Review: Hunger by Jackie Morse Kessler
THE HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE BOOK 1: HUNGER
Jackie Morse Kessler
ISBN: 978-0547341248 (Trade Paperback)
B0045Y24E2 (Kindle eBook)
October 18, 2010 (Trade Paperback)
October 7, 2020 (Kindle eBook)
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt/Graphia Books
Young Adult Fiction/ Dark Fantasy
eBook and Trade Paperback
Courtesy of Net Galley
Wow! What a fantastic novel Hunger is! I’ve been a fan of Jackie Kessler since she started her Hell on Earth series a few years ago so when I heard she had turned her talents in the young adult fantasy direction, nothing could have stopped me from trying this book. I was thrilled to find everything I expect to find in one of her books, whether it be directed at teens or adults.
Lisabeth Lewis is an anorexic teenager struggling to hide her illness and her desperate hunger from her family, friends, and boyfriend. The last thing she needs is a Kurt Cobain look-alike showing up at her door offering her a job… as Famine, one of the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. What she finds is a horse who seems to read her thoughts and that loves her mother’s rhododendrons in the garden, a set of scales that harness a considerable amount of power, and a way to escape her troubles at home.
As Lisabeth travels the world, she learns to harness the abilities that come with her position. However, what she can’t seem to get out of her mind is the impossible balancing act of the world… hunger versus gluttony, strength versus weakness, and she does what she can to even the odds at least a little bit. What Lisabeth finds is through her responsibility as a Horseman, helps her to come to some difficult realizations about her own life, and the need to find her own balance before she destroys her own life.
Hunger is an absolutely amazing, simply breathtaking novel that brings awareness to a sad statistic in today’s world of the pressures facing teenagers, all the while entertaining us with an incredible fantasy adventure. I cannot say enough good things about Hunger. Lisabeth is such a believable protagonist in how she feels, what she does, and how she handles her “Thin voice” that tells her she is too fat. The people in Lisabeth’s life, the good and bad influences, have such a strong impact on her that they all leap out of the pages and into our hearts as well.
Jackie Morse Kessler tackles such a sensitive and very serious subject in a non-judgmental way. Not once did I feel like I was being preached at about the dangers of eating disorders, because such heart is put into the topic, much of that stemming from Jackie’s own struggles with eating disorders when he was younger, as she talks about in the Author’s Note at the end of Hunger.
A young adult novel that begins a series about The Horseman of the Apocalypse is not something I would have expected to see, which only accentuates the originality of the world Kessler has created. I especially loved the other three Horsemen we meet, each one as unique and captivating as Lisabeth herself and I can’t wait to read their stories.
I strongly recommend Hunger to anyone who loves a good urban or dark fantasy blended with realistic characters and a swift moving storyline. If you have anyone you love who suffers from an eating disorder, I encourage you to read this book for even though it is a fiction novel, our eyes are really opened to how a person suffering from anorexia or bulimia really thinks the world sees them. We also have our eyes opened to just how many people out there in the world are facing famine, and how they try to overcome. Run, don’t walk to your nearest book store and pick up a copy of Hunger. You’ll even be doing your part to help people suffering from eating disorders since a portion of the proceeds from Hunger are going to the National Eating Disorders Association (www.nationaleatingdosorders.org).
© Kelley A. Hartsell, November 2010. All rights reserved.
