David Masumba asked Alma Katsu:

When you wrote THE HUNGER how did you manage to create a monster with so much humanity?

Alma Katsu A great question! It didn't happen right away. (Warning: Spoilers) When I was doing research, Keseberg jumped out as the obvious villain. He admitted to cannibalism, he practically bragged about it, and there was so much speculation that he may have killed people to save himself. But then there was the usual writing problem: he wore on the reader's nerves because he was such a one-note character. At the same time, the horror element--what was behind what was going on? was it a Native American creature, a werewolf, something else?--changed from the original idea. Once the "it" shifted to something in the blood, then Keseberg's role became clearer: he was a carrier, and maybe as much a victim as villain, and so sharing his backstory (at least a little bit) became important.

Short answer: it was very complicated and evolved over time. The beauty of revision.

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