An incredibly strange, haunting tale that pulls no punches. The narrative flow was a tad confusing at times, though it lent itself well to the weird vibe of the book.

Hunger is a book I started reading with a lot of desire because the premise seemed incredibly murky and devastating at the same time. How does someone have to feel or be in their mindset to end up crossing paths with the person they love the most because they feel only she has the right to stay with them? That they'll stay together like they promised?
However, as I read on and we see the present and past from both characters' perspectives, I became increasingly confused and realized it wasn't going the way I thought it would.

Something very confusing is how it goes back and forth between the past and present, as well as the point-of-view shifts. They should have been clearer because it took several sentences to fully understand what was happening, where we were, and what was happening. That slowed down the reading a lot, and the chapters were short.

I don't feel like this novel was for me. I do think it has a good dose of reality regarding Korean society (and in general), and that it was very thoughtful. But I never connected.

Thank you so much, Octopus Publishing, for the ARC I read on Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

The premise of this book was SO interesting but unfortunately the book fell short for me.

Whilst the beginning of this story was good, reading through this was challenging, mainly due to the structure of the book. I was confused at times as to who was speaking/whose POV I was reading from and had to re-read certain sections multiple times to be able to understand what was going on.

Whilst the above is true, the story itself was interesting and heartbreaking and I did feel for the characters.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for allowing me the opportunity to read this interesting book!

As soon as I saw the cover for ‘Hunger’ I knew I needed to read it. I hunted down the summary and my conviction was cemented: this book was going to be a bit of me. While I had a few issues with it, I was pretty much spot on.

A woman finds her man murdered on the street - and time stands still.

Until she cradles his corpse to her chest and carries it home, where she disinfects every inch of skin before seating herself to begin. What follows reverberates from this realm into the next, where the man is witnessing his own funeral.

Together, the lovers lament a lifetime of working themselves to the bone in a country sucking everyone dry - but time's up. The woman is already eating and beating them at their own barbaric game as she entombs the body in her own, where her soulmate will live again.

‘Hunger’ throws you right in at the deep end with Dam dealing with the death of Gu and beginning to eat bits of him. I have to admit that there were some moments that made me feel a bit sick (mostly eating his hair and nails shudder), but it wasn’t as present of an element in the novella as I was expecting. We spend a lot of time watching Dam and Gu getting to this point: meeting as children, becoming friends and growing into lovers. There’s also their time apart and glimpses at other relationships, but always the pull that draws them back together time and time again.

In that journey back to the past, the perspective melds back and forth between Gu and Dam and I have to admit that I sometimes got a little lost in who I was reading about as there’s not a distinct shift or a significant change in the voice of the two characters. For such a short novella, I spent an unexpected amount of time a little confused and grasping to figure out who’s memory I was in. It did distance me a little from them and from the story as I wasn’t able to fully settle into it.


There’s something very compulsive about ‘Hunger’, even with my confusion. Gu’s death is a mystery for most of the novel, though it doesn’t read like a mystery and there are no real twists or revelations, just a slow unfurling of what led up to the opening moment of the novel.

For such a short book, ‘Hunger’ comments on a lot. We trace the trappings of growing up in an area with little room for growth and possibility, the all-consuming legacy of terrible parents, of inherited debt, of grief and loss, and of love. There were moments where I wish there was more time for some points to be explored in more depth, but there was something quite poetic about the fleeting glimpse of them as they wove into Gu and Dam’s lives and deaths.

‘Hunger’s is a dark and thought-provoking read perfect for fans of ‘Hunchback’ and ‘Natural Beauty’.

Thank you to NetGalley and Brazen for the review copy.

Written by Sophie

This is a haunting, surreal novella that blends grief, love, and rage into something raw and unforgettable. It was unlike anything I have read before

An unsettling tale of star-crossed lovers, Gu and Dam, struggling to retain their bond even though one of them is now dead. Choi Jin-young’s short novel is structured as a series of parallel monologues, Gu and Dam take turns to tell their story, to outline the contours of their relationship – each of Gu’s sections headed with a black circle, Dam’s with a white. After Gu’s brutally murdered, Dam takes his body back to their dilapidated room and slowly begins to consume his corpse, refusing to be separated even by death. It's a ritualistic act of mourning, an expression of grief and love that for Dam seems akin to a sacrament. As she carefully absorbs Gu’s flesh into her own, Dam reflects on how they met, the circumstances that led up to these moments. From beyond death, Gu too thinks about their past and the life he was forced to live.

