A Certain Hunger

Overall, I thought the story in this book was pretty interesting. The main character, Dorothy, is a food critic who is also a self-identified psychopath. Throughout the novel, we know she’s in prison, but what we’re reading are her confessions of the relationships she’s had, the people she’s met, and the people she murdered.

The premise was unique and kept me engaged, but the language often felt over the top. At times it read like it was written by “someone with a thesaurus and a dream.” The ornate vocabulary sometimes fit Dorothy’s voice, but often it just took me out of the story and made the writing feel clunky.

The structure also felt a little messy. The book moves between past and present (Dorothy in prison), but the prison sections especially became repetitive. For such a short novel, I wish the focus had been tighter and more time had been spent on her relationships. Characters sometimes popped up, served no real purpose, and disappeared. Even Emma, Dorothy’s best friend, felt more like an extension of Dorothy than her own fleshed-out character.

Another gripe is that early on the book spends a lot of time framing cannibalism as a huge theme, there’s even basically a whole chapter on its cultural history, but it ends up being a much smaller element in Dorothy’s actual story.

All that said, I still think this was an interesting and unique read. Dorothy as a character made sense, and the core idea is strong. I just wish it had been more fleshed out and flowed a little better.

3.2/5 Stars