sheer, horrible contemplation. I couldn't put it down and it didn't feel like I was reading because I was so caught up! The main character was written perfectly. I'm a single mom in the United States, and yet I could completely relate to Danny McCoyne. I've read this thing 4 times already, and as you can see, I'm still haunting the reviews. I recommend it to the umpteenth degree.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Instant Classic., January 6, 2012

By 

Mr Dave Lightfoot (Belfast, Northern Ireland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hater (Hardcover)

WOW. The first thing I will say is, you don't need to read a review of this book. You just need to read it for yourself. This story is fantastic. David Moody has created a story that could possibly be one of the best modern "situation horror" stories ever written. I was hooked from the first chapter. This book starts at a fast pace and just continues to gain momentum right until the end.
This isn't your run of the mill "horror" story. There isn't a monster, no vampires or werewolves. The fear comes from our own humanity, or what will happen if we lose our humanity. The author has created a world were a proportion of the population becomes affected by a "new" kind of disorder. Once affected they lose all humanity towards those not affected. They fear those who haven't changed and they HATE those who haven't changed. They find only one way of fixing this situation. Kill the unchanged.
The horror in this book comes at the reader from three different angles. Firstly, we have the violence that is carried out throughout the whole story. It is relentless, in your face and most of all, it is believable. Every attack resembles something we could possibly read or see in the news on a daily basis. Secondly, we have the simple horror of normal people being trapped and confused in this situation. The author really creates a spine chilling experience by making us feel empathy with those not affected and from this we get a feeling of the fear that they must be feeling. Thirdly, the horror, at its best, comes from the very realistic way that David Moody has shown us how humanity, love and empathy can easily be destroyed once fear is added into the world. How friends can turn on friends once they are shown the difference. How we fear those who are different from ourselves and the lengths we are willing to go to get rid them.
The story is easy to read, captivating, brilliant, scary and worryingly mirrors the world we live in. Expect a few shivers down your back and after reading, try not to judge those you walk past in the street. After all, it is only a story........ but it will make you think!!!