A review by paulasnotsosecretdiary
A Certain Hunger by Chelsea G. Summers

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


Dorothy Daniels turns her adoration of food into a career as a food critic and writer. She proudly defies social conventions, engaging in behaviors that other people would consider disgusting and shameful. She is also a proud psychopath and serial killer, admitting to all the ways she uses people, collects information about them to use at her whim, and throws them away without a care. Her appetites are enormous. After tasting everything, a terrible accident presents Dorothy the chance to taste the ultimate forbidden dish: human flesh.

As the story begins, Dorothy recalls the crime that sent her to prison for the remainder of her life. As she serves her sentence, Dorothy writes her autobiography, recounting her youth, including the organic food her mother grew and cooked. Dorothy recalls her food writing career throughout the 1980s and 1990s, including the dishes she tastes, people she sleeps with, and the information she gathers on every one of her lovers and bosses. When she loses her job during the 2008 recession and has to turn to freelancing for internet websites in her 50s, something breaks a bit more inside Dorothy. 

You may ask, why should I read this book; the narrator is a monster. Dorothy Daniels is smart, funny, and charming; she is a fantastic storyteller. The novel reads as though sitting down to dinner with a fascinating and terrifying guest. It also offers readers insight into how the loss of print publications, especially glossy magazines with incredible photography and long-format articles, impacted writers, and how readers lost something when these publications folded or went online. The story is fast-paced and filled with action, featuring lovingly detailed descriptions and language, resulting from a great deal of time and care in its writing.

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