Customer Reviews

Hungry For You

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Let me say that I am neither a zombie fan, not a love story fan. That aside, I enjoyed Hungry For You very, very much. Some stories are a little stronger than other, and the idea of sexual zombies makes my skin crawl, but Harte's stories are wonderful. The characters are very real and each very different from one another. Each episode is well-written and (high praise for an indie book!) virtually error-free.

This book is well worth your time and certainly worth a dollar!

Hungry For You is a collection of short stories by A.M. Harte. The common thread that holds all of these stories together is love. This love is the warped, dark love that walks the line between life and death. I think A.M Harte said it best when she says, "Love is, you could say, very much like a zombie."

The stories that Ms. Harte has created takes a new approach on zombie love. What if being a zombie was common and couples not only had to deal with every day situations but had the added stress of decomposition to worry about? A perfect, and somewhat humorous, example is A Prayer to Garlic. Told from the wife's point of view, A Prayer to Garlic tells the story of what concerns a wife, who happens to be a zombie, has when her mother-in-law is coming over for dinner. But this isn't your average zombie couple. Mog and his wife happen to prefer pork over human meat which goes against everything the zombie mother-in-law stands for. Let's hope the garlic will disguise the pork and the mother-in-law won't notice the difference.

In The Perfect Song, Ms. Harte reminds me that there may be more than one way to become a zombie and affirms my decision to not drink tea at the same time. When a batch of contaminated tea is released as an herbal alternative to anti-depressants, Michael decides to give it a try in order to take his mind off of his current situation. Michael just wants to make Valerie proud of his music and in turn, proud of him. But how does a zombie stay focused when he is determined to get his next fix?

And last but not least, the story in which this collection is named after, Hungry For You. This story takes a much different approach than the rest of its companions. Ms. Harte shows us that there is more than one way to skin a rat...or in this case, more than one way to feed a zombie. In Hungry For You, zombies do not crave flesh, but rather crave sins of the flesh. It pays to have a pretty face as only the elite survive in this tale.

I strongly suggest everyone who enjoys zombies, love stories or even just twisted tales to read Hungry For You. It's a guarantee that you will love most, if not all, of these stories.

I have to say that stories about zombies have never been high on my list of things to read. It's not that I'm against them, it's just that I've never been interested enough to pick up anything that contains Zombies. I am aware, however, that this sub-genre has a HUGE fanbase, so when A.M. Harte contacted me to ask me whether I'd like to review the book, I figured it was time I finally made my first foray into their world.

As it's a collection of short stories, I guess it served as a great introduction to the world of zombies. As I said above, I don't have anything to compare this too, but looking at other reviews, it would seem that Harte plays around with the genre and injects new life into zombies (no pun intended!). Whilst I can't corroborate that, what I can say is that whatever she does, she's damn good at it. I loved all of the stories in this collection and I could easily have read more. Hell, some of the stories left me dying to know more and many of them could serve as great bases for novels. I guess this isn't a great thing in a short story collection, but it didn't bother me too much.

The writing is creative, the plots imaginative and the twists generally unexpected. I liked that some of the twists also made me think about the preceding story in a new light. The feeling throughout this book is pretty much always creepy and it definitely had me feeling uneasy. But it kept me hooked. It had me freaked out in a good way.

I would say my favourite story is the story that gives the collection it's title, Hungry For You, but as I said, for me there weren't any duds in this collection.

I look forward to reading more from A.M. Harte

I got this as a gift and I can only that I'm really happy about it. The way I'm reading this is by reading a story a day and today I'll read the fourth. Reason why, I want the experience to last with each day revealing its zombie goodness. Of course you don't have to like zombie stories to like this anthology if you can see the zombies as metaphors. I won't because I consider myself a geek at heart but to each their own. Anyways I don't want to spoil the stories within but I also want more people to buy this so here is what you'll find in this anthology:

You might be a zombie if you've taken a bite out of your loved one,
A case of zombie prostitution,
If you are that hungry than you can swim for it.

Are you enticed? If you are, I believe you won't regret buying this.

What a treat! I couldn't put this book of zombie stories down, reading early into the morning in order to finish the last wonderful tale. HUNGRY FOR YOU was so much fun. I enjoyed every story, loving how unique each was, yet still focused on the zombie theme. A.M. Harte's writing was wonderfully descriptive, very visual, often poetic. Her dialogue flowed smoothly. I love how she made zombies have personalities and feelings. I will definitely be recommending this book to my friends and family.

I loved this book! It is a collection of short (bite-sized!) stories all in some way about love and death (usually in the form of zombies). The writing style is beautiful and lyrical - the type where you just savor the flow of the words.

My favorite story was "Seven Birds"- beautiful and tragic.

Highly recommended!

Short stories are such huge teases.

Having said that, this haunting collection of short stories left me with an insatiable appetite. But, um, not for human flesh, or, you know, braaaaaaaaaaaains. Nope, I've got a fever. And the only thing that can cure it? Is more work by A.M. Harte.

Although, if you want to throw in some cowbell, that'd be nice too.

Right. Less irreverence, more review.

