A Certain Hunger Review (With Spoilers)

 Before I decided to purchase my copy of ‘A Certain Hunger’ by Chelsea G Summers, my knowledge of the book consisted of the overall agreement that the US cover was far superior to the UK one and that it had something to do with food.  So, imagine my surprise when at the end of the first chapter, I was introduced to a woman who is writing her story from prison where she is serving a life sentence because she killed and ate her lovers. However, although this was not the kind of novel I was expecting to read in the month of love, I continued and I am very glad that I did.

Dorothy Daniels, our protagonist, does fall into the category of an unhinged woman, which I was a bit wary of after I did not like a few I previously came into contact with. However, Dorothy feels a lot more real and a lot more developed as a person. She is given room to tell us in her own, extremely capable words (she is a food writer, after all) who she is. The fact that she is perfectly aware that murdering and eating people is not really the most moral thing you can, yet finds explanations for each of them, makes her even scarier and dare I say more compelling than other protagonists in this category. I did not find her particularly likable, but I do not think she was ever designed and written in a way to be that. She is rude, abrasive, entitled and pretentious, but my God was she fun! There was so much depth and intelligence in her that even when she went off the rails, I still loved reading what she had to say. 

The structure of the novel in which the author brings us back and forth between past and present, revealing more and more details about Dorothy’s life worked really well. Especially effective were the chapters in which she described in detail how she killed, cooked and got away with her crimes which were then followed by an in depth description of some meal she really enjoyed. The contrast between those two made me chuckle a few times. The novel also guides us through several decades of Dorothy’s life and the way different cities feel in different decades was expertly done.

I have seen a few people on goodreads saying that they have given up on this book because of the grandiose and pretentious writing, but I not only did not mind, but I actually loved it. I loved having to look up words every once in a while, only to probably never use them again because I am not a pretentious food critic. But, I am not sure any other kind of writing style would fit with this woman. She will not speak in simple sentences or slang, quite the opposite. I found myself constantly underlying some great quotes, to the point I got worried about myself. Maybe it didn’t have to be to the level it was in the book, but I genuinely enjoyed the snobbery and grandiose verbiage. I normally do not care too much when protagonists have tangents about a current social thing of the year, but I felt like with ‘A Certain Hunger’, it was done in a way where it felt like all of these tangents belong exactly where they were placed. Although I did not agree with all of them, I did enjoy reading them.

In terms of themes, this book does cover a few of them. In addition to the aforementioned cannibalism which is the main part, femininity and female sexuality also plays a huge part. I really enjoyed the fact that the start of the novel Dorothy is in her 50s, but is still enjoying her sexuality unashamedly. The narrative also does not slut shame her for it. Additionally, I really loved the way that food was constantly described in so much detail I could almost taste all of these dishes. Female friendship, especially seen through another female character in the novel, Emma is also a prominent part. I wish there was more about this friendship written, but I am a huge sucker for female friendships in fiction (we really don’t have enough of those).

Speaking of other characters, I really only cared for Emma, Dorothy’s only true friend. Emma is, in addition to one lover that did not work out, the only person that Dorothy seems to really truly love and does not want to use her in some way. Even though they started on the wrong foot because Dorothy was being…well Dorothy, this friendship developed to the point Emma gets a confession from Dorothy and does not betray her at the court. Emma is a successful artist, who managed to build a massive art empire from her flat as she is agoraphobic. This friendship is described with a lot of love and care, quite uncharacteristically for our narrator and protagonists and it was a nice change of pace.

Overall, this book is a wild ride, especially if you don’t know what you’re getting yourself into. You got yourself a psychotic, highly intelligent food critic who murders, cooks and eats her former lovers just because she has the taste for it. You will get the detailed descriptions of each of these murders as well as the taste of each of the dishes she cooks out of their body parts.  I enjoyed it way more than I thought I would. I rated it ⅘.

Did you read this book? What did you think? Let me know!