Hater (2006)

Ingeniously conceived and executed concepts. Seriously deep and complex commentary. Very violent and definitely not for everyone. Extremely engaging page-turner for me. More on this later. ( )

Hater is the first in the Hater Trilogy and originally an online novel that the filmmaker Guillermo del Toro sponsored into print (and purchased the film rights to.) It's a horror novel about outbreaks of unprovoked violence that have reached pandemic levels. The aggressors have been labeled as "Haters" by the media and the government has warned all unaffected people to bunker down. Danny McCoyne, frustrated worker at a Parking Fine Processing office, henpecked husband, and exasperated father, bears witness to the early stages of the outbreak; and when it becomes clear that the social fabric of his town has been rent, he secures his family in their home. The sections where Danny is locked in, cut off from media interpretation of events and not knowing what is going on, are reminiscent of I am Legend (by Richard Matheson) in that we see the protagonist undergo the psychological change of the besieged; but the main interest and appeal of the story lies within the chapters in which there is a fundamental change in perspective. This is where moral certainty disappears and the reader/listener wonders who the true villains of the piece are. Unfortunately, the ending of the novel is poorly executed in terms settling up on the score of moral equivocation (Is a preemptive strike morally correct?); and unsatisfactory in terms of a denouement. The latter may be to entice readers onto the next installment in the series, Dog Blood; but by the end of Hater it is doubtful whether the listener could care as to what happens next to either Danny or anyone else.

Gerard Doyle is the Irish narrator of Hater. The setting of the story is never specified; but it can be inferred that Hater takes place somewhere in the UK and an Irish setting is as good as any for the story. GD does a great job of narrating the role of the beleaguered, whiny, spineless Danny and taking us through the changes in Danny's life as he becomes more assertive. The pacing of the narrative matches the character's development: Doyle starts off with a lazy, slow pace; but quickens as the tension and action mount.

Redacted from the original blog review at dog eared copy, Hater; 03/08/2012. ( )

Y’all better pray y’all gods that I never EVER turn into the kind of haters in this book… cuz if I do well the wrath of god will have to be renamed to the wrath of alfonso =P ( )

The advent of internet brought a few changes to the world. Okay, it changed the world immensely if not completely. So I wonder if self published writers like [a:David Moody|117582|David Moody|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1248544632p2/117582.jpg] would have otherwise achieved such recognition in such a comparatively short time if not for the exposure gained through the internet.

Maybe he might have eventually got his books published or maybe he might have been just another author destined for oblivion and failure.

While latter is not the case with him (and I am glad for that), but if you are going to read Moody for the first time and that book happens to be much sensationalized and soon to be a major motion picture, [b:Hater|263460|Hater (Hater, #1)|David Moody|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1266509430s/263460.jpg|255392], you might think that that might exactly be the case. At least I thought that way.

[b:Hater|263460|Hater (Hater, #1)|David Moody|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1266509430s/263460.jpg|255392] starts off with the first attack of the "Hater" itself and then introduces us to the protagonist Danny McCoyne who is stuck in a dead end job which pays peanuts (also the boss is very annoying) while his story on the family front is more or less the same. A shitty apartment in an unnamed town in a backward neighborhood. A bickering wife (Liz) and three very annoying children. A father-in-law who openly despises him.

So, what is the rest of the story, you ask? That's it. The above paragraph just repeats itself again and again until you hate the book itself and then after more than halfway through, the story advances somewhat. But I felt that it was too late to salvage the plot.

The most annoying thing is, the ambiguity of the plot is not cleared even at the end. I guess you have to read the rest of the series for that.

When I heard that Guillermo del Toro was going to produce a motion picture based on this book, I knew I was going to read it before the movie came out. You see, Pan's Labyrinth is one of my favorite movies, so that stirred my interest for reading this work.

Guillermo del Toro still might make an awesome movie out of this, but I won't recommend reading [b:Hater|263460|Hater (Hater, #1)|David Moody|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1266509430s/263460.jpg|255392] if it is your first [a:David Moody|117582|David Moody|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1248544632p2/117582.jpg] book.

This was my first encounter with his work, but in retrospect I think I should have started reading [a:David Moody|117582|David Moody|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1248544632p2/117582.jpg] with [b:Autumn|263459|Autumn (Autumn, #1)|David Moody|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1173240794s/263459.jpg|255391] instead of this.

Who knows, things might have worked out differently. ( )

I really wanted to like this book. It has a great premise (as far as zombie-ish horror books go). There are a subset of genetically different people, who one day "snap" and become "Haters." They run amok and strike with an amazing amount of violence and relentlessness. The potential for paranoia and fun with epidemiology of violence were there, but it pretty much falls flat on its face.

The main character (I am loathe to use the term "protagonist") is just a slug of a human being. I can't get how his life has really changed or how he is "losing" anything when he spends the vast majority of the book bitching and moaning about his job/wife/kids/money issues/father-in-law/etc. I can't even bring myself to dislike him, I just don't care and want him to go away (I read on, hoping something bad would happen to him).

The writing was incredibly monotonous (20 or 30 pages swaths of "my life is awful" followed by a couple of pages of random violence, rinse, repeat) and felt very unpolished (and not in a good way).

Beyond that, the book seems to revel in its violence and bloodshed, so if you are looking for violence porn, it's the way to go. Then again, if you want cohesive plot, some kind of development, good characterization, and something better than what a 12 year old bully would like to read about, just skip it. ( )