Katie's Book Blog!!

Hunger is a very unique debut for the YA market. Jackie Morse Kessler tackles the subject of anorexia head on and her approach was one unlike anything I have ever read. This series has some serious potential and I am excited to see where she takes it with the next book.Lisabeth Lewis is anorexic. She won't admit it but she is. Food has become the defining factor in her life and it's becoming too much. When she attempts suicide Death comes to her but it's not quite what she expected. Instead of bringing her eternal slumber he brings her a set of scales and announces that she is Famine. Lisa thinks its a dream until the scales appear to her the next day and a black steed eats all her mothers flowers. Now Lisa's job is to bring hunger and destruction to all but she can't even handle her own hunger. Will she tackle her challenge or will life end up being too much for her?I'm going to be frank. I didn't like Lisa until the very end of the book. She was weak and she couldn't see how much her family and friends cared for her. And she couldn't see how bad an influence Tammy was on her. It was hard to read everything she thought because she is not a character that you can agree with. The feeling that I had for her for most of the book was pity. I just felt sorry for her and I couldn't really get past that. I also couldn't really get into the other characters either. I wanted more of them. I felt that I didn't know them at all and so it was hard to decide whether I liked them or hated them. I did like James though. He truly cared for Lisa and he was so sweet.The subject of anorexia was addressed very well in Hunger. I was surprised at how brutally honest Jackie Morse Kessler was in tackling this subject but I am so glad that she hit it head on. Everything about Lisa's anorexia was real. It didn't have to be forced and Jackie Morse Kessler showed her knowledge about the problem through that. At times I honestly wanted to cry for Lisa. Her story was so heartbreaking and it's terrible to know that there are so many people out there dealing with the same struggle every day of their lives. I feel more informed about the problem after reading Hunger.Overall, Hunger is a great YA debut from Jackie Morse Kessler and I am excited to read the next book in the series. I know it's going to be hard to get into another book after this one.