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sunniva174's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- 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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Eating disorder, Hate crime, Cancer, Child death, Mental illness, Torture, Violence, and Confinement
Moderate: Medical content, Murder, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Animal death, Drug use, and Kidnapping
Minor: Cannibalism
0pen_b00ks's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- 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
Content Warnings
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
rachel1's review against another edition
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
[NOTE. This is a review from when I was 12. I gave it a 5 stars (on Goodreads), but considering that I am now 20 and I haven't read this book since I was 12-14 (I may have reread this book, I'm almost certain I've at least reread the first Gone book, but again, I was 14 at the oldest), I have no idea what star rating I'd give now, especially when you take into account the fact that StoryGraph allows you to give books 1/4 and 1/2 star ratings and Goodreads doesn't. Which is why I've changed this from 5 stars to N/A. I've also added some content warnings based on my review, can't remember exactly how graphic these were so these are based on memory, it's labelled as graphic (the book series definitely was graphic and upsetting at times, that is the thing that's stuck with me the most about it).]
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Torture, and Eating disorder
Moderate: Drug use, Mental illness, Alcoholism, and Cannibalism
It's all about a famine.thesawyerbean's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- 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
An interesting follow up to the first in the Gone series. I found it to be a bit slower than Gone, but still an enjoyable read. It’s amazing how fleshed out the characters are considering how huge the cast is. I hope Lies continues to be as enjoyable.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use, Eating disorder, Gore, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child death, Ableism, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Violence, Body horror, Vomit, Child abuse, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Blood, Cannibalism, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Suicidal thoughts
abbieinwonderland's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- 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
Content Warnings
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
dark
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.25
I can see why this series snares readers - the slow-building tension and the variety of voices makes it interesting and widely appealing for the casual reader. Alas, with Hunger I will personally be calling it quits.
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.
This book is dark, and it's okay that it's dark... but it feels written a bit carelessly. There was so much going on with the characters (or rather... not really going on but we needed to see it all) that the plot crawled by, and by the end of the book, I wasn't sucked in. I was relieved. It has the feel of a work by an already successful author who is churning out books with little care of the worlds and people within them. The only thing I will personally remember from Hunger is how utterly disappointed I was with the development of the characters and the carelessness of the language.
Perhaps I'm a crone, but I think there are far better books for young adults out there than this series, especially because it is so haphazard with its language and the token depiction of diverse characters. An intriguing dystopian storyline and an adult-free world does not forgive these things.
Content Warnings
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
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