Hunter: A Story of the Devastations

by K.B. Hoyle

If you have to go through the Apocalypse with someone, it might as well be the girl you love, even if she doesn’t love you back. When an alien invasion rains down devastation on the sleepy town of Amherst, Virginia, annihilating everything and everyone except for three teenage survivors, it quickly becomes clear the invasion is not local, but global. High school senior Daniel Cohen and his friends Emma and Crispin flee to the mountains and an old hunting cabin where they hope they’ll be safe. Daniel falls back on wilderness training his abusive father once drilled into him to help them survive, and his skills become especially vital when Crispin is captured, leaving him and Emma to carry on alone to the cabin. But when Daniel and Emma arrive, they find no refuge from the horrors of the alien invasion, as the presence of Daniel’s father reawakens the nightmares of his adolescent years. Faced with the apocalyptic hellscape of the Virginia wilderness, his father, an unsettling rival, and his own inner demons, Daniel isn’t certain what is the most dangerous threat at play. His and Emma's survival will hinge on determining who is hunter and who is prey and who can be trusted in the tenuous post-invasion world.

Genres: Young Adult, Fiction

282 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 13, 2019

About the author

K. B. Hoyle’s love of good stories began when she stepped through a wardrobe at age six, and she never looked back. She is the multiple award-winning Young Adult author of THE GATEWAY CHRONICLES fantasy series, THE BREEDER CYCLE dystopian series, The Fairytale Collection, and more.

In addition to her many novels, K. B. Hoyle is the co-founder and CEO of Owl's Nest Publishers, an independent press specializing in books that capture the imagination of adolescents. She is also a sought-after voice in the areas of storytelling and culture, and she has contributed articles and essays to a variety of publications. ​Her speaking resume includes keynote addresses, leading writing workshops, and international experience as a featured panelist at the 2013 Sydney Writers' Festival.

K. B. Hoyle stays busy at her home in Wisconsin on a winding creek with her husband, their four sons, and the variety of wildlife that frequent their land.

For more information on K. B. Hoyle, visit her website at kbhoyle.com or find her around social media at @kbhoyle.author on Instagram, Facebook, and Threads. Email her at author@kbhoyle.com.

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was gripping and intense and such an excellent addition to the Breeder trilogy. I want to go back and reread a few chapters of Book 3 now and see if I can find some additional meaning. I appreciate the freedom that you could read this before or after the trilogy without spoiling either, but I'm marinating on the idea that the best order might be after book 2? I love how Breeder introduces the post-Incursion world, but I feel some of the Easter eggs in Clone may be more meaningful after this prequel.

[Kristy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best book series I've read in a long time.
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I really loved seeing the backstory of things from The Breeder Cycle books. So much great character development and tension made my heart race during the majority of this story.
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If you're looking for an excellent dystopian series, don't sleep on this one!

[Corrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m rating this book what I would rate the series as a whole: 5 stars. While these books are not as well known as some other Dystopian novels, I would argue they are more complex and hopeful. The content is heavy, specifically with what the characters have endured, but the message is the same: surviving with hope. I believe the background K. B. Hoyle has shines through in her writing. The hope she has is transparent in the books she writes. It isn’t “Christian fiction,” but rather an author who happens to be a Christian and who happens to write some pretty spectacular stories. I cannot recommend this series enough. If you choose to read it (which, why wouldn’t you? It’s so good), then I would recommend the following order: Breeder, Criminal, Hunter, Clone. I wish I had read in that order. Phenomenal read… not for young kids, but definitely a great chance to discuss themes with older students.

[Beth Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

My heart was literally racing for large portions of this book…it was so intense and suspenseful but also full of character development and a plot with so many twists that I never quite knew where it was going, in an unbalanced sense, not that the story was disjointed.

This book is a prequel that happens about 200 years before the trilogy of the Breeder Cycle. In a lot of ways this single title was far more intense, in part because this book takes place as the world explodes into chaos. The characters never know what is going on because their world has been rocked and all they could trust and count on is destroyed. This is a story of survival and hope, a love story, a story about what it means to live.

