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mollymoynihan's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, and Death
Minor: Suicide
randeerebecca'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? No
3.0
Graphic: Body horror, Abandonment, Child death, Cannibalism, Death, Animal death, Gore, Sexual assault, and Murder
nnelsonaut's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Cannibalism, Gore, Pedophilia, Racism, Death, and Animal death
thegayestghost's review
- 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
2.75
Graphic: Infidelity, Child death, Death, Animal death, Adult/minor relationship, Rape, Homophobia, Alcoholism, Racism, Bullying, Blood, Hate crime, Gore, Incest, Murder, Grief, Pedophilia, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Cannibalism
narbine's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Graphic: Misogyny, Blood, Abandonment, Death, Mental illness, Gun violence, Gore, Grief, Violence, Sexual violence, Fire/Fire injury, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexism, Infidelity, Alcohol, Homophobia, Murder, Sexual assault, Colonisation, Animal death, Medical content, and Racism
Moderate: Animal death, Death of parent, and Classism
Minor: Domestic abuse, Incest, War, Child abuse, Pregnancy, Cursing, Suicide, and Pedophilia
smolhandsdan's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Child death, Cannibalism, Cultural appropriation, Homophobia, and Colonisation
Minor: Pedophilia, Grief, Death of parent, Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, Murder, Death, Rape, Classism, Animal death, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment
glassflowrr's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Graphic: Animal death, Cannibalism, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Death of parent, Blood, Homophobia, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Gore, Racism, Suicide attempt, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Child abuse, Incest, Medical content, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Domestic abuse, Alcohol, and Abandonment
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
squid4life'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? No
2.0
Also had more elements of a Romance book than it did a Horror which is what I thought it was.
Graphic: Blood
Moderate: Cannibalism and Sexual harassment
Minor: Animal death
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