This was a tough read, but not because of the cannibalism! As someone with brothers I found the grief in the family when MC's brother died very painful and traumatic for me, because it felt very realistic and I could imagine it. I almost couldn't continue reading as this triggered me so much, but I decided to because I was so interested in how the main character would end up at cannibalism.

This is definitely a female rage story, and left me saying "good for her" rather than feeling disgusted. Not sure what that says about me lol

The representation of racism and cultural erasure was really important in this, though I am not Vietnamese I felt the author described the family traditions and expectations so well that I understood why the MC was struggling and crushing under the pressure.

I do think there was a slow start to the book, but I'm not sure this could have been shortened as it helped establish the "norm" for the MC, particularly since lots of readers will be unfamiliar with different cultures.

Overall a very interesting story, and I think cannibalism really resonates with women as a tool for rage. I suppose because we have been rendered powerless by so many, when we finally snap it is all consuming. I will be following this writer's future projects with interest.

I was very excited for this book. It reminded me a lot of "The Eyes are the Best Part". I enjoyed the family dynamic in this book and everything about being a teenager and it was super interesting to read about being Vietnamese in America. I loved the main characters character development and her growing confidence. For some reason I don't struggle to read about cannibalism at all, but here it was a bit difficult for me. The descriptions of how the meat tastes was a bit too much for me (as a vegetarian). I also wished the pacing was a bit faster and the story less school girly. But all in all, this was very interesting, a lot of fun and I'm glad I read it.

4.5 stars rounded up. When I picked up What Hunger, I expected a campy, gory horror about a teenage cannibal. The horror is done really well, but I was pleasantly surprised by how well the shock factor is balanced with deeper themes of grief, generational trauma, and identity.

I found the way Dang develops Ronny’s family relationships really engaging. The backstories add depth, and the mother–daughter dynamic in particular unfolds in a compelling and unpredictable way.

I also loved the descriptions of Vietnamese food - not just for the vivid detail, but for how important it is to the characters’ cultural identity and connections.

A really well-written and captivating novel.

This is cannibalism all right but it’s less fava beans and chianti and more phở, aunties and generational trauma.

However, if you’re expecting constant horror-fuelled human flesh eating, adjust your appetite. This isn’t Hannibal’s instruction manual and cookbook. Cannibalism isn’t the main course, but I'd say it’s more like a metaphorical dessert of rage and grief that’s been slow-cooked over familial and societal trauma that makes fourteen-year-old Veronica Nguyen want to bite back.

And it takes its time to build up to that crescendo. But when the chomping on human flesh moments come (not a spoiler, we know this will happen), if you’re anything like me, you probably won’t recoil. You’ll cheer and you’ll think, good for her.

Veronica’s fury feels not only warranted but righteous. And if you feel even a glimmer of sympathy for the rapists, abusers and predators who get their karma, well, our moral compasses are pointing in very different directions and why are we even acquainted?

I couldn’t help thinking about the resonance this has with other books I’ve loved, like The Eyes Are the Best Part by Monika Kim. Both stories dwell in complicated family dynamics and cultural textures while exploring some unhinged scenes, which makes the story linger in your mind. In What Hunger, I particularly appreciated the way Veronica’s relationships shifted with her parents and her auntie, as she grew empathy for their circumstances as immigrants and what they’ve endured.

And speaking of lingering… I got hungry reading this. Not for human flesh, lol. This is also an ode to Vietnamese culture, family and food, and it made me it made me crave phở, eggrolls, bánh mì and bánh xèo.

Unhinged revenge, grief and delicious Vietnamese cuisine: five stars, would eat again.

Thank you so much to NetGalley & Little, Brown Book Group UK | Corsair for the ARC.

Probably needless to say, but just in case you missed it... mind your triggers. There's a lot more than cannibalism. Domestic abuse, violence, rape, kidnapping, death of a loved one, animal cruelty, animal death, alcoholism, gaslighting and racism are some of the more prominent ones.

A thrilling read which took a completely different turn to what I was expecting. Full of rage and gore at parts, Catherine Dang’s writing is sure to shock you.

this is a great entry into the weird fiction genre, whilst also tackling childhood trauma and other difficult topics. a true display of female rage.