My world is not the brutal, apocalyptic world of HUNTER, but I have seen devastation and I’ve seen manipulation and I’ve seen people turn on each other. I’ve also seen people who keep putting one foot in front of the other, who help to hold each other up, who are not defined by what has been done to them, but write a different ending to their sad stories. These are all the reasons why a story of devastation will always grab our attention, will always draw readers in and leave them stronger in the end.

Ugh I truly cannot wait to reread all 4 of these books and see how many breadcrumbs I missed the first time through.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok. A few things.

1) I recommend reading this after the Breeder Cycle books, even though it’s a prequel, for a few reasons. The main one is that there’s just more hard content in this book, so it’s best to build up to it. I also enjoyed the slow reveal of how the rebels from the Breeder Cycle books came to survive/ be rebels in the first place.

2) Content considerations: More language than in the Breeder Cycle books. Probably 30-40 swears. A girl was sexually abused by her dad while her mom helped. Domestic violence mentioned in some detail. A suicide. Lots of gory violence but nothing too gratuitous. PTSD from war is mentioned.

Overall I would say this book is more mature than the Breeder Cycle books. I say those books are for 14+ish…I’d say this one is for 15-16+, depending on the maturity of the teen, of course.

[Brenda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this in a day, granted it was a day where I was sitting in a waiting room and traveling. But still, I read it in a day. I wasn't sure I needed more of the Breeder Cycle. I felt content when I finished Clone. But once I started, this really was a welcome addition. And it answered questions that I didn't know I had. I do want to mention that this book contained swearing and references to abuse.

[Adam Shields · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summary: A dystopian trilogy (with a prequel) that is both an enjoyable read and prescient. 

I have not been reading much fiction lately. But with my brain distracted by real life and less time since my kids are not in school right now, it felt like a perfect time to pick up KB Hoyle's Dystopian series. About 18 months ago I read Hoyle's fantasy series that started with The Six. I read the series quickly and loved the books. They were certainly in my list of favorite fiction books that I read in 2018.

Once I have a feel for fiction authors, I tend to try to read them completely blind. I had not read any of the descriptions of the series before picking it up. And as I finished each one, I just picked up the next without writing a post. At this point, I do not think it makes sense to write individual responses because this is a single story, told over four books.

The setting is roughly 200 years after two different mass devastation events. There is a single world government that is trying to repopulate the earth after the majority of the population died in a massive famine, a wide-scale pandemic or a third event that I will not reveal. The main character at the start of the first book is one of the breeders, Seventeen (later Pria). Other characters are quickly introduced and many of them continue through the series.

I am not going to give away plot details but a couple of notes. KB Hoyle has great plots. Hints are given, but I did not know where the story was going to end up as I was going along. I can also guess that a few people will be disappointed in how some of the first two books end, but remember, this is a single large story arc, keep reading.

Also, this is a young adult dystopian book. Hoyle does not tell childish stories, but they are pitched to a teen or advanced pre-teen audience. There is some romance and hinting at sexual situations (the title of the first book is breeder and the evil government plot involves young women serving as baby factories so some of this is set up in the concept.) However, there is nothing on the page more than insinuation and teen appropriate discussion. (Spoiler--there is an attempted rape at one point, but the victim does not fully understand what is going on apart from the violence until later. )
Having read both series that KB Hoyle has written, the plotting and engagement is high. This series will not appeal to everyone. And while I picked up a dystopian series because we are on pandemic lockdown, that will not be helpful for everyone. But for me, the chapters were short enough that I could pick up a book here and there and make real progress. The book was engaging and had a clear good vs evil structure that even as it dealt with hard things at times, it was comforting to read a story about people that were trying to save humanity and willing to risk it all.

