Wednesday, May 27, 2020

Those Who Hunger: An Amish Vampire Thriller by Owen Banner


A literary thriller that culls the lurking dread and primal hunger of the vampire myth, but leaves the cliches at the door. 
Stephen King's Needful Things meets The Poisonwood Bible in an evocative vampire tale as fresh and inventive as The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires.

In rural Pennsylvania, a teenage boy is mauled to death. 
Hadassah Zook knows what happened, but she isn’t telling. There’s a dreadful secret buried between the furrows of her upright, simple Amish valley.

Another murder lights a fire of suspicion and prejudice in the community. It threatens to destroy everything. The killings draw in two FBI detectives: Jacobo Barrabas and Keith Linguard. But they aren’t the only ones on the hunt in Big Valley.

Those Who Hunger is a suspenseful, paranormal family saga and coming-of-age tale. It explores the consequences of secrecy, suspicion, and loss on a family in the midst of a young girl’s passage into womanhood.  

TITLE: Those Who Hunger
AUTHOR: Owen Banner
PUBLISHER: Owen Banner
PUBLISH DATE: June 13, 2020
GENRE: Horror, Suspense, Thriller
FORMAT: DRC
PAGES: 508

Those Who Hunger: An Amish Vampire Thriller by Owen Banner
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

“This is the story of our forefather, Cain, the progenitor. His curse is our curse and all of our like. ‘He had shed blood, and blood would forever call to him. He couldn’t escape the hunger he had for it …”

Those Who Hunger by Owen Banner was an absolutely marvelous surprise! Although I live in an area with a strong Amish presence, I’ve never read any Amish fiction, glad I made the leap on this one. This book had all the elements I look for in a thriller, horror, suspense story. It’s carried along in superb fashion with a strong character driven plot and strong emotive characters that had such an amazing sense of reality to them. It was easy to become emotionally invested in not only the outcome of the story but the characters themselves.

Centered around the Zooks, an Amish family in a quiet Amish community, the author gives a detailed look in to the simple life that I found fascinating. When a series of heinous and grisly murders occur, this quiet community reveals a secret to the reader and thus the suspense and horror begins! Brilliantly combining the Amish community with vampire horror made this a compelling read and difficult to put down.

I thoroughly enjoyed Those Who Hunger and if Mr. Banner should write another in this series, I’ll be the first in line to read it. Big thanks to Owen Banner and NetGalley for providing me a DRC in exchange for my honest review.


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