• The Hunger

  • By: Alma Katsu
  • Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
  • Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
  • 3.9 out of 5 stars (2,023 ratings)

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
The Hunger  By  cover art

The Hunger

By: Alma Katsu
Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $18.00

Buy for $18.00

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

"Supernatural suspense at its finest...The best thing about The Hunger is that it will scare the pants off you."—The New York Times Book Review

"Deeply, deeply disturbing, hard to put down, not recommended reading after dark."Stephen King

A tense and gripping reimagining of one of America's most fascinating historical moments: the Donner Party with a supernatural twist.

Evil is invisible, and it is everywhere.

That is the only way to explain the series of misfortunes that have plagued the wagon train known as the Donner Party. Depleted rations, bitter quarrels, and the mysterious death of a little boy have driven the isolated travelers to the brink of madness. Though they dream of what awaits them in the West, long-buried secrets begin to emerge, and dissent among them escalates to the point of murder and chaos. They cannot seem to escape tragedy...or the feelings that someone—or something—is stalking them. Whether it's a curse from the beautiful Tamsen Donner (who some think might be a witch), their ill-advised choice of route through uncharted terrain, or just plain bad luck, the ninety men, women, and children of the Donner Party are heading into one of one of the deadliest and most disastrous Western adventures in American history.

As members of the group begin to disappear, the survivors start to wonder if there really is something disturbing, and hungry, waiting for them in the mountains...and whether the evil that has unfolded around them may have in fact been growing within them all along.

Effortlessly combining the supernatural and the historical, The Hunger is an eerie, thrilling look at the volatility of human nature, pushed to its breaking point.

©2018 Alma Katsu (P)2018 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

An NPR Best Horror Novel

A Suspense Magazine Best Book of the Year

Winner of the Western Heritage Award

Finalist for the Bram Stoker Award

Finalist for the Locus Award

And one of...

The New York Times's 50 States, 50 Scares Picks

O, The Oprah Magazine's Scariest Books of All Time

Women's Republic's Ten Horror Books by Women to Read This October

TODAY.com's 13 Scary Books, From Classics to Modern Fiction, to Read for Halloween

AARP Magazine's 20 Scary Books for Grownups

Forbes's The Five Best Horror Books of 2018-2019

Vulture’s 13 Great Horror Books Written by Women

Refinery29's 20 Terrifying Books for When You've Already Read All The Spooky Season Classics

BookRiot's 15 Favorite Historical Thrillers

BookRiot's 9 Great Camping Horror Books

BookRiot's Best Horror Books of the Decade

The Observer's Best Books of 2018

InsideHook's New Wester Canon Selections

Mental Floss’ 13 Essential Horror Novels From The Last Five Years

Goodreads’ The Most Popular Horror Novels of the Past Five Years

Shondaland’s 16 Spine-Tingling Reads for Halloween

Men’s Health’s Best Horror Books

“Supernatural suspense at its finest...It is strangely ethereal, yet gritty...But the best thing about The Hunger is that it will scare the pants off you....Enjoy the journey, one so entertaining that you almost don't mind feeling queasy at dinner.”—The New York Times Book Review

"Not only will Alma Katsu's acclaimed novel haunt you, it will give you empathy for the people forced to undergo such horrors."—O, The Oprah Magazine

“Katsu shows an acute understanding of human nature.…[She] is at her best when she forces her readers to stare at the almost unimaginable meeting of ordinary people and extraordinary desperation, using her sharp, haunting language.”USA Today

Featured Article: These Authors of Color Are Revolutionizing Horror—Listen If You Dare!


Fortunately, authors of color have revolutionized horror, enriching it with their voices and gifts of great storytelling while using the conventions of the genre to unpack the traumas of racism, sexism, classism, and more. The writers collected here are game changers, their mastery of the craft extraordinary. Whether you’re listening at home or on the go, you might want to make sure the area is brightly lit...and that there’s nothing lurking in the shadows.

What listeners say about The Hunger

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    760
  • 4 Stars
    626
  • 3 Stars
    438
  • 2 Stars
    147
  • 1 Stars
    52
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1,080
  • 4 Stars
    469
  • 3 Stars
    198
  • 2 Stars
    54
  • 1 Stars
    16
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    688
  • 4 Stars
    510
  • 3 Stars
    393
  • 2 Stars
    141
  • 1 Stars
    78

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Soap opera posing as horror

I bought this because Stephen King gave it a high rating. If you are looking for horror the first two thirds of this book aren't for you. It's all about who's cheating, who is sleeping around, petty spats and a bunch of sketchy people traveling together. The horror finally comes into play near the end with hints of it scattered throughout the first several hours. I was not scared or impressed. Think The Walking Dead meets Days of our Lives.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

51 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
  • j
  • 03-09-18

Intense, visceral, excellent read

Listened to this over the course of 3 nights, and we had a hard time pausing it to go to sleep! So good. It was riveting, suspenseful and terrifying, and yes, the ending was surprising, yet fitting. It was the detailed, gut churning descriptions that really made it - I could feel the filth and was convinced my clothes were picking up the scent of decay and rot with each line. Overall, such a satisfying story for this horror junkie.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

38 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Creepy

...but too short. A breezy ten hours means this story glossed over the depth that could have taken it from good to great. It's hard to track the number of characters but I enjoyed it, for the most part and who doesn't love a good historical western ghost story? I don't want to send anyone off the book, it's worth the buy, but it's good...not great.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

24 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

horrible narrator

I wanted to go buy the book I wouldn't have to listen to the horrible narration

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

22 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

kind of painful.

an awkward attempt to make a romance out of a historical tragedy. not a fan. starts strong, but winds down quickly. if you're gonna make the Donner party story about sexual abuse, please include Sutter's harem; really this was missing a lot of real horrors about the time period, instead focusing on the chaste sexual tension between Mary Sue characters.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

16 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Not scary or creepy. Very Rape-y

The book has a really unsatisfactory ending. For the most part the only characters whose plot arc gets an ending at all are the ones that get killed. It's like Alma hit a certain page count and said, "Well that's long enough, I spose I better end this thing!"

Also, she spends the least time on the part of the journey that would be the best horror fuel, the winter.

Way too boringly sexual. Almost all the characters interactions revolve around sex, but the book is about as sexy as a doormat. Also, so much sexually violent content, It's awful. This book is one of those ones where there's as much or more time spent describing sexual violence as there is describing normal sex.

Content warning:
Threats of rape
Rape
Molestation
Partner Violence (Physical and Sexual abuse)
Incest
Incest again!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

12 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

The Hunger

The Hunger does not satisfy the hunger for a good novel. It is a cross between the Donner parties doomed trip West and The Walking Dead. For my part, I prefer the Walking Dead. The Hunger is dead and can not even stand up much less walk

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Fun!

I loved the darkness in each member of the Wagon party, I just didn’t love the ending.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

good story.... But

It was a good fictional story but my hopes were very high to begin with. I think the actual story with starvation and desperation is exceedingly more terrifying than the this fictional story. was a little disappointed... Oh, and I wasn't expecting the romantic angle. probably my fault. I could've done more research on the author.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A wonderful reimagining the Donner Party tragedy.

This is the type of audio book that warrants repeated listening. I found myself looking up details of the ill fated Donner Reed excursion time and again. A wonderful reading that continues to build tension and dramatic action as events unfold. Masterful storytelling.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

6 people found this helpful