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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: Alcoholism, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Medical content, Addiction, Car accident, Child abuse, Death, Ableism, Bullying, Child death, Animal death, Eating disorder, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, Fatphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Racism, Self harm, Murder, Racial slurs, and Violence
nnannanna's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Death, Eating disorder, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Medical content, Medical trauma, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Confinement, Violence, Gun violence, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Ableism, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child death, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, and Physical abuse
Moderate: Sexism, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Body shaming
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, Murder, Racial slurs, Racism, Torture, Violence, and Vomit
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: Cannibalism, Animal death, and Fatphobia
pumpkinvegetable's review
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Graphic: Eating disorder, Violence, and Gore
Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Bullying, Toxic relationship, and Child death
Minor: Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, and Fatphobia