But, despite the cannibalism, this isn’t a horror novel in any strict sense. Instead, Choi Jin-young’s intent on exposing the horrors of contemporary Korean society: the destructiveness of rampant capitalism, class inequalities, and the slow violence of necropolitics, those who’re valued and those deemed disposable. Working-class Gu and Dam soon realised they had no hope of a bright future; the possibilities open to the children of the wealthy the stuff of science fiction. So, they’ve supported themselves in dead-end jobs, barely scraping by. Their fate was sealed when Gu’s parents disappeared, leaving behind an enormous debt that then became Gu’s responsibility. But the money came from one of Korea’s many underground loan sharks so the amount continued to grow, and grow, and grow. When Gu’s attempts to evade the loan shark’s reach failed, he was killed, left on the street as a blood-soaked warning for anyone else thinking about escape. Ultimately, this is a fairly moving, gripping piece but it’s also quite uneven: inventive, arresting scenes jostle with the more stock; raw, haunting episodes interrupted by flashes of sentimentality. Translated by Soje.

Thanks to Netgalley and publisher Brazen for an ARC

This is such an interesting take on love and romance. I love the way it follows a couple from beginning to end and breaks the norm in romance novels. The only downside is that it took quite some brain cells to understand. The story is dual pov and the changes are only indicated using circles (white for Dam and black for Gu) and not linear in time. I had to start over at some point, but I do think it's worth the time it takes to understand it.

Hunger is a unique exploration of death and how we effect the lives of others around us, sometimes for good, sometimes for the worst. This will play on my mind for a while..

I’m going to start by saying this wasn’t what I thought it would be. It’s blurbed as a “cannibalistic relationship between a woman and her deceased boyfriend”, but it’s more about reflecting on their past together and highlighting the emotional impact of their doomed love story. I thought this was going to be more horror leaning, but it was very literary and kind of reminded me of Alone With You in the Ether, though much shorter and quite different tonally.

Although I enjoyed the prose, the narration was a little bit confusing as it switched perspective frequently. I’m not sure if this was just an issue with the Kindle edition* I had, but there was nothing to show who was narrating and I actually thought there were three narrators at one point. The writing was great though, and I loved the stream of consciousness style and the way it gave snapshots of their lives to piece together.

Overall this was an interesting book reflecting on an all-consuming love, with gorgeous prose that is definitely worth highlighting. Thank you to Octopus Books for the NetGalley arc!

*Edit: So, it turns out the chapters are separated on the NetGalley reader version, but on the Kindle app it all reads as one continuous chapter with no breaks to indicate the narrator change. Sadly, read it on kindle so didn’t know when the narrator changed.

From the blurb, I expected this to be weirder, darker and for the cannibalism to be more central but it’s actually a rather quiet and contemplative coming-of-age novel about love and grief.

It’s an incredibly quick read, but engaging nonetheless. I wasn’t blown away but will definitely keep an eye out for more from Choi Jin-young.

I read this on the NetGalley Shelf app, where the POV was denoted at the start of each chapter with a white circle for Dam and a black circle for Gu. Apparently this was not the case for the Kindle version, hence everyone else’s confusion!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC.

This is a rather odd book to read with a non-linear narrative and changes in POV that weren’t entirely clear until a name was mentioned. The cannibalism mentioned in the summary is a brief part of the book as it mostly focuses on scenes from Dam and Gu’s lives together and the moments when they’re apart.

I wanted to like this book a lot more than I actually did. They’re both terrible for each other and in that sense, they’re well-suited. There isn’t so much a romance as there is an obsession between the pair and the plot wanders mostly forwards from their initial meeting but the changes in POV and time would often catch me off guard. The writing is almost lyrical and the scenes flow well in their own containers but all together, it’s confusing at best. With the summary, I was expecting a stronger focus on the present day with the cannibalism and the aftermath of being alone but this was barely touched upon, instead looking at the choices they made and that were inflicted on them until it was almost inevitable.

3.5 stars

I think this book is great for fans of literary fiction, but I am not that fan. The comp titles are misleading and set this book up to find the wrong readers, but if you like coming of age stories and reflection on growing up, you might like this. The horror aspects are minimal.

3.5* rounded up. i feel like i need to give this book some grace. because while i was left a little lukewarm by the last page, i don’t necessarily think this is a bad book. attention-grabby cover and premise aside, i think hunger has some really interesting takes on grief and loss, and an all-consuming love toeing the line of obsession. it manages to pack a good deal into a relatively short space, and i think the narrative structure was pretty unique. it’s a weird one because i have pretty good things to say about it despite ultimately not really caring much about this book. there’s a lacuna between objective merit and subjective enjoyment here.

i was glad that the story did go quite far beyond the gore of the cannibalism aspect as i’m not not too fond of graphic body horror descriptions, and i also think that would’ve made for a shallow, shock-value based read. i found the relationship between the two main characters to be nothing if not intriguing. equal parts romantic, weird, and obsessive, it’s definitely not like any couple storyline that i’ve ever read. at the very least, i enjoyed reading something a little different.

that said, i was left a little lukewarm by the end. i’m not sure why but i wasn’t captivated by the characters or the storyline. i was casually intrigued, and that was a constant feeling throughout the book. i am glad it was kept short and sweet, as i think it was the perfect length for the story that needed to be told. i found the short, snappy chapters good for keeping the pace going, especially as much of the story is captured in memory/flashbacks. i also don’t necessarily think that a lengthier book would’ve made me feel a deeper connection to the characters. it honestly just feels like a case of slightly mismatched tastes in story/writing style.

i’d recommend hunger if it’s already something that sounds intriguing to you. if it’s grabbed your interest, you may well like it more than i did. and at the very least, it is not long enough to feel like a waste of time if you read it but don’t love it. massive thanks to Octopus Publishing, Brazen and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced digital copy in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you to Net Galley and Octopus Publishing for a free e-ARC of 'Hunger' by Choi Jin-young.

