Out of Curiosity and Hunger

by Amanda M. Blake

Languishing in a dying urban landscape, photographer Willa Dearborn struggles to find something that excites her the same way that capturing images of animals in their wilder natural habitat did for years.

Then she stumbles upon a strange creature that she’s never seen before and can’t identify, roaming an abandoned industrial park.

Without hesitation, she seizes the opportunity to finally achieve something amazing right there in the city she hates by thoroughly documenting the life and growth of this unknown creature—and its prodigious appetite.

220 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 13, 2023

About the author

Amanda M. Blake is a cat-loving daydreamer who enjoys geekery of all sorts, from superheroes to horror movies, urban fantasy to unconventional romance. Born and raised in Texas, Blake attended Trinity University in San Antonio and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English.

Amid dipping tentacles into the sea of gothic and horror short stories and poetry, Blake is also the author of horror novels Question Not My Salt and Deep Down and the fairy tale mash-up Thorns series.

Reviews

[Stitching Ghost · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel like this is the 600th review where I say that I like decaying urban settings, but here we go again, another book with a decrepit city, much to my delight.¸

Out of Curiosity and Hunger was a rather simple story, but quite an engaging one. The characters came across as realistic even in their moments of naivety. The imagery was pretty cool and the ending pretty satisfying.

More of a 4.25 than a 4.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have you ever thought, “I love National Geographic, especially when the animals eat each other, and sometimes maybe humans too.” This is the exact vibe I got from this book. Out of Curiosity and Hunger is a curious little novel about a wildlife photographer, stuck in the urban hellscape that is Detroit, Michigan, and the strange creature she discovers there. The creature is unlike any animal she has ever photographed before, and she sets out to document it.

Right from the get go I was intrigued by the premise of this book, and following a documentarian was fascinating, it made me think about how much we humans interfere with wildlife in the name of science. The first third of the novel is a slow burn, but once it got going I couldn’t put the book down, it is absolutely worth the investment. Blake’s prose is polished and beautiful and I ate up every word. This has absolutely secured a spot as one of my favorite creature horror books.