Hungry Things

An American Folk Horror Story

Fiction - Horror
156 Pages
Reviewed on 07/22/2026
Buy on Amazon

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    Book Review

Reviewed by Carmen Tenorio for Readers' Favorite

Hungry Things by Andy Corbett follows Tom Hunt, a machinist in Poquoson, Virginia. His everyday life is affected by an ancient evil in the Chesapeake marshes. In the first part, Tom collapses at work and then finds out he has terminal cancer. He spends many nights thinking through his past and the mysterious and persistent force that followed him since he was a kid. The next part jumps back to the 1980s, where a younger Tom goes wandering through the marshes with his father. He has a frightening run-in with a supernatural entity. He comes out traumatized but still breathing. Fast forward twenty years, and Tom tries to live a quiet life until a college student disappears after poking around the same marsh. Tom realizes this has stirred the old horror that lived there. He attempts to control things using his grim experience as a boy. Will Tom be able to rescue the latest victim and stop this horrific cycle? What sacrifice will it take?

Hungry Things by Andy Corbett is folk horror mixed with coming-of-age and supernatural suspense. Tom Hunt’s fight with terminal cancer runs alongside his fight against an ancient evil. It’s about courage, acceptance, and the search for meaning. It circles mortality, grief, family, and sacrifice. The pacing allows every story beat to land with the most impact. The first chapters introduce the characters, set the atmosphere, and pull you straight into the coastal marshland culture and landscape. As the mystery thickens, the tension keeps up until it reaches a suspenseful finale that’s emotionally satisfying. There are intense supernatural encounters that are genuinely frightening. Tom maturing from a curious boy to someone selfless gives the whole character arc emotional weight. The story itself is haunting, atmospheric, reflective, and tragic too. Corbett’s writing style is vivid, descriptive, and immersive. It brings the marsh setting to life while still keeping the suspense moving forward alongside emotional undercurrents. Recommended for anyone who enjoys supernatural mysteries, character-driven stories, and horror.

Doreen Chombu

Hungry Things by Andy Corbett is a haunting story centered on Tom Hunt's life. While living in Poquoson with his father, a young Tom witnesses Archie, one of the local sailors, discover a megalodon tooth in the marshes. Tom is obsessed with finding a tooth and goes on dangerous adventures searching in the marshes. Unfortunately, Tom has a harrowing encounter with a monster. He is called to the marshes by a mysterious entity and goes missing for days. He somehow escapes the monster's grip, and when he is found, he is near death. Years later, Tom meets Jesse, a young man who is being haunted by the same entity that almost took Tom's life. Tom tries to help him, but the monster takes Jesse's life. When Tom learns he has a lung disease from his years of smoking, he sees an opportunity to make one last stand against the monster from the marshes, vowing to take it with him to his grave.

Hungry Things pulls you right into a town that feels both familiar and unsettling. At first, it’s just a sleepy fishing town, and nothing seems out of the ordinary. Andy Corbett does a fantastic job of making you care about the people who live there, capturing all the small, everyday details that make the place feel real, but just when you start to feel comfortable, the story takes a sharp turn. Suddenly, the calm breaks and you’re dragged through eerie marshes and haunted waters, not sure what’s lurking around the next corner. The tension never lets up, and I found myself flipping pages, not knowing what to expect. What’s really intriguing is how Corbett weaves together local ghost stories, bits of war history, and even real environmental dangers to increase the horror factor. At the center of it all is a villain that feels ripped from old folklore, something that gets under your skin both mentally and physically, making you afraid to look over your shoulder. I was genuinely terrified reading about it. The book was easy to read and has some art that makes it visually appealing. I truly enjoyed this book and how it covers survival and the fight against nameless, horrific forces.

Jamie Michele

Andy Corbett’s Hungry Things is an American folk horror novel about Tom Hunt, a Poquoson machinist who learns that cancer has spread through his body. The diagnosis sends him back to the Big Marsh, the salt-marsh country that nearly killed him when he was fourteen. In the summer of 1984, a megalodon tooth found by waterman Archie Gibbs pushed young Tom into taking his father Henry’s skiff into old bombing grounds beyond Back River. Lost in tidal creeks among horseflies above buried ordnance, Tom heard something call his name from the mud. Decades later, college student Jesse Loftus arrives at Tom’s door after surviving his own encounter in the marsh. With time running out and the same voice rising again, Tom has to face what the marsh has been feeding.