'My heart was on permanent standby, no matter where I was or what I was doing. I waited all day long, knowing perfectly well when we'd agreed to meet. Even when we were together, I was waiting for him. And even when he was the one waiting for me, I was still waiting for him. Does loving someone mean waiting forever? Even now, with Gu dead, I find myself waiting for him. Is he waiting for me?'

I really wanted to love this book - the premise sounded super interesting and going off of the multiple 5 star reviews, I was in for a treat. Unfortunately, it fell flat for me. Perhaps this type of book is just not my cup of tea - however some other lower reviews share the same thoughts that I had while reading Hunger.

Hunger follows the main character Dam and her boyfriend Gu - as stated in the blurb, Dam finds Gu about to die and decides to carry him home and eat him rather than let him go.

'If those loan sharks find out, they'll try to sell him for parts, no doubt. They'll claim his corpse and sell it off like a slab of meat'

The book swaps the perspective often and it's very confusing as to who is speaking when. (There were also no chapters/sections to speak of - I am unsure if this is because the book is in ARC stage or if it is the general format). However, it follows the narrator's thoughts and memories, presenting them as a stream of consciousness.

I enjoyed seeing Dam and Gu's relationship build throughout the book, and there was some really lovely prose, especially around their feelings for one another.

However I found it hard to connect to a lot of the themes that were brought up throughout Hunger. It felt like some really interesting topics were trying to be explored, but there was so little exploration into them at times that it felt a bit surface-level.

Hunger is a tragic love story about that deep, aching desire to be close to your lover no matter what. It carries a haunting undertone, exploring themes of existential sadness and the relentless toll of life under capitalism. The characters, Gu and Dam, aren't just a portrayal of two people in love; they're people who are already worn down by life, trying to stay afloat. With spare and lyrical prose, this story ached in all the right places.

Fans of Hunchback will really enjoy this. It is about two people in a really strange messed up relationship and it opens with one of them declaring they will be eating the dead body of the other. I loved it at first but the narrative jumps around so much between characters it got a little confusing. But I am enjoying the slew of experimental Japanese novellas that seem to be popular at the moment and I think if this was longer and a bit slower I’d have really gotten into it a lot more.

Hunger is a novella exploring the lifelong love of two people. Two people who cannot live without each other. It explores the need for the other person - the need to consume.

It is soft, heart wrenching, thoughtful and thoroughly well executed. I whizzed through it in a day.

i swept my way through this novel. it was so original to me and when i read the blurb i couldnt have not read it if id tried. so when i got it and started reading i was a little nervy because of just how far away this is from my usual. this was no bad thing, because it was a intention of mine to see blurbs and go for it surrounding different books to my norm. i really wanted to keep trying new books to myself.
and books like this teach me that this can only be a good thing. because it pulled me in and took me on board.
i loved how the story kept me gripped. it head themes woven all the way through that you wouldnt expect. i mean cannibalism and love? really? well yes. and thankfully those parts didnt make me queezy which was my main concern. it was all handled really well. and instead i wanted to read this pairs story. i wanted to know more. i wanted to then read how grief was written in such a superb way. because love is love and it doesnt just go away and definitely doesnt stop once someone isnt alive anymore.
i felt so much for the character left behind here. that love, gosh it was raw and depicted so well. because as i reader i too thought "whats can she possibly do now without her love?"
now, im not saying i will be wanting to read more about eating the one you love, haha. but more from this author yes. and more books that i dont usually go for is still thanks to this book a mission and little joy when a good book gets picked.

2.5 rounded up for goodreads and netgalley.
Unfortunately, it didn’t end being what I thought it would be. I thought it would be more focused on the horror aspect of the synopsis, but it wasn’t. It actually was more centered around the two characters and their lives and relationships and feelings. It was not a bad story, not badly translated, so I would still recommend it. I just had different expectations.

Thank you to Netgalley for an e-ARC in exchange for a honest review.

Hunger by Choi Jin Young is a beautifully written and emotional story that explores hardship, resilience, and survival. The writing is spare but impactful, and the characters feel raw and real. It’s a short read, but it leaves a lasting impression. Some parts felt a bit distant, but overall, it’s a moving and thought-provoking book.