Monsters, gore and a kick-ass action hero. The trilogy begins...
It’s 1983 and Katrina Robbins’s life is in tatters. Once a respected scuba diver, she now works on board a rusting icebreaker in the Arctic Circle. The crew are misfits with too many secrets. Her captain is scheming his way through the Cold War.
It’s what I deserve, Kat thought. After what I’ve done.
She yanked the strap on her diving belt, stared ahead, and tried to forget. But clawing nightmares had followed in the ship’s wake, crawled up the hull in the dead of night, slunk into her cabin while she slept. And something else stirred on the horizon. A grotesque evil of devastating design ready to exploit unexplained accidents on board the ship.
Entwining classic horror with fast-paced action, Hunted introduces Katrina as a feisty, yet damaged hero. She has the inner anger to fight, the will, and the courage. But facing Kat is the Abarath. And it’s coming. And there’s no escape.
CONTENT WARNING – HUNTED contains depictions of animal suffering, reference to sexual abuse, graphic depictions of death, swearing.
Damian Dawes was born in Australia, educated in England and travelled the world as a ballet then theatre dancer. After working for numerous animal charities, he now writes full time. Damian lives in Spain with his wife, Sally, dog, Jack Sprat, and very many feral cats!
My favourite horror movies and novels are mixed with sci-fi, monsters, and the exploration of the great unknown. Monsters. There is so much you can do with monsters, and Dawes has done a wonderful, chilling, terrorific job of fleshing out his monster - the Abarath. (side note - I looked up Abarath on the net and nothing comes up - so I'm assuming this one is 100% made up by the writer)
The Abarath is a primal arctic aquatic beast - there is no jumping into its head to gain any real insight to its thoughts. It lives to eat, and does so in a voracious, and cruel way. Dawes draws a horrifying monster with his words, but where he truly excels is in his descriptions of death. I used to believe that leaving the painful details of death scenes to the reader's imagination was a good way to write - you need to be a great writer to set this up correctly. Dawes doesn't need your imagination - he has his own fiendish thoughts that allow full, explicit, gut-wrenching, narrative descriptions of his flawed character's painful demises. Just when you think it couldn't get more excruciatingly gory - it does. This is a good thing. As a lover of horror I applaud it.
Hunted is well paced. Some of the background stories are okay filler, and help to build a character's idealistic qualities, or lack thereof - which gives the reader what they need to either cheer for or against their prophetic fates. Without giving away any spoilers - many of them do end up dying. The pace picks up quickly and at a blaring page-turning velocity near its conclusion. The action is well played out with an open ending.
This is the first in a trilogy. I am certainly going to read the next installment when it becomes available. Four and a 1/2 stars rounded up to five for this exciting and well written monster horror story.
All my life my Number One criterion for Horror has been Implacability: No Escape. No Avoidance. No Postponement. Your Number is Up and Your Time is Gone. You, Vulnerable Mortal, are History. So when the tagline for HUNTED (Book One of the Abarath Chronicles caught my eye: "IT'S COMING AND THERE'S NO ESCAPE " of course there was no longer any possibility of escape for me. Lyrical literate Horror with an incredible protagonist, for goodness' sake a FECKLESS FEMALE HERO, one who has suffered, failed, persevered, racked with Nightmares and Guilt, and she's battling Herself, Man, Memory, Nature, IN THE ARCTIC CIRCLE!!
This is a great book! The main character, Katrina, is a strong but wounded woman. The story begins with strange people at on rusty icebreaker in the Arctic Circle. The beginning grows up to a plunge into a wreck lost in the ice, and the suspense and problems continue to a fever level. New issues occur again and over as the diverse people locked into the ice when the icebreaker springs a leak. Each of the character is unusual, and the interactions are exciting and entertaining. As new information is found, the problems get more suspenseful. The final ending is satisfying but wanted me to get immediate next book in the series. The action creates great images and draws the reader deeper to the story.
Yes! Yes! Yes! THIS is how you write a great horror story! Your imagination kicks into overdrive from the first chapter- being in complete darkness with just a small light and a Great White shark to being in dark, frigid waters with a blood-thirsty unknown beast! The characters are well developed and the situations are easily seen in the minds eye. Gory, gut-wrenching, panic and trepidation stays throughout the entire tale from start to finish. I can't wait to dive into book 2!
Open waters are terrifying. Well, at least to me. But I do think that the characters written by Damian Dawes in his novel Hunted would agree with me after meeting the Abarath. A viscous creature that only has one goal- to eat you.
Katrina Robbins is a damaged woman whose life has been rough so far. She takes a job on an icebreaker in the Arctic Circle with a crew of misfits. It’s already one hell of a job, but when the seemingly greedy captain let’s some tourists join the ride, things go to hell a lot quicker than expected.
Dawes’ writing and pacing are pretty unique to me, and I’m not saying that in a bad way. He uses short and sometimes clipped sentences to create a hectic and dramatic environment, and it works. His monster, the Abarath, is also extremely well thought out, and also pretty repulsive, which is just how I like it.
