Book Review: Hungry Things by Norman Hendricks

Sue Mayfield has been a huge fan of yacht rock legend Darren Minor for so long she was the first to move into his luxury development right across from a mysterious facility hiding a terrible secret. Creatures are being studied there, creatures older than time and hungry for blood. They slither; they slip; they invade your body and rip you to shreds.

Sue and Darren must team up with a secret military force charged with containing the infestation threatening mankind, leading to an ear blasting, flesh tearing battle on an isolated oil rig in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico for the fate of the whole planet. 

My Review:
Jacob is a resident at a bizarre retirement home for fans of washed out singer Darren Minor. A place that continually plays only his songs and the main entertainment is a 2 hole golf course and a full putting course. When he is attacked by eel like creatures in the rough, he is quarantined in a locked room and his friends Sue and Dan sneak in to see him. They find him dead with lots of the creatures swarming around on the floor, prompting the arrival of men in Haz Mat suits and a full quarantine on the place. Then the second outbreak hits.

OK this book was bad on so many levels that I just can't even! Firstly, I hated that retirement home. The thought of forever being stuck there only able to listen to the songs of one person forever feels like a punishment rather than a gift for his fans! The place was mind numbingly boring and I'm not surprised that the residents were grumpy if all they do is listen to that and play putting games! The secret military force don't seem to be following any proper rules by taking this retired guy with health issues to exactly where the creatures were sighted and then putting him in danger of attack when they find them. Yeah that works.

The side characters were seriously lacking in personality and were just there to be annoying. Dan and Sue are ok other than the incredibly stupid decisions that they choose to take. Your friend has been quarantined and nobody is saying why so you just decide to steal a card from a staff member and go to have a look, risking the lives of everyone? Then the place gets the Haz Mat suit guys, and the secret military force coming to visit decide to just let Dan and Sue into the secret mysterious base across the street where these dangerous genetically engineered creatures were being kept and leave them alone to look around while the staff chat amongst themselves? And of course the tank itself just happens to be sitting open and unprotected (how did these things not just slither out???) allowing Dan to just pick up one of these deadly creatures that he saw killing other people??? How stupid is that!

Oh and then we get to the sudden arrival of Darren Minor himself as the second outbreak starts at the retirement home. He arrives in a blaze of glory (literally) with his devoted crew and flamethrowers. For some stupid reason, they end up fighting the military group and they start killing each other while these slithering things attack the residents! Why are they not all working together to tackle the bloody problem? They are all just too stupid to live and this is where I decided to DNF it. I found myself not caring about the characters, thinking the plot was mega dumb and not being entertained or amused by the pure stupidity of it all.

This was recommended to me on a horror newsletter-maybe by Hunter Shea, but I'm not sure but I wish I hadn't bothered with it!

Read July 2018.
DNF 1 star.