Ms. Harte really took Zombies to a whole new level for me. She took the mythos, turned it on it's head, and spun it right round. Multiple times. Threw them all in a box and then went way, way out of the box. Especially when you consider that the entire collection are little more than love stories.(She said, as if love stories are somehow small, fragile things she knows they're not.)

Ms. Harte writes with such beautiful subtlety that I really needed to pace myself reading Hungry For You. I could not go through the stories at a dead sprint, I needed time to let the stories simmer in, to really take in the full effect of the passion that drove the majority of the stories. It was a winding experience. I loved it!

Because these were the sort of stories I'd been hoping to get when I revamped this blog under `Fiction with a Dark Side'. This exploration of the darker side of love, the lighter side of death, the grays and in betweens.

Usually with anthologies, I like to go through the stories one by one and tell my readers here why I liked them. I'd really like to do that now but the temptation to give something away is just two great. One of the best things about Hungry For You is the subtle, yet powerful twists. I read each slowly, with awe, trying to anticipate `how is she going to do it this time', and often than not, I failed, delightedly. Too caught up in the stories.

Well, ok. I totally saw how Swimming Lesson was going to end but I'm pretty sure she just threw that one in there so we can feel smart for figuring it out.

I really enjoyed every single story (all eleven of them!)-because every single story reeked of creativity and bit of tragedy and oh-don't act like you all don't know I'm a hopeless romantic complete masochist.

However my Favorites were:

Hungry For You - Yep! The Antho's name sake is a story. "A police sergeant struggles with a very unusual victim..."

A Prayer to Garlic- This one is just so delightfully quirky I can't even think of a way to describe it without completely ruining it.

Dead Man's Rose - "A young wife is trapped in a house hiding unimaginable evil...."

The Perfect Song-"A dying musician turns to tea for inspiration." Were I forced to choose, I would have to pick this one as my favorite. One of the driving concepts behind it-involving tea- just tickled the heck out of me and I think any writer, aspiring or pro, could relate to the protagonist's frustration.

This a brilliant collection that I recommend to any Zombie lovers (especially those of you that like to see new takes on the mythology, you'll get them in spades in Hungry For You ) , those of us who like our fiction on the dark side, or for readers who love love, no matter what it does to you.

But I don't care darling, because I love you, and you've got to let me eat your brains. ~ Freddy - Night of the Living Dead

"Love is horrible. It's ruthless, messy, mind-altering, and raw. It takes no prisoners. It chews you up and spits you out and leaves you for dead. Love is, you could say, very much like a zombie."

In this haunting short story collection, anything is possible--tea helps a dying musician with his inspiration for an ode to his girl, a young wife is trapped in a house hiding a form of evil you would never expect, a counterspy ponders a mission that found him face to face with a deadly virus and it's carriers and promises are kept in life and in death .

I will admit, I'm not the biggest anthology fan. Not because I don't like short stories. Moreso, because I get so frustrated when I read an AMAZING short story that should be a full length novel...I want more. There are a couple such tales in this anthology entitled Hungry For You, by A.M. Harte. This anthology introduces you to various images of passion and love in a world that is dark and foreboding. The question remains will love or the horror prevail in the end?

A.M. Harte takes zombies and breathes a bit of new life into them. I love my zombies, but sometimes they get very tiresome and boring. Hungry for Love and the tales within gave me a bit of hope that there are authors out there willing to take some chances and make some changes to the genre. (within reason - don't make my zombie sparkle, please!!)

London based author, A.M. Harte, has taken a subject, I've not seen combined before and married them perfectly. While I confess, I am not a fan of Zombies, I am a sucker for a good romance. My apprehensions aside, once I began reading I was hooked and wanted more. Her collection of stories makes reading move along easily. No one wants to read about a leaf falling to the ground for 3 pages, and I appreciate an author who gets right to the "Heart" of the story. No puns intended. Like any gathering of stories, I liked some more than others, but I also found one that, I absolutely just loved, because it truly creeped me out. (in a good way.) No spoilers to worry about here. What I found as I kept reading was, I really hope this author will write a full length novel in the near future, as she's made me hungry for more of her work!

There is a lot to like in this collection. It's a nice length, each story can be devoured quickly, and then mulled over, she re-imagines zombies in many different ways, some of which I can't say I've ever seen before. Which is saying something. Zombies have been done to death (`scuse the pun), rehashed in so many ways, but often using the same old bits and bobs. You know - meteors, folks rising from the dead, brain eating, that kind of thing. I love that it explores some new angles, and blends two things you might not think to bring together as the focus point for a collection: love and zombies.

I actually wish I had this in paperback - and that's the first time I've had that thought since my Kindle arrived. I think perhaps collections such as this are more fun in paper book form though, because you can easily flick through, jump from story to story, read it in any way you want to. I am still a newbie Kindle user, but it seems easiest just to read from start to finish on the thing, and not so easy to flick through a text.

This is a book I would like to flick through. I'd have an easier time picking my favourites if I could. There are a couple in there that really tickled my fancy, and when I figure out which ones they are (I'll be reading it again, I have no doubt!), I'll make sure I come back and post them. I think for now it's enough to say that there are some really fantastic stories in there, and the ones that aren't as fantastic are still good stories. A really entertaining read. I gave it 4/5 stars.