Reviews with content warning for Animal death - A Certain Hunger

This was the most soul sucking and dark book I've ever read. The writing style was so good that I didn't want to put it down, but it was so hard to finish. Dorothy is incredibly insufferable, smart and somewhat self aware. I would say only read this book if you're in a good head space because, of how much detail his book goes into. I originally wanted to rate this book a 4 because, it's nothing I've ever read before and the writing was amazing. I had to knock it down because, of how disgusting this book is and the evil things the main character did.

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soph183's review

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dark funny fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

Absolutely devoured this (pardon the pun).
I haven’t read anything like this before: the memoir style of the story went from being gross and gory to sexy and funny, then to being deeply reflective of the main characters’ complex psyche- it really had it all.
I loved the way Summers explored love/ desire/ the idea of being a woman in a man’s world, questioning and ridiculing our ingrained gender norms through one woman’s journey of finding her power through criminality and cannibalism.

Other reviews have described Dorothy (the main character) as pretentious and unlikable but I loved her- she’s a menopausal food critic of course that’s going to be the case! Her vast vocab, detailed descriptions of elaborate cooking techniques and restaurant experiences only added to the story and character depth imo.

I love when a book is told from such a passionate perspective that it makes you begin to rationalise behaviour that you previously would have thought unthinkable, Dorothy was an icon (I support women’s wrongs) and reading her ramblings felt like such an insight into the mind of a psychopath.

Absolutely loved it !!

‘Over trays of Bonnie Bell Lip Smackers and mountains of cooling fries, I learned that being female is as prefab, thoughtless, soulless, and abjectly capitalist as a Big Mac. It's not important that it's real. It's only important that it's tasty.’

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joensign's review

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dark reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

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g_umnut's review

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challenging dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

The

murder and cannibalism

seem like a subplot for half the novel compared to all lengthy descriptions of her fucking and eating
But she did girlboss gatekeep gaslight an incredible amount

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readinghoneybee's review against another edition

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dark fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

For a book that’s marketed as a female rage novel with lots of cannibalism, there wasn’t much female rage or cannibalism. Food critic turned psycho killer cannibal, sounds great! However, I was disappointed. With the hype surrounding it on social media, it didn’t live up to my expectations and I was expecting something more.

It starts off intriguing and I thought it’d be right up my alley with a Basic Instinct vibe straight off the bat. Dorothy, the main character, her inner monologue is repetitive and boring which made for a difficult read. I was expecting a Hannibal Lecter-esque character but I couldn’t cook any interest in her character. After page 100, everything felt the same with long descriptions, sometimes even pages, of the food she eats and the sex she has with little to none about cannibalism, which is what the book is advertised as. Too many pages about food, too many similes and metaphors, too many pages about her lusting over cocks and fucking her lovers with not enough plot to keep me engaged with the story.

The scenes including the killings and cannibalism were the best parts of the book. Each word making you cringe with horror which is exactly what you expect from a thriller novel. Some parts were good with brilliant quotes but I felt like I couldn’t appreciate them because I wasn’t enjoying it. I’m usually one for flowery language and writing styles because I love Oscar Wilde but this felt like she vomited a thesaurus on every page.

I wanted to love this book but I didn’t like the execution of the idea. Just because the cover of a book is pretty and coordinates perfectly with the dark academia aesthetic, doesn’t mean you’ll enjoy what’s inside.

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refrejarator's review

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dark funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This was a really fun read, however the main character is (due to her nature) someone I find intensely unlikeable. The description is fun and wild, and full of gore and torrid sex. I personally dont enjoy constant discussion of genitals outside of smut, and this book had a lot of reflections on genitalia (but this lines up well with the main character).
I'm a vegetarian, and this book at least intrigued me with all the meat and recipe talk. Definitely made me hungry.

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alissa_lopez's review

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dark funny tense 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? Yes

4.25

Definitely more smutty than I had anticipated, but the prose is beautiful. It started slow (& pretentious) and grew on me as I kept reading. Definitely an interesting read!

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