A review by yvo_about_books
Kids of Appetite by David Arnold

2.0

Finished reading: July 29th 2018

“The kids were more than just a gaggle. They were puzzle pieces, a well-packed trunk, as improbably organized as the improbable shelves in their improbable habitat.”

Spoiler

I absolutely adored Mosquitoland last year, so I had high hopes for Kids Of Appetite as well. It took me longer than expected to finally get to it... And sadly it wasn't the experience I was hoping for. I'm actually still surprised and I bit shocked by my reaction to be honest... Because I have to be sincere here and I'm not sure how I made it past the 20% without giving in to the urge to DNF. Do I feel sad? Yes. But unfortunately Kids Of Appetite just wasn't for me. I have seen this story has pretty extreme reactions, people either loving or strongly disliking it, so definitely don't give up on it yet if you enjoy stories with unique characters and writing style. Because that's the main struggle here: the writing. While unique and original, it is something that either works for you and makes you want to sing out loud, OR makes you want to throw things at the wall in frustration. Not that my singing would actually make anyone happy in the first place, but sadly my walls might have taken a hit or two here. I personally really struggled with it all and this made it just really hard both to get a proper feel for things and understand what is exactly going on in the first place. David Arnold is a master in greating unique characters though. Kuddos to him for introducing us to Victor and giving Moebius a spotlight; the other characters definitely weren't bland either. I'm not sure everything in the plot was actually credible though. In short, Kids Of Appetite is a book of extremes and therefore will provoke strong emotions... So even though this book didn't work for me, you might just love it instead.

P.S. Find more of my reviews here.