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A review by troetschel
The Hunger Between Us by Marina Scott
challenging
dark
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
A difficult but arresting read for a number of reasons. Liza starts out as easy to empathize with, but times are desperate and there are no simple or easy choices when you are slowly starving to death. Everything has a cost - and ensuring your own survival often comes at the expense of someone else's. Despite everything, I still felt like I could understand Liza and who she was, why she made many of the choices she did - even as they turned out to have devastating consequences. Liza becomes fixated on locating her missing friend Aka, which is a driving force that influences most of her actions. She is also something of an unreliable narrator - the author did a great job of laying out clues that allows the reader to make some reasonable assumptions that are subverted with a few unexpected twists in the last 20% of the book.
Maksim was repeatedly surprised and hurt that Liza would lie to him and didn't trust him, which I found irritating and foolish. He was living a relatively sheltered life of safety and was well fed thanks to his father and his position, and the guilt he laid on Liza for the results of choices she made was unfair. Luka's deep sense of betrayal was understandable, but Maksim wasn't ever truly challenged on his privilege. His casual access to food - and the way he used his power to get a loaf of bread out of the bakery when there was a line of hundreds of people waiting outside - was never examined. His actions (and inaction) also had real consequences, and Liza shoulders an enormous weight trying to face hers while he never answers for his own.
3.5 stars rounded up, recommended for anyone who loves difficult historical fiction, complicated stories of morality, or wartime survival.
Maksim was repeatedly surprised and hurt that Liza would lie to him and didn't trust him, which I found irritating and foolish. He was living a relatively sheltered life of safety and was well fed thanks to his father and his position, and the guilt he laid on Liza for the results of choices she made was unfair. Luka's deep sense of betrayal was understandable, but Maksim wasn't ever truly challenged on his privilege. His casual access to food - and the way he used his power to get a loaf of bread out of the bakery when there was a line of hundreds of people waiting outside - was never examined. His actions (and inaction) also had real consequences, and Liza shoulders an enormous weight trying to face hers while he never answers for his own.
3.5 stars rounded up, recommended for anyone who loves difficult historical fiction, complicated stories of morality, or wartime survival.