Body horror, cannibalism and explorations of grief? What more could you ask for from a novel? I really enjoyed this book. The complicated relationships between each family member really gripped me and felt very real.

The way food was described, even the more unsavoury meals felt incredibly visceral. Food is a love language and a way to explore family dynamics always interests me and Dang had this down to a tee.

If you enjoy dark stories with a focus on hunger. This is definitely one to check out.

What Hunger by Catherine Dang is a haunting, slow-burn thriller that dives deep into the complexities of trauma, identity, and female rage.

Dang does a great job showing how messy and raw people can be, especially the main character- she’s not always likable, but I found myself really rooting for her.

The exploration of hunger, not just for food, but for power, validation, and connection, was portrayed with a raw intensity that stuck with me long after I finished.

If you’re into dark, character focused stories that aren’t afraid to get uncomfortable, I’d definitely recommend this one.

I really enjoyed this book, although the visceral descriptions of raw meat were difficult for me to read as a vegetarian 🤢 half coming of age after a personal tragedy, half body horror revenge story, this book is beautifully written and engaging. I really enjoyed the relationships between the characters, the tense situations felt authentic and I really liked the aunt character and how her introduction into the family unit brought so much additional tension. Loved it!

3.5 stars
This had a really interesting premise, but the writing fell short for me. It felt a little underwhelming and Veronica was annoying and unlikeable throughout most of the story. I enjoyed the horror descriptions and the last 20% of the book really saved the plot for me. It was an enjoyable read but unfortunately not mind blowing.

I don’t even know where to begin! I genuinely believe this novel may become the crowning jewel of ‘cannibalism as a metaphor for love’ books. An incredible protagonist, with the raw spite and rage you truly expect from a teenage girl. Even for a book under 300 pages, the main women were developed in such a poignant way. I wanted her aunt to be my aunt! The development of the family’s grief and relationships was interwoven so well within such a violent narrative, and I was absolutely hooked from start to finish! Ronny is the ultimate ‘I support women’s wrongs’ character. This is 100% in the same category as ‘The Eyes Are The Best Part’, and think fans of that or ‘The Lamb’ by Lucy Rose will devour this (no pun intended).

The buzz words I had heard and synopsis I had read for and about this book had me so intrigued. I mean, the topics of grief, complex family dynamics/relationships AND cannibalism? This book aligned perfectly with my literary interests! And yet here we are...

This coming of age tale follows fourteen year old Veronica "Ronny" Nyugen during her summer before starting high school and the first couple weeks after doing so, though I did find the timelines in this kind of tricky to follow.

To start with the positives (as despite my rating, there really are good things in this and I really do think this book will work for the majority of people!) we have to talk about the descriptions of food. Oh my goodness, reading this had me wishing the Willy Wonka invention of getting food directly from a TV was a) real and b) applicable to books. The way ingredients were described, the vivid explanations of how things tasted... Studio Ghibli makes animated food look delicious and Catherine Dang makes written food sound delicious.

I also really loved how naturally Vietnamese was interwoven in the story, it felt so natural, though I of course am not myself Vietnamese so won't speak too much on this.

Now for the negatives. I have touched on this already but the passage of time was really hard to follow in this. I don't know if this was a deliberate choice by the author as another way to show Ronny's grieving process or the changes she was going through emotionally, but it did make it a little hard to know if an hour, a day, or a week had gone by between chapters. I also had a slight issue with Ronny's age. For a lot of this, she read quite a bit older to me, maybe around the 16 or 17 range, and I would have loved to have seen her aged up a bit. Though in saying that, there were also a number of sections that felt a bit YA to me, particularly in the beginning.

I think at times there was just a little too much going on. Ronny has just started high school after contending with a huge loss- that in and of itself could have been everything we see her grapple with and (given the relatively low page count) I would have been content with that. With so many other topics being added to the story though, I felt like we weren't able to go very deep with anything, which was a shame. Catherine Dang is an incredibly talented writer, particularly when talking about food, so the cannibalism aspects definitely could have taken advantage of this and gone even further in my opinion. Don't be afraid to really Go There.

While this one didn't quite work for me, I can see it being a hit with others. If you enjoyed The Eyes Are the Best Part by Monika Kim and Jennifer's Body (2009) then I definitely recommend giving this a go!

Thank you again to NetGalley and Corsair/Little Brown for the advance copy.

(I received this book from the editor and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review)

There is something I am missing in this novel, some kind of flavour, because although the premise speaks of intense, gripping, visceral subjects, the feeling after reaching the final pages of What Hunger is one of… emptiness, blandness. Where is the simmering rage, where is the haunting coming-of-age tale? Ronny’s world is upside-down, everything around her is falling apart both quickly and slowly at the same time, people were, are, and will be monsters, but nothing really reaches the climax I was expecting.
But it could all be me and the type of books I am reading lately, and this is meant to be more of an introduction to female rage for those audiences not so used to more feral narratives.

This was a wild ride. The first half went kind of slow for me and it took a bit to get interesting but then the second half just did not stop being interesting. I really liked it overall. Thank you for the advanced reader copy!

a revenge horror story inspired by a Vietnamese urban legend that the authors mum told her during lockdown. Ronny, a teenage girl grappling with grief and growing up, is attacked by a boy at a party and bites his ear off. For the next few days, she regrets spitting it out and wishes she'd savoured it, and is overcome with a desire for more flesh. Although I really enjoyed this, it was described as being for fans of Jennifers Body but didn't quite hit there, but I loved how the author explored female rage, grief, trauma and family dynamics all with a side of cannibalism🩸

This book was stunning. There are so many layers to Ronny's story, Dang manages to write a tender, flawed and relatable 14 year old girl school girl just trying to navigate being a teenager and her own grief after family tragedy and her own personal tragedy shortly after. Ronny is both every teenage girl and the terrifying vengeful girl some of us definitely wanted to be. And nobody knows.

What hunger is a beautiful coming of age story, a love letter to Vietnamese food and an exploration of being the child of immigrants. And then it is also a rage filled, cannabilistic, body horror, revenge novel and those two sides don't cancel each other out at all, in fact Dang blurs the lines between cannibal and foodie scarily well.

I loved Ronny as a character. I did wonder how Dang was going to wrap this one up and not for one second did I see that ending coming. It was perfect. I would definitely read a sequel and frankly would happily read anything else Catherine Dang comes out with.

This felt like a surprisingly bland book given the subject matter: body horror, female rage, the traumatic story of Vietnamese parents now living in America, grief and violence. The writing didn't engage me and felt flat, even through highly emotional scenes, and the figuring of female rage as hunger is beginning to feel like a trope now with the number of recent books I've read that utilize it. I don't think this will linger in my memory.

What Hunger follows Ronny Nguyen who reads trashy magazines and romance books. her older brother Tommy is the perfect son and the favourite for their immigrant parents. He is going to be the first in their family to go to college but tragedy strikes and Ronny’s world changes. Her sense of self is destroyed and she starts to get an insatiable hunger for flesh.

This was enjoyable and I would recommend this for fans of female rage fiction books. The writing of this wasn’t great for me as it felt a little unpolished/undeveloped. I liked the social commentary on this particularly the commentary on being an immigrant family in America. The rest of it was just fine but ultimately a little forgettable. I would recommend this but I think I needed Ronny to be a little older for the story to really work for me