What Hunger grabbed me with its mix of grief, family drama, and cannibalism. It follows 14-year-old Ronny Nguyen through a turbulent summer shaped by loss and teenage confusion. The descriptions of food are vivid and textures of Vietnamese culture shine throughout. However, the pacing felt uneven, and Ronny sometimes seemed older than her age which was distracting. While it doesn’t fully explore its darker themes, it’s still a solid read for fans of Jennifer’s Body or Monika Kim’s The Eyes Are the Best Part.

3.5 stars!

A coming-of-age novel following the daughter of Vietnamese immigrants, Ronny Nguyen, as a tragedy upends their family life. After defending herself when a boy goes too far, she develops a hunger for raw meat and revenge.

I picked this up thinking it would have more of a horror focus, when actually it leans more contemporary, with the horror elements complimenting the character-led plot. There was some visceral body horror and gore, but this was woven into the wider coming-of-age narrative, which mainly focused on the emotions surrounding grief and family relationships.

As a contemporary novel, this was very compelling, taking an in-depth look at how grief and intergenerational trauma impacts family life, and how difficult it can be to grow up amid weighty expectations. We really got inside Ronny’s head, delving into her anxieties, sadness and rage, as she came to terms with the death of someone close to her.

I loved how this explored complex family relationships, showing the range of conflicting emotions loved ones can evoke. Finding out more about their family history was so interesting, developing their characterisation in a way that felt very realistic. Overall, this was a brilliant book, I just wanted more of the horror. Although I can’t fault the feminine rage and occasional cannibalism tbh.

A powerful novel about family, grief and dealing with trauma. Thank you to Little, Brown Book Group for the NetGalley arc!

This one’s raw, eerie, and unforgettable. The writing is sharp, the atmosphere thick with tension, and the final twist? Brutal and brilliant.

A coming of age story exploring trauma, grief, complex family dynamics, teenage girlhood, and violent female rage. I really enjoyed the representation of Vietnamese culture and the centrality of food to Ronny's development. Hunger and violent appetite as a metaphor for want. If anything I feel like the novel could have been a bit longer to explore all the different strands fully, but overall I really enjoyed this.

Do not let this cover fool you. This is not sweet but very sour and I absolutely loved it. Veronica and Tommy are the children of Vietnamese parents. Ba and Me are very strict. But when a tragedy strikes Veronica goes a little bit off the rails and sneaks out to a party. However when a boy crosses the line with Veronica she takes matters into her own hands and develops a taste for flesh, raw human flesh.

I absolutely loved this book. It draws you in and them bam 💥 and then another bam and another. Just when you think you’re done it hits you again with another one. Cannot recommend this one enough.

A coming of age horror that makes Carrie a light read. Tragedy strikes Ronny and her world is turned upside down. Lots of bloody horror, full of well drawn characters this book is not for the faint hearted. I would love to see more from this author. Thanks to Little Brown Books and Netgalley for this review ARC.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for approving me to read this book, I’m rating it 3.0-3.25 stars.

What an unusual book! I couldn’t put it down and I don’t know how to feel about it, the ending feels a little open ended with no conclusion for me.

I enjoyed the cultural elements that are woven into the story. The story also touches on some subjects like war and assault which adds a darker side to the story, but I did find the war to be thrown in at what seemed random points initally, but makes so much more sense later on. This is a story surrounding insatiable hunger and it was unnerving to say the least. Our FMC is a very confused and seemingly uncontrollable teenager and through grief and anger becomes tainted by this hunger that makes her volatile. There’s trauma and familial strain that leads us also on a journey of acceptance and understanding that you don’t see at the beginning of the story.

All in all I’d recommend this for horror fans who enjoy a weird and unusual story with some gore and dark themes.

This is an unusual coming of age story where the road to adulthood is paved with light cannibalism.

Ronny is a daughter of Vietnamese immigrants. This is the last summer before she goes to high school, and her last summer before her brother goes to college. She wants it to be special and interesting. Instead a tragedy strikes and her whole life starts to spiral in a direction she can't seemingly stop.

I really liked how easy it was to connect with Ronny. Her struggle to connect with her parents once she starts seeing them as flawed humans, and her realisation that she doesn't know anything about them was so realistic and spoke so easily to my own teenage years. And I loved the way cannibalism is portrayed here, it's less a hunger for forbidden or something fun. It's more a struggle against the cage of patriarchal world Ronny is in. It's a means of defence and means of finding justice for hurts brought upon her.