“It had been waiting. Waiting in the mud, in the tide, in the slow forgetting of this place.” Andy Corbett’s Hungry Things is brilliant horror, and Corbett makes Poquoson feel alive before the monster ever rises. I love that Tom is introduced through a machinist’s routine before the cough brings up black sludge, because the ordinary workday makes his fear believable once the marsh calls him back. The father-son writing is my favorite part. Henry Hunt, Tom’s single dad, is sketched through Manwich after work while Godzilla plays on the couch, so their bond has a rough, loving ease. Jesse Loftus, the college student who later brings Tom proof that the marsh is still active, gives the book a second survivor while keeping Tom’s story first. Well written and genuinely frightening, readers who enjoy horror rooted in land and memory will adore this.

Makeda Cummings

Hungry Things by Andy Corbett follows Tom, a blue-collar worker living on the edge of the ancient Poquoson salt marshes, who receives a medical timeline indicating he has only months to live. This frightening reality forces him to look back at a dark milestone from his childhood on the Virginia peninsula. When he was a teen, an unauthorized boating trip ended with him getting lost in a labyrinth of tidal creeks, where a terrifying parasitic entity hunted him and altered his behavior. Decades later, a local college student named Jesse knocks on his door, haunted by the same supernatural events he once experienced. As Tom learns more about this ancient evil, he’s also forced to devise a plan to confront the darkness directly. But will he succeed in overcoming this relentless parasitic monster before time runs out?

Hungry Things by Andy Corbett is a thrilling work of atmospheric horror that turns a quiet coastal setting into a playground of pure psychological terror. The narrative keeps you hooked because Corbett weaves the local maritime world right into the fabric of the storytelling. Tom’s development is beautifully done, giving us a front-row seat to a quiet man forced to face his deepest regrets and the unspoken trauma of his family’s past survival. The book glides effortlessly between the eras, maintaining an addictive pace that naturally cranks up the suspense. The narrative voice feels very true to life, capturing the exact way local watermen speak, interact, and guard their spaces. Altogether, the story leaves you with a haunting look at survival and bravery, tracking one ordinary worker as he takes on a dark, cyclical debt that relentlessly demands a final payment. Fans of eerie folklore and slow-burning mysteries will definitely love getting lost in this book.

Luwi Nyakansaila

Hungry Things by Andy Corbett is a captivating paranormal drama that follows Tom Hunt, a lifelong resident of Poquoson, Virginia. Tom and his father might have been abandoned by his mother, but they have the simplest life. Saturdays mean fishing trips, nights are for movies, and it all feels peaceful. Until one afternoon, when Archie, a local waterman, stumbles across a massive megalodon tooth buried in the marsh. From that moment on, Tom can’t shake the urge to go out there and find one. He secretly goes to the marsh on his own, but something mysterious starts calling him back to the marsh and making him sick. Tom miraculously survives the entity. Years later, Tom learns that he has a medical condition that will lead to his death in a few months and that the entity from the marsh has returned. He decides to confront it and make sure it never hurts anyone ever again.

Hungry Things bounces between everyday moments and strange, otherworldly twists. It is an unpredictable drama that keeps you guessing the whole time. Andy Corbett mixes gritty realism with the supernatural, tossing in little details about World War II bombs and classic movies, then surprises you with mythology and ancient monsters lurking in the shadows. The suspense builds steadily. When you reach the climax, it’s genuinely gripping. Tom Hunt, the main character, stands out. He’s not some over-the-top hero. He just feels real, an ordinary man who likes to keep life simple, but you can tell he’s wrestling with heavy memories. The setting jumps between the 1980s and the 2020s, and Corbett nails the atmosphere of each era. He makes you feel like you’re living through those decades right along with Tom. The book is about survival and sacrifice. It is also about being brave, even when you’re staring death in the face. The story lingers with you, not just because of the creepy, ancient evil lurking around, but because it reminds you just how strong and stubborn the human spirit can be. Overall, Hungry Things is a memorable read. If you love supernatural stories that feel grounded in real life, especially when they dig into local legends, you’ll want this one on your shelf.