Saturday, March 12, 2011

Hunger by Jackie Morse Kessler

Hunger
Author: Jackie Morse Kessler
Horseman of the Apocalypse #1
Pages: 180
Published by Harcourt Graphia
My Rating: 3.5/5 stars

Summary: (From Goodreads)
 “Thou art the Black Rider. Go thee out unto the world.”

Lisabeth Lewis has a black steed, a set of scales, and a new job: she’s been appointed Famine. How will an anorexic seventeen-year-old girl from the suburbs fare as one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse?

Traveling the world on her steed gives Lisa freedom from her troubles at home: her constant battle with hunger, and her struggle to hide it from the people who care about her. But being Famine forces her to go places where hunger is a painful part of everyday life, and to face the horrifying effects of her phenomenal power. Can Lisa find a way to harness that power — and the courage to battle her own inner demons?


My Review:
 Hunger was a good book. Probably not just good, but great. The characters were intriguing and complex, the plot was interesting, and I was originally drawn in by the idea, which I thought worked out very nicely.

 But I have a few things that really bothered me about this novel. The first thing I noticed was that I felt like Hunger lacked emotion. It may be that it was a shorter novel, or because it was told in narration, but no matter what the cause, I could feel hardly any emotion coming out from this book