I highly recommend this book for the unusual take on teenage growing pains, and while this is still a horror book it's also a book about grief and growing up and it's way more tame than many of the other cannibalism books out there.

This was a compulsively readable horror-lite coming of age good for her cannibal story. A lot of descriptors there but accurate. Really well written and easy to follow, I especially loved following Ronny and her brother Tommy in the beginning of the book. Touches on a lot of important topics about growing up and the struggles young teens have in high school. It also discusses grief and familial relationships with a lot of discussion of Vietnamese culture and food. Would have preferred an ending that packed a bit more of a punch but overall well paced and built up to Ronny’s descent into madness very slowly and well. Highly recommend.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the arc.

An unusual book in some ways, though its themes are common.
Veronica and her older brother, Tommy, are the children of Vietnamese immigrants. They know little of their parents’ pasts but are seen as different by their American peers. They have each other though, so they’ll survive.
In the summer before Tommy is due to leave for college he is killed in a road traffic collision. The family struggle to maintain their lives as they deal with the aftermath of such an event. When Ronny starts school she feels odd. When she goes to a party she takes a drink to fit in, but is raped by a classmate and this seems to spark an insane hunger within her…a hunger for raw meat.
What follows is odd, and perhaps it’s meant to symbolise something else. Damned if I know what though. But the desire to satisfy this need enables Ronny to learn more about her family than she knew before.
Thanks to NetGalley for giving me the chance to read and review this before publication.

What Hunger is a twisted coming-of-age story that combines trauma with an almost comical element of horror. As a narrator and protagonist, Ronny is instantly relateable and the almost instantaneous destruction of her childhood innocence over a summer is heartbreaking. Her character development throughout the story had me cheering for her despite her somewhat controversial way of dealing with her grief and truama.

I found the periphery characters to be well-fleshed out; Dang has done a very good job of providing enough backstory and context to make you understand Ronny's parents as she sees them and how that shifts when she learns new information about them.

The finale was an absolute showstopper so I won't add any spoilers but WOW. Hard not to feel mixed emotions whilst reading although admiration definitely came out tops.

This novel has such an intriguing premise and I do believe the metaphor could have been used effectively to comment on (generational) trauma, womanhood revenge and desire, but unfortunately I found the execution lacking. The writing was bland and made the characters appear somewhat one-dimensional, and I did not really feel engaged with the narrative most of the time. The novel was stuck somewhere between intentionally metaphorical horror elements in a coming-of-age story and a protagonist genuinely going insane as a form of horror entertainment, and it seemed a little unsure which of the two it wanted to be. Sometimes the metaphor seemed to punch me in the face instead of being subtly woven into the narrative, and sometimes I thought “Okay so this girl discovered that she just really likes raw meat but also she seems a bit psychologically compromised”. On the good side, the gore scenes of Ronny eating (human) flesh were visceral and so well-done that they made me squirm. Her actions and thought processes, though, despite not being inherently boring, were given so little life that the novel dragged on despite the intense topic. I am always excited for literary horror about women taking their power back, and I love repulsive and weird fiction, but I just couldn’t get behind What Hunger as passionately as I would have liked to - it lacked that immersive and cohesive storytelling that makes your skin crawl and your heart ache from the power behind the words.

What Hunger is a body horror, coming of age story about a teenage girl, Ronny, who after a traumatic event finds herself hungry for raw flesh. We follow our protagonist as she begins to learn what it means to be a girl in the world and from an immigrant family on top of that. I thought the discussion on immigration, cultural differences and family dynamics was really intriguing. The exploration of grief, especially when that person is your support system, was heartbreaking but well done. While I understood how the element of body horror came to play a part in this story and I liked the depiction of female rage, I did find the images to be too vivid for me. The ending also fell a bit flat, but overall it was an interesting story.

Thank you to Little, Brown Book Group and Netgalley for the eARC of this title - all opinions are my own.

Oh I just love female rage so much

I really felt like I was a teenager again reading this. Dang portrays the turbulence of adolescence so well, I just loved it. Veronica is a great character and I really enjoyed the way Vietnamese culture was presented.

Thanks to Netgalley for the arc