Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Hunger by Jackie Morse Kessler

From Amazon.com
Seventeen-year-old Lisabeth is fighting a series of demons the only way she knows how: by refusing to eat. Her cold, acerbic mother; distant father; and friends who disapprove of her and each other all trigger her inner Thin Voice, which derides food, confirms her fatness, and shames her into the control necessary to reject food. As she sinks deeper into anorexia, she summons Death, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, who in turn assigns her a black steed and a scale and transforms her into Famine, another of the Four Horsemen. Kessler has written an unusual allegory about eating disorders, one that works on several levels. As Lisabeth gallops across the world, she witnesses examples of both gluttony and starvation. Using her new found power, she combats famine, visits horror upon the privileged, and strives to bring balance to the world, all while ignoring the need for balance in her own life. Kessler offers a refreshingly new approach to the YA eating-disorder genre that reinforces the difficulty of conquering these diseases.

My Review:
This was a very interesting book. There is so much going on in this short little novel that caused me to read it FAST! I mean that in a good way! I seriously devoured it, no pun intended..okay maybe I do. Lisabeth is a hard character to read about, at least at first. She's got so many demons hanging over her shoulder, the "thin" voice that keeps her a slave to anorexia. She hates herself and wants to die.
She gets turned into Famine and that's as ironic (hopefully i'm not pulling and Alanis Morissette here!) I like how she used her new found strengths and how she used them.

Now this was a quick read, and it did leave me wanting more. Luckily for me (and us) there is another book coming up! So yay! I have to give it to Kessler and say that she's done an amazing job and I thoroughly enjoyed this book!

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