Book Review: Dog Blood by David Moody

Danny McCoyne watched as the world changed around him. Everyday people suddenly turned on one another, fighting and killing without any rhyme or reason. The ones who turned violent were called Haters, filled with an insatiable desire to destroy the unchanged. And Danny found himself among the changed.

But that was months ago. Since then, the government has evacuated the unchanged into large hubs, cramming them into any open spaces like cattle, rationing food, and doing what they can to protect them. The Haters roam freely about the countryside, searching out the unchanged who were left behind to destroy them. And Danny fights right alongside them, but he also has other plans. He needs to find his daughter Ellis who's like him now, and he will stop at nothing to being her to safety.

The story unfolds from Danny's point of view, from the mindset of a Hater, and only briefly diverts to the crowded compound of the unchanged. Not a very unusual approach to storytelling, but as the reader -- and someone who is technically unchanged by the story's standards -- I found myself cheering Danny on. Even though he's changed, the events of the past few months still managed to surprise him, how much the fighting has devastated not only their regular lives, but changed the face of towns and cities: empty buildings, smoldering cars, bodies in every state of decomposition imaginable scattered everywhere. I empathized with him at the struggle of finding his child and doing whatever it took to save her, even though that meant battling against people like me, but that didn't matter. I still wanted him to succeed.

The characters are as compelling as the story: Danny as a Hater who still finds some bit of humanity in the hope that his daughter is alive; the Brutes, as they're know -- almost SuperHaters, they will kill anything, no matter who or what it is; Sahota and Julia, Haters who have found a way to control their urge to kill the unchanged; Lizzie, Danny's wife who smuggled their daughter Ellis into an unchanged compound; and many others. The Brutes were a surprise to me, something that even the Haters feared. A nice, unexpected touch.

Dog Blood is a gritty and violent sequel to last year's Hater. One thing I love about this book is that reading Hater isn't necessary to follow the action. Author David Moody provides enough backstory without rehashing or summarizing to get Danny and the reader into the thick of things. But the backstory also makes you want to read the first novel, just to gain a better understanding of what the heck happened to the world.

Dog Blood spins an engrossing tale of family and survival in a world gone mad. A wonderful read and highly recommended.

Dog Blood
by David Moody
Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press
ISBN: 978-0-312-53288-8
Softcover, 272p.

Book received free from Publisher

Image from David Moody.