A review by emleemay
Hunger by Michael Grant

4.0

Whilst this book impressed me greatly, as did the first of the series, I found that there were still those little things that majorly irked me, even amid the fast-paced sci-fi and action told in a gripping and imaginative way; it was these little things that again prevented me from awarding the novel the 5 stars it would have otherwise deserved.

So what's the problem?
I can sum it up in two points:
1) Sam is a lame protagonist.
2) All the girls are 'cute'.

Let me explain.

Pointer number one: Sam is one of those over the top do-gooders that just don't exist in real life, let alone at fifteen. He is given too much credit for his age by the author and his character becomes increasingly unrealistic, Sam is essentially the very ideal stereotype of the 'good guy', the hero, the constant martyr for the greater good. Oh please, he's a fifteen year old guy in a town with no adults, he should be drinking like a fish and raiding the porn sections at the local stores. His self-pitying attitude also results in generating absolutely zero sympathy.

Pointer number two: The girls of this novel are teeth-grindingly useless. Astrid the genius is Sam's 'beautiful' girlfriend and the dark and seductive Diana is Caine's obedient sidekick. Nearly all the females are trophies and repeatedly described as 'hot' or 'cute'. They also need protecting. There is way too much of this:



And nowhere near enough of this:



Whatever happened to the ass-kicking female? She isn't in this book. Other readers might point out characters like Brianna and Lana as examples of strong females. However, in the heat of battle when Brianna is required to be strong, she instead decides to run away and cook herself a pigeon. What the hell?? And Lana is not strong enough to defeat the lure of the 'Darkness' but rather leads the others into danger and needs to be rescued. By Sam, Caine and Duck (the male characters who come swooping in to rescue her), in fact. Also, most of the battle stuff is done man-to-man. Usually featuring Sam, Caine, Drake, Edilio, Orc and Jack; the girls tend to hide behind the rubble or are used to threaten their boyfriends (i.e. Caine threatening to kill Astrid unless Sam surrender). Seriously? Why are all the strongest mutants male, anyway? Is radiation that particular?

After this great big rant, you're gonna be thinking - how the hell did it get 4 stars then?

Well, it's a great story really. It's exciting and action-packed, there are always several sub-plots happening at once meaning that the book never gets slow or tiresome. Some of the characters are interesting and highly likeable and it's a good portrayal of growing up and the difficulties of being a teenager (only times by about a thousand). Every teenager should be reading this series, my only recommendation is that they follow it up with a large dose of Buffy The Vampire Slayer to remind themselves that having a vagina does not equal weak, pathetic damsel in distress. Quite the opposite at times.