[Karen Voitik · Rating 5 out of 5]

>Book Review – Hunter: A Story of the Devastations
>I am an independent reviewer. This book is the 4th in the Breeder Cycle series and also the prequel novel to the series. The book gives the reader a glimpse in to what happened before the New World Order came in to power. There were 3 great devastations designed to curb humanity: famine, a pandemic and an alien invasion. Emma, Daniel and Crispin were in the school parking lot when aliens dropped from the sky and began exploding anything in sight. The kids had time to drive in to the woods and hide.
>The story is an interesting tale of how these kids survive using their wits. There is also a ‘G’ rated love triangle between the 3. Emma and Daniel have always been friends, but Daniel wants so much more. Both Emma and Daniel have sad backstories. Daniel’s dad was abusive and had been gone for years. When Daniel and Emma make it to a small cabin in the woods, Daniel’s dad is there.
>The descriptions of the cabin, the woods, the aliens, and the bunker were very vivid. There was a real hit of adrenalin as I read the description of the aliens and their spider like legs, with that evil red eye. There are a lot of battles and a mystery as to what is happening and why. This book is appropriate for a young adult (16+) audience. Emma’s backstory may have some triggers, as it is not pleasant, but there are no explicit descriptions. I am giving this book 5 stars. Daniel is one of the most well-developed characters I have read in a while. His feelings, his motives and his dreams are all there.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I swallowed this book in just a few days. It was a compelling thriller/romance, and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys YA dystopias. I loved the Breeder Cycle, and I agree with other reviewers that this book is best read AFTER the main trilogy. It tells the story of how the United World Order took control of the globe, which eventually led to where Breeder (book 1) begins.

This story starts after the famine and the pandemic have decimated the world population, and it shows what happened when the Unfamiliars burst onto the scene and wipe out cities and towns, leaving a remnant of survivors. Daniel, our hero, is working up the courage to ask his best friend, Emma, to prom, when the attack drives them, along with a jock named Crispin, into the wilderness to escape for their lives.

I don't want to spoil what happens, but Daniel and Emma must learn to open up to each other about the bad things that have happened to them in the past, and these confessions contain mature content (more mature than what you encounter in the Breeder Cycle because it deals with family abuse, sexual and physical). There are also some gristly scenes of death.

I feel like this was heavier on action and suspense, but there is still theme to be had. The big questions in this book are, "What are you willing to do to survive?" "How do you know you can trust someone?" and (essentially) "Is any type of eugenics ever okay?"

The romance is also central to the plot, and it was nicely done. It's so easy to slip into cringe territory, but Hoyle does a great job of keeping it honest and sweet.

[Maya Joelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wish I could give this book a better rating, since I love most of Hoyle's work, but I was disappointed by it.

The story and characters were fine. The worldbuilding was fine. All of it was fine, but nothing stood out to me.

My main complaint is with the mature content (view spoiler to see). One character tries to get another to have sex with her, and talks about how she had sex with a different guy. Nothing is explicit. There's frequent profanity and a great deal of violence, including parental abuse (off-page) and character death (on-page).

Overall, I don't recommend this book unless you've also read the original trilogy and really want to know how the whole thing started.

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read 1/12/2020

[Shinae Wyckoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

So much suspense, it was a race to the finish. Who could put this book down? GREAT depiction of teenagers fighting the odds to survive.

Love the original story, the characters, and the redemption/reconciliation healing. Lord knows we need stories featuring the beauty of reconciliation now more than ever.

My favorite was the match-up; that becoming vulnerable with a good, trustworthy person leads not to exposure & shame, but to deepening friendship, and often gains you an in-the-trenches-with-you battle buddy.

[Vincent · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the best book in The Breeder Cycle, but still worth the read. The story could have been better, but I guess surviving is what one would naturally do in the apocalypse. There was a lot more cursing in this book than the breeder trilogy, which I didn't like. I enjoyed seeing the founding of Refuge and how the UWO captured Crispin to make the Freemasons. I would recommend reading this after the actual series because the book is not written like the Breeder Cycle. Could have done better.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic ending to this series with the prequel. I’m glad I read this last and am thrilled I was able to read the whole series. Fabulous storyline. This absolutely should be regarded as one of the best modern dystopian series. Can’t wait to reread this at some point and definitely planning to read everything else by KB Hoyle.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book felt much heavier than the others. While the writing was fantastic and the story as thrilling and suspensful as ever, I’m not sure it added anything for me but sadness.