Reviews

1. 

   Alistair Davies – January 20, 2017

   “Jeff Todd has produced a terrific piece of writing—well paced and well sustained throughout. The style of narration moves very quickly—essentially cinematic—although the rapid movement and the use of short sections are very much within the modernist tradition. Storm of Hate creates a vivid world and characters who are very deftly articulated—along with a mood of difficulty and of loss which is entirely convincing.”
   -Alistair Davies, Professor of English literature, University of Sussex

2. 

   Catherine Harland – January 20, 2017

   “Jeff Todd has written a powerful and compelling story about the chaos, anguish and suffering of Hurricane Katrina as it was experienced by a cross-section of ordinary people. New Orleans is represented with intensity and immediacy and the characters are uniquely genuine. The novel builds in suspense and anxiety as it moves toward the especially well-realized, horrifying events and squalid conditions of the Superdome. A fine first novel.”
   -Catherine Harland, Professor of English literature, Queen’s University

3. 

   Gene Allen – January 20, 2017

   “Storm of Hate is a powerful story about the struggle to survive amid the chaos of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. Author Jeff Todd paints a vivid and affecting picture of fragile hopes, personal tragedy and social breakdown. Peopled with memorable characters, the novel straddles and exposes the divisions of life in New Orleans: black and white; rich and poor; those born lucky, those searching for a modicum of happiness, and those whose chances were blighted from the start.”
   -Gene Allen, Associate professor of Journalism, Ryerson University

4. 

   Edward L. Greenspan – January 20, 2017

   “This tense and turbulent novel is concisely written and a great read. Jeff seamlessly weaves together the characters’ lives and choices before the storm with their conduct when tested by unimaginable circumstances after the levees break.

   Storm of Hate is a vivid, memorable, well-crafted novel, and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys great works of historical fiction.”
   -Edward L. Greenspan, Senior Partner at Greenspan Partners

5. 

   Amazon Review by Colin Knight – January 20, 2017

   “In August, 2005 Hurricane Katrina decimated New Orleans. Unlike human conflict, Katrina ignored wealth, status, race, and religion; every citizen became a victim, everyone suffered. While secure armchair viewers watched the `big picture’ through modern media, thousands of individual life and death, good and bad, moral and immoral struggles occurred among, and across, entrenched socioeconomic and cultural lines.

   Storm of Hate by Jeff Todd delves behind the `big picture’ and plunges the reader into the chaotic, traumatic and devastating aftermath of Katrina on an individual basis. By weaving together the experience of three different groups, each with their own lead character, and infusing them with layer after layer of individual human failings, Todd lays bare the unpleasant possibilities of how some people can react to, be misguided by, or even exploit human tragedies.

   Storm of Hate is not a glossy, uplifting story of selfless sacrifice and contains no `made for TV’ heroes: It is a real story; a gritty story; a story that will forever change the way you sit back in your armchair and watch the next `big picture’ catastrophe.”
   -Amazon Review by Colin Knight

6. 

   Amazon Review by Pirch – January 20, 2017

   “Wasn’t sure how I would find this novel but having had friends who went through Hurricane Andrew and seeing how they were after and listening to their stories about the during and after, this novel rings true in terms of the anger, depression, apathy, fear, etc.

   The characters and their situations very visual and I found myself thinking that this would be a great movie. Although it didn’t bring a lot of depth to the why’s of what happened, it was a real slice of what did happen.”
   -Amazon Review by Pirch

7. 

   Amazon Review by WritingRightNow – January 20, 2017

   “On 29 August 2005 Katrina became the deadliest and most destructive Atlantic hurricane and remains the world’s costliest natural disaster. Storm of Hate by Jeff Todd provides a startling insight into its human cost based on actual witness accounts and paints a graphic picture of the aftermath of Katrina through the eyes of rich, poor, media, emergency and security services.

   It’s reported that over 1,836 people died during the hurricane (wind speeds were recorded at 175 mph) and in the subsequent floods, making it the deadliest U.S. hurricane since 1928. Approximately 1.2 million Gulf Coast residents were affected by evacuation orders. The author captures the anguish of losing your home, the strength of spirit required to overcome family bereavement and the incredible endurance needed to survive at all costs within the New Orleans Superdome – which was supposed to be a sanctuary but became an incarnation of hell on earth.

   Todd weaves `Storm of Hate’ around the lives of three district groups. Janna and Nate the poorly educated inter-racial couple living in an area of social and economic depravation and so wrapped up in their own personal dramas that they don’t act on the incoming danger. However, as 80% of New Orleans becomes flooded due to the hurricane surge protection failures, considered to be the worst civil engineering disaster in U.S history, dark waters close in around them and they begin a desperate climb to reach the roof of their home. Only one will prevail, but perhaps it’s the survivor who is unlucky as they begin a journey across the New Orleans wasteland with its landscape of looting, violence, carjacking, murders, thefts and rape in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

   Elsewhere, Darren who is a SWAT officer, barely hangs on to his humanity as he vainly tries to maintain a resemblance of order within the Superdome. According to some reports, the National Guard and federal troops (who nearly numbered forty seven thousand) could `shoot to Kill’ if deemed necessary following comments attributed to the Louisiana Governor as disaster declarations covered 90,000 square miles of the United States; an area almost as large as the United Kingdom. Within the Superdome hours become days, and as the food runs out the crowds anger focuses on the police within an increasingly menacing, claustrophobic and overcrowded environment that has long since passed its capacity to cope.

   The final part of this tragic and traumatic trilogy revolves around Ronald, a criminally greedy businessman trapped in a luxury hotel and fixated on money and status, all at the expense of humility and compassion. His aim being to cash-in on the anticipated $150 billion repair package for Louisiana and Mississippi and profit from the misery of others.

   Due to death toll and destruction along the Gulf Coast the name Katrina was officially retired by the U.S. government – never again to be used for another North Atlantic hurricane. However, it won’t stop the next rage of nature, or alleviate the grief of the families of those 135 people who still remain categorised as missing in Louisiana following the Storm of Hate.”
   -Amazon Review by WritingRightNow