Title: The Hungry Earth

Author: Nicholas Kaufmann

Release date: October 5th, 2021

Huge shout out to my buddy Shane aka bookzrkool on Instagram for kicking me in the butt about reading this one. It had been on my radar but it was his review and subsequent messages about how awesome it was that had me bump this waaaayyy up my TBR!

Way back in 1995, a movie came out that scared me to my core. ‘Outbreak’ rocketed into our tiny theatre in Nakusp and I watched it with the growing sense that I could never touch the surface of anything ever again. Of course, years went by and now Covid has hit and the same fear I had during that movie permeates my life throughout this pandemic.

But, Kaufmann has decided to up the ante with inducing fear and decided to focus the story on the horrendous reality of what fungus and their spores can do and in short order. I’ve always been weary about fungi and now this novel has taken that worry and ramped it up.

What I liked: The story follows small town doctor Laura, who, after several unexpected deaths, begins to unravel the reality of what is truly happening. Aided by her former significant other, Booker, the two discover that a massive fungus has taken hold in the community garden and begins to control each host body as the spores infect more and more.

I really enjoyed the pacing of this one and Kaufmann does a great job of keeping things concise and to the point, while also painting expansive scenes throughout. This book says its only 186 pages long, but the heft and meat of the story feels like you’ve just read a 1,000 page book stopper.

The characters are great, even the ones purposefully done to annoy you or anger you and the way that the resolution occurs was fantastic. It had me smiling and it didn’t feel forced or too far-fetched.

What I didn’t like: I will say, even though I really enjoyed the characters (even the incredibly annoying one from the development company), I think the post-credit style scene that was included was almost unnecessary. If there is going to be a further entry and this is becoming a series, then fine, necessary, but personally it didn’t to much for me.

Why you should buy this: I personally struggle to want to read zombie books and I’m also staying far away from virus type books, so this was a refreshing take and look at mass infection/people under control and becoming mindless beings. Kaufmann really ramps things up and throughout, even with the idea of hope and potential for success, does a great job of constantly pumping the breaks and making things bleak at all the right moments.

This was a blast!

4/5