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thedemonastagoth's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Cannibalism, Gore, and Violence
Moderate: Murder, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Colonisation, Grief, and Sexual violence
Minor: Physical abuse, Racism, Homophobia, Incest, Xenophobia, Child death, and Sexism
samankins's review against another edition
3.75
Moderate: Incest
scarygordita's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
That being said, the number of perspectives could be hard to follow at times. Not all of this was due to the writing (like every other dude was named John back then), but some changing of names may have helped with clarity. This confusion of characters also made the ending less powerful for me - I couldn’t remember if one of my favorite characters had lived or not, as their story wrapped up well before the other perspectives given towards the end of the book. The other thing that I didn’t like was the incest. This might be a silly line to draw, but the first instance felt jarring enough that the second one felt excessive.
Graphic: Incest, Rape, and Suicide
singlier's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
Oh I wanted to enjoy this book and I was so excited to give it a read. The Hunger is a horror retelling of the ill-fated Donner Party expedition during the mid 1800s, weaving real life histories and people with a supernatural twist of horror and fear.
But it just... Didn't hit. There were a lot of narrator characters (around 5: Edwin Bryant, Charles Stanton, James Reed, Tamsen Donner, and Elitha Graves) and I never really got close to any of them or felt a strong connection to them. The way the book is ordered, often something important would happen to a character, but it wouldn't be until the next chapter that it's revealed *why*.
Also, there are just...a ton of characters and a few chapters in I just gave up trying to keep who's who straight: who was cousins with who, who was the daughter-in-law of who, who was who's son or the servants of who, so on. Rarely so I ask for this, but I really wished to have a family tree in the beginning to keep things straight.
The book struggles most notably with its treatment of Native American practices, quickly falling into the ideas of "Indigenous mysticism" as soon as things turn awry. Maybe it's playing off the beliefs of the settlers, but for once I'd like a horror where there wasn't "an old Native American folktale detailing this exact horror situation" going on, you know? Also, negative a million points for using the s-term to describe the collection of symptoms (cannibalism, violence, etc) of the settlers. Turning them into "creatures less than human" felt like it took away from the horror of the situation of the Donner Party: the scariest thing of all is realizing that even "good" people are not exempt from evil, and will commit atrocious acts to their fellow people in acts of survival or desperation.
Moderate: Homophobia, Physical abuse, Classism, Animal death, Blood, Cannibalism, Child death, Adult/minor relationship, and Sexual assault
Minor: Terminal illness, Incest, Vomit, Suicide, and Toxic relationship
magical_mads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual harassment, Racism, Physical abuse, Hate crime, Gore, Misogyny, Death, Cannibalism, Rape, Incest, Pandemic/Epidemic, Infidelity, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Injury/Injury detail, Homophobia, Torture, Sexism, Body horror, Medical trauma, Child death, Suicide, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Animal death, Violence, Gun violence, Domestic abuse, Blood, and Murder
piepatch's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Murder, Death, Child death, Child abuse, Cannibalism, Homophobia, Gore, Pedophilia, Animal death, Suicide attempt, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, and Colonisation
Moderate: Body horror, Classism, Racial slurs, Rape, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, and Grief
Minor: Misogyny, Alcohol, Incest, and Sexism
mandi_lea's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Sexual content, Sexism, Blood, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Abandonment, Alcohol, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexual assault, Racism, Suicide, Violence, Child death, Gun violence, Incest, Infidelity, Hate crime, and Pedophilia
directorpurry's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Death, Blood, Incest, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic, Racism, Animal death, Cannibalism, Child death, Self harm, Murder, Gun violence, Body horror, and Violence
Moderate: Colonisation and Classism
Minor: Kidnapping and Forced institutionalization
hunkydory's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Blood, Body horror, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Death, Gore, Cannibalism, Murder, and Violence
Moderate: Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Xenophobia, and Alcohol
Minor: Homophobia, Sexual assault, Incest, and Outing
roxcollector's review against another edition
2.5
Moderate: Pedophilia and Homophobia
Minor: Domestic abuse and Incest