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m4ferglez's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I still enjoyed it a lot, but I do think it pales a little in front of the previous novel, and everyone being on the verge of starvation gets unnerving and a little repetitive pretty soon. Also some of these kids are psychopaths to an unbelievable extent, which contrasts with how realistic the story is at other points.
Graphic: Ableism, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Gun violence, and Injury/Injury detail
sitrisummoned's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Eating disorder, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Violence, Blood, and Murder
Moderate: Alcoholism, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit
Minor: Ableism, Drug abuse, and Drug use
sunniva174's review against another edition
- 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
4.5
Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Child death, Confinement, Eating disorder, Hate crime, Mental illness, Torture, and Violence
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Kidnapping, Murder, and Alcohol
Minor: Cannibalism
0pen_b00ks's review against another edition
- 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
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
rachel1's review against another edition
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Amazing, easy to get addicted.
This is the sequel to Gone. I've waited a few months after reading Gone to reading this because I've read an extract which was pretty gruesome, but I regret that. It's brilliant. A book where everyone over 15 disappears, and on your 15th birthday, you disappear, or "poof", too. In this, a major conflict in Gone, which is poofing on your 15th birthday, is resolved. Now a new conflict is rising, a conflict that some could argue is even worse than poofing: starvation. People eating cats and dogs, eating grass, 14 year-old alcoholics, people as young as 9 smoking pot and some people thinking of even resorting to cannibalism. But that's not all. Another major conflict in the 1st book is talking coyotes and something called the Darkness, who pretty much is a demon that possesses people. And that's still a problem in this book. The Darkness is revealed to have a name - the Gaiaphage - and is hungry too. It needs radiation. So it makes Caine get radiation from the town's power plant and leaves the FAYZ in total darkness. People are thinking of stepping out, which is pretty much committing suicide. It's where you choose to poof, even though you have the option to live even when you turn 15. Also, more and more people are developing powers and a gang called the Human Crew pretty much tortures people with powers, whom they call freaks. There are giant mutated worms who eat people. It deals with mature topics, some I've already mentioned like prejudice, suicide and torture, but also autism, eating disorders, LGBT+ people, depression, etc. There are a wide set of diverse, lovable and complex characters and instead of sticking to the point of view of just one character, it takes the point of view of a ton of characters, which some might not like, but I love. It helps develop the characters a lot. In Gone it kind of did that a bit, but I don't think they did it as much. The protagonist (though I don't know if I can even call him a protagonist since there's so many point of views from different characters, but whatever) has developed a lot and has become more interesting and more conflicted. It's amazing to see these characters when they first appeared to how they are now, they've developed so much. I think this is better, and darker, than Gone. This is what I wish every sequel could be like. It's amazing.
Graphic: Eating disorder, Suicide, and Torture
Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug use, Mental illness, and Cannibalism
It's all about a famine.thesawyerbean's review against another edition
- 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
3.5
Graphic: Ableism, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Cannibalism, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
abbieinwonderland's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Torture, Violence, Vomit, and Murder
nytephoenyx's review against another edition
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.25
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.
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