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0pen_b00ks's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Car accident, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
nnannanna's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.5
The characters in this series are not loveable or relatable to me in any level. Maybe it's because I'm older and able to see past the teenage romance. Every girl in the book is valued only for their looks and they're also written to act accordingly. I didn't find any moment when there would be interesting dialogue with the women in the book. Yet every time some male character meets a new girl she is described as "beautiful" or "pretty". Also the way Mary's eating disorder is handled in a book aimed at teenagers is very cringeworthy and possibly harmful. She is described as "model thin" and how "weight loss made her look good". I did not enjoy the book, just finished to get it done with.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Body shaming, Sexism, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship
nytephoenyx's review against another edition
dark
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.25
I can see why this series snares readers - the slow-building tension and the variety of voices makes it interesting and widely appealing for the casual reader. Alas, with Hunger I will personally be calling it quits.
There were multiple things that made Hunger concerning for me.
The first is the sheer amount of POVs. Gone already had twelve POVs. Off the top of my head, there's at least nineteen POVs in Hunger. Almost every single character that has a name in Hunger has at least one chapter written in their perspective... there may be 5 characters that don't. I'm all for multiple POVs, but I think nearing twenty is a bit excessive. It takes forever for the plot to move. I'm sure Grant is building for events in the other books, but I found the pacing lag as I read, and I was getting bored. It was just... really slow-paced. And somewhat excessive. For example, I think Dekka as a character was great - it's awesome to have a Black character POV and I love that there's LGBTQ+ rep. But her chapters were fluff. The story would have moved more quickly by leaving her as a supporting character.
And while we're talking about Dekka... let's throw in Edilio and Duck as well. After a little while, the diversity in Hunger started to feel very token. The readers knew were diverse only because they told other characters in dialogue, or in Duck's case, thought about it themselves. There is none of the richness of diversity of real communities. It was flat and poorly represented. I'm not Black, Asian, or Honduran - I'd love to hear from own voices readers on the representation of these characters. As an outsider.. it felt... stiff. The dialogue was uncomfortable for me when the characters announced their diversity. Maybe it's just me?
While we're talking about cringiness... lets talk about Little Pete. I lost count how many times the "r" word has been used between Gone and Hunger. The ableism of the characters in this book is one thing (and largely unchallenged, too, which is another problem)... but I'm not sure I'm comfortable with the way Grant used Pete's autism to build this world. I wonder how much (if at all) the author researched autism before writing him? When Hunger was published, sensitivity readers were less common; in the modern era, I like to think the publishing house would have noted Grant's ableist depiction of Pete and sought sensitivity readers. Pete is constantly "othered" and because this is a series for young adults (and a very popular one at that) there is some responsibility to be kind and accurate in portraying autistic characters. As well as the racial diverse characters, characters across the sexuality spectrum.... everyone.
There's a lot of cruelty and hateful language in Hunger. Given the state of the world they're living in and their depleting food supplies, this is not unexpected but it was uncomfortable. There a poorly-handled representation of an eating disorder (my understanding is this gets worse as the series continues) as well as an attempted lynching. It's unsettling, but not in the way The Hunger Games is unsettling. It's in a world a little too close to modernity, so maybe it was just uncomfortable for me... but I also think there were some choices and language used that were overly cruel and not challenged.
The lack of challenging these things was the most difficult for me. Have your villains be villainous. But your heroes should balance them out.
This book is dark, and it's okay that it's dark... but it feels written a bit carelessly. There was so much going on with the characters (or rather... not really going on but we needed to see it all) that the plot crawled by, and by the end of the book, I wasn't sucked in. I was relieved. It has the feel of a work by an already successful author who is churning out books with little care of the worlds and people within them. The only thing I will personally remember from Hunger is how utterly disappointed I was with the development of the characters and the carelessness of the language.
Perhaps I'm a crone, but I think there are far better books for young adults out there than this series, especially because it is so haphazard with its language and the token depiction of diverse characters. An intriguing dystopian storyline and an adult-free world does not forgive these things.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child death, Death, Eating disorder, Hate crime, and Violence
Moderate: Drug use and Gun violence
Minor: Animal death, Fatphobia, and Cannibalism
pumpkinvegetable's review
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Eating disorder, Gore, and Violence
Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child death, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, and Fatphobia