The death scenes are gore galore, and the author is able to paint a pretty vivid picture. Some deaths were satisfying and some rather sad, but that depends on how much Dawes helped us like/dislike the character. So, prepare to be elated at the Abarath finally catching up with your most hated character, or draw in a shocked breath when it’s someone you really liked (no hints from me!).
Overall, a well written, fast paced action-horror book!
I have never had a book give me actual nightmares before. The creature was painted so vividly and the story was so morbid but I couldn’t stop. It was better than any scary movie I have seen.
A well done creepy what is hiding in the water horror plot. My dog barked a few times at peak suspense moments - I highly recommend lol. After surviving a near fatal shark attack, Katrina finds herself on an old ice breaker ship in the Artic. Along with a vodka soaked captain, Norwegian second mate, tourists, creepy mechanic and a loner diver. Katrina also dives - taking medication to help her cope, face her fears; definitely plants her as the total badass of this story. Discovery of an old wreck inspires the Captain to plot the course - an ominous site with something lurking around. Katrina gets a peak as her blood dips into the water - the scent calling to the beast. Creepy. Suspense. Goo. Unlikeable characters. Urban legend. Excellent story.
The chapters of this chilling, atmospheric horror/thriller are written from the perspectives of a number of vivid individuals including feisty Katrina (Kat) heroic Tor, seriously slimy Harris and the mysterious Robinson. Kat had once been a respected scuba diver until a terrifying encounter with a shark had left her life,body and confidence in tatters. Two years later,she now works on the Vladyka Mira, a ice breaker that Kat is certain only manages to stay afloat due to all the rust that holds it together and stops the vessel from sinking into the frozen depths of the Arctic Ocean.
Kat's dreams (whenever she actually got the opportunity to get some sleep) were haunted by terrifying visions of shapes emerging out of the darkness and tiny hands pulling at her insides. Some nights, when not only her night light helped to keep her terrors at bay, to ensure that she at least got some rest,she found herself relying on her special little pills. But,little did she realise that during The Vladyka Mira's latest voyage, Kat's nightmares will be the least of her worries after a unscheduled visit to a shipwreck will result in the awakening of a ancient evil. Kat and the other individuals aboard the ship swiftly find themselves caught up in a breath taking, action packed battle for survival with a cold blooded, ruthless killer.
The story opens with a intense chapter which covers the events that changed Kat's life. Then it moves forwards in time and we are introduced to the various characters whom Kat will be interacting with throughout the story. They were a eclectic mix of realistic individuals and personalities, some likeable,some not so likeable,a couple of whom I really hoped were going to suffer seriously nasty and painful deaths. There is good old classic horror movie vibe permeating the plot of this intense, spine chilling, atmospheric battle for survival between man and a ancient force of evil within the claustrophobic confines of a sinking ship. The reader is hardly given the opportunity to remember to breath as you are launched through a series of action packed scenes as the story rockets towards its breath taking conclusion and the author ramps the edge of your seat tension to the max. I would love to watch a film or tv adaptation of this outstanding debut and l look forward to reading the other two titles in the trilogy. A absolutely bloody brilliant read that is very very highly recommended by little old me
This is horror at its goriest. I was uncomfortable throughout this whole action packed story! I have "a thing" about drowning. I hate the bitter cold. This story takes place in the Arctic ocean, on an old rusted out ice chewing ship. Ugh! Throw in an upright, food obsessed, blood sucking monster, crew members and passengers with secrets, action that never stops. And wow! This is the first book in a trilogy. Be warned. Not all is solved. You will want to read on.
I received an ARC and these are my honest opinions.
What I liked: The plot is great, and the author does a really good job of keeping the tension going for the duration of the book.
What I didn't like: The characters are mostly extraordinarily unpleasant, so much so that it was kind of off-putting. There's also some upsetting descriptions of dying polar bears, so if that bothers you I'd skip this one.
Three stars, because I didn't love it but I didn't hate it either.
Taking us back to the dying days of the Cold War in 1983, Hunted features an apparently unlikely collaboration: the Vladyka Mira, an ex-Soviet icebreaker, is now owned by maverick Russian captain Belov and (under) crewed by a collection of misfits from both sides of the Iron Curtain. Ostensibly engaged on a scientific mission, Belov's happy to take tourists too, on the sly.
The focus of the book is on Kat Robbins, a diver enlisted for the research work but who has some secrets of her own. Perhaps they might explain why she's buried herself away at the end of the earth, abandoned her boyfriend and gets by on drugs? But perhaps they are a luxury that will cost her, fatally distracting Kat from whatever it is that's out there. On the ice. In the cold.
I really enjoyed this story which is pitched somewhere between the supernatural - the creature we encounter has apparently inspired dark legends among the Indigenous peoples of the Arctic, but is all to physical in its actions - and a thriller: the focus on dive hardware, the deficiencies of the ship and that lurking East-West split put me in mind of full-throated adventure novels where survival is all about reading the environment, thinking quickly and understanding risk.
Speaking of which - Captain Belov seems to have lost his ability to cope with risk. Seemingly a bit of a cliché at the start (a drunken Russian sailor) Dawes rather cleverly turns him inside out, letting us see where he's from and how he got there, rather than just letting him stay a swaying, inebriated stereotype. He does the same with all the characters here: the awful businessman who's booked passage aboard and his rather crushed wife, the couple of sad academics, Dave - Kat's fellow diver - and perhaps most of all, the ship's engineer, a truly awful character, a stalker and abuser who, nevertheless, Kat is forced to rely on in one particularly claustrophobic episode.
Hunted is full of that kind of dark menace: threats from the unknown horror outside but also from the monsters aboard the ship who - frankly - can be just as dangerous and difficult to defend from. There is a lot said here about how the "monster" out there is purse evil. I have to say I had my doubts - isn't it an animal doing what animals do? (Though, as this is just volume 1, there are also hints of more - so perhaps it'll turn not to be). On the other hand we do see some truly evil human behaviour, with the plight of a starving Polar bear and her cub pointing up the wider impact of climate change.
Overall this makes it an atmospheric and scary piece of writing. There's much to discover in this book.
This book really disappointed me, honestly half way thought I made a game out of all of the creepy and disgusting crap he could stuff into this book. My friends and I have had a crossed out laugh from some of things said here. There was a lot of triggering content in this book, but it’s horror so it’s expected sometimes but in this instance they were used purely for shock value and not to propel or bring anything to the story. Now this book clearly wants for me, but it might be up your ally
Thank you Dark Night Horror for sending me this eBook in a giveaway in exchange for an honest review.
As I've been trying to get more into the horror genre when I come across this giveaway I was very intrigued. This story is set in the 80s during the Cold War. Our main character Kat works on an icebreaker in the Artic Circle. Kat and her crew of misfits are not the sharing type which is great because there are secrets in Kat's past she doesn't feel she can share and still feels much guilt. However, while she thought she could use this vessel to escape the nightmares of her past, a new nightmare has boarded the ship and could be around any corner. Now the question is who is the hunter and the hunted by the end of this nightmare?
It took me a while to get into this story but once the suspense continued to build up it didn't stop. The author did an amazing job with the descriptions and really gave the story the tension and stakes you want in a horror. However, my issue was that I had difficulty connecting to the crew and the main character. They all felt like they were written with kind of the same tone and it made it difficult to distinguish who was talking to whom in the story. I really want to read more by this author even though I didn't like this book as much as I wanted.
I have always been fascinated by icebreaker ships that trundle through the frozen, arctic waters to reach places that very few people get to see. However, when you think about it it is an incredibly scary thought. What happens if the ice becomes too thick to traverse the ocean and the ship becomes mired. Throw a "monster" in the mix and you have a really cool concept.
Hunted is an exceedingly entertaining horror novel that succeeds in scaring the pants off of, grossing out, and utterly thrilling its audience with a plot and story that are never static. Even though the novel takes place over a very short period of time the 300 or so pages seem to fly by at a breakneck pace.
The characters seem very real and not at all stereoptypical or cartoonist which is quite nice to see in an independently published horror novel. However, many of the characters are quite unpleasant, so be warned that some of them are just kind of gross. This book borders on extreme horror so that should not be surprise to anyone.
The author does not set out to reinvent the wheel here with the monster in this story, and that is never a problem. This monster is disturbing to the extreme, nevertheless and suspense is built quite deftly.
A cool setting, a truly scary monster, and a thrill-a-minute story make this a much better than average horror book.
If you are a thrill fan and don't mind your horror gory, this is your book.
Highly recommended!
4/5
I received this ebook for free in exchange for an honest review.
The horror aspect of this book is decent. There were times that I could feel the horror that the characters must be feeling, yet it wasn't so strong that I had any physical reactions to the horror.
I am interested in reading book 2 and 3, even though I only gave a rating of 3 stars. The drop in stars was mostly due to some of the details that I really just didn't need. They were things that didn't add to the horror aspect and were just gross. I'm not sure what reader would want to read the details that are too way over the top.
Spoiler alert: don't read farther if you don't want to know the gross stuff. I do not need a play-by-play of an old, dirty, lazy old man masturbating.....does not add to the horror, just shows he is an ass and does a lot of bad stuff. I don't need the play by play of some guy taking a dump on the toilet because the food is upsetting his stomach...this does not add to the horror. This stuff is just GROSS and gross does not equal horror.
I wasn’t sure if I was going to like this book at first but the more I read the deeper the hook sank. This book will keep you up late into the night and might even produce some nightmares (when and if you fall asleep, that is). Hunted will suck you in and leave you wanting more. I can not wait for the rest of the series to be available! (Like I really can’t wait, can we have an early release?) Would highly recommend this book if you like spooky legends of the deep and strong but flawed female leads. 10/10
Ok it was good but I don't like reading about animals getting killed or hurt. I wish writers would not write about it. It really bothers me. So please don't use animals getting killed and hurt in your books.