A very interesting take on vampires. Uses a lot more science and a lot less superstition than your average vampire book, and creates some very compelling characters. All around I really enjoyed this. I'd consider reading the other books as I liked it so much, but it really doesn't feel like it needed to be expanded upon at all.Fun note: I actually watched the movie before reading the book. It's also very enjoyable (but very different)... the book is better, but the movie has David Bowie in it, s...

While the movie didn't hold my interest as much as I thought it would, this book kept me up reading way past my bedtime like few other books have recently.The vampire mythology presented in this book is the main reason for my love of it. Not incredibly erotic (despite its claims), but definitely interesting in the same vein as I Am Legend by Richard Matheson. In both books, they try to scientifically describe the vampire (in The Hunger, Miriam - our only true vampire - is never actually called a...

2,5 stars.I really wanted to like this book. There were parts that were brilliant (Miriam's memories, the vampire lore, their hunger, basically everything that had to do with the vampires), but yet I kept feeling like something was missing. Even though I was thinking "Oh boy, this is really cool" while reading particular scenes, I didn't actually enjoy the book much, but I can't put my finger on why.Maybe I just didn't like the human characters and didn't care for them? That's probably it. I was...

I read this book as a teenager, and it still sticks in my mind. Miriam’s memories are horrific. Whitley Strieber has a way of coming up with some truly creepy and unsettling ideas about eternal life that made me shudder. The whole idea that these vampires are not able to die, no matter what happens to their body is truly ghastly if you think about it. Miriam is a monster, changing humans into vampires, knowing full well what will happen to her lovers. Yet Strieber always sympathizes with his mon...

THE HUNGER is a gripping, exciting, illuminating read. Strieber strikes out on a successful path through the psychological intricacies and intimacies that grow between predator and prey, the seduced and the seducer. There is real darkness here, human darkness and human pain, loss and despair. But also there is the pain of being inhuman, of being, by one's very nature, condemned to exist with a restless intelligence, an insurmountable will to survive, an utterly endless appetite. A mainstream, be...

I am a fan of the stylish 1983 film, but I had never read the book. I'm glad I finally picked it up for my Vampire theme reading. Although it differs greatly from the film, I was drawn in by vampire Miriam's story. I was less interested in Sarah's arc and the medical explanations of Miriam's—ahem—biological differences, but Strieber's smooth prose and keen observations kept the story moving. I look forward to reading the sequels.

This book follows two characters who eventually meet. One of them is a vampire weary of life on her own and who is always searching for a companion (it seems whoever she turns has an expiraton date) and one of them is a scientist trying to cure sleep problems and accidentally brushing upon expanding lifespan by altering sleep. The two views are very interesting because while following the vampire's plot line, one can feel empathy knowing what she's been through and her actions are absolutely jus...

A classic "vampire" book on which the even more classic film "The Hunger"(1983)was based. The opening film sequence where Deneuve and Bowie are spotting their prey in an 80s goth club while Peter Murphy sings "Bela Lugozi's Dead" is def. anthology.The book has a subtle eroticism to it (as well as the film). I liked how the author "saw" vampires: As creatures with less supernatural aspects and more human-like features as well as the mythology surrounding Miriam whose travel through time was fasci...

There’s no way around it: I did not enjoy reading this book. To be fair to the author, however, I must admit that I came to it out of long-standing fandom for the movie, starring Catherine Denueve, Susan Sarandon, and David Bowie. I’m sure that Strieber HATES that movie for what it did to his book. My experience was the opposite, however: for me the book failed in every way to live up to the movie. Which is totally unfair, because the book obviously came first, and can’t be held accountable for

In my opinion The Hunger is one of the great vampire novels of all time. The protagonist is a ravishing and ancient vampire, beautiful, talented, wealthy, able to walk in the sun but with one tragic flaw...she can't stand being. Her companions share in her wondrous lifestyle, traveling the world, inflecting pain and pleasure on those that interest them but unfortunately, not for long. They are doomed to wither and age in a couple of hundred years like her most current companion. She goes on a hu...

A true page turner. Well-written and smart. A wholly original vampire novel.

I was first drawn to this book because of the 1983 homonymous film starred by Catherine Deneuve, David Bowie and Susan Sarandon. The film is considered by some an 80’s whimsical experiment and it is definitely not a commonplace vampire story. Although I did not quite like the movie the first time I saw it, some disquieting elements of its plot convinced me that the book could be a very interesting read.Fortunately, I did not get disappointed: indeed, I found the book even better than the movie.

"The woman must literally be reliving her life," Tom said. "It must be a thousand times more vivid than a normal dream.""I hope it's been a nice life.""It hasn't," Sarah said. She knew that it was true." I have never read a book that so concisely illustrated that we, human or vampire, are all monsters. It was a vivid and brutal exploration of the hungers, of the love and hate, that drive us. Miriam and Sarah, vampire and human, each see the other as a predator, each see their own motivatio

I really liked this, it was a solid vampire novel. The main character, Miriam, is monstrous at times but I loved her wickedness. She takes on human lovers for companionship gives them her blood so they live extended lives but eventually her lovers age and wither away. John, her current lover, begins to age and Miriam panics & seeks out a way to stop his aging. Sarah a scientist researching immortality is targeted by Miriam. Miriam feels Sarah might hold the key to keeping John young. But as John...

Before reading this, I never imagined it was possible to hate every single important speaking character in a story, but here we are at The Hunger. I hated weird Miriam and the way she keeps her lovers alive, folded knees to chest in boxes, traveling the world for centuries with a woman who won't let them out or let them die. I hated stupid Sarah, and her stupid psycho idea that death was a curable disease, not a natural part of life. And I really hated Sarah's manipulative boyfriend who inwardly...

This review originally appeared on my blog, Books Without Any Pictures:http://bookswithoutanypictures.com/20...I work in a special library, rather than a public or academic one. That means that our collection is mostly work-related documents, rather than fun reading. But we have a staff book exchange there, and sometimes you come across a real gem. Right before I left for vacation, I was shelving books and came across The Hunger by Whitley Streiber. I have a thing for reading pulpy trash, and th...

The book is similar to the film, with a few changes. The book tells alot more of Miriam's backstory, and goes into vampire physiology in more detail. I thought the middle of the story got bogged down, and could have been better with some editing. An OK read.

Lots of sex, lots of violence, only one monkey eating another one alive. Pretty much as good as it gets for vampire fiction.

I had read this before, a long time ago. I remembered that I liked it and I thought I remembered how it ended but I guess not! I don't think I've ever read a vampire book where the author has so successfully shown us that vampires are not humans. Miriam is not human in the least. Whitley Strieber does a beautiful job with this. I love the flash backs! that's almost always my favorite part of any vampire book. I'm glad I took the time to reread this.

Whitley Strieber was always one of those authors that I'd heard of from the 1980s, had a handful of his paperbacks sitting on my shelf, but never pulled the trigger on. Maybe it was because he was kind of looked upon as a flake later on after he came out that he was abducted by aliens. Ever since, he's wrote almost exclusively on alien abduction. It's really too bad, because the other day I was looking for something different to read and my eyes kept coming back to THE HUNGER. After burning thro...