A Few Wrods About A Book Full Of Words (with apologies to the book reviewing genre)

The first thing that struck me about "Hater" by David Moody was the title is based on a human emotion as was his last name. I thought this was kinda cool, but unfortunately none of these feelings were to proceed through the actual reading of this book

The story begins with a short account of a seemingly normal person snapping and brutally killing someone, described in intricate detail. We are then introduced to the boring and mundane life of Danny. He is a desk jockey at the local council who hates his job and equally his boss. He has a wife and kids, who although he continually says he loves, also seems to hate. The other central character of this tale is Danny's father-in-law who, surprise surprise, he also hates.

The book is set out in small chapters, sectioned of into days over a week long period. The pretense is that people start randomly going ape shit and killing people, until it escalates into a country, maybe world wide phenomenon. The violence is graphic and unimaginative. (The "picks up brick and smashes face variety. No quirky or funny slayings here a la Tarantino). The violence get worse and eventually everyone has to hole themselves up in there homes, giving the book a "Dawn of the Dead" feel, but without the mall, the zombies, or the fun.

Predictably enough, Danny becomes a "hater" and sees the world from the other side of the fence. The story then ends in an unbelievable clash of explosions and senseless violence, only to peter out into a couldn't be bothered writing anymore type ending of the "Then they were zombies" variety of internet fame. The book had so much potential but even after repeated attempts to get there it just never made it.

Mr Moody, you may share the last name of the super-cool fictional author of "Californication fame, but you obviously don't share his talent. But, if you do happen to read this, please don't go all crazy on me and smash my head in with a brick....

I give "Haters" by David Moody 2 out of 5 unruly mobs.

-

On a totally unrelated note, I stumbled across "Adolf Plays The Jazz" the other day. Great synthed out, slow metal. Oh, and for closet Nazi's and jazz fans, their album contains reference to neither. Check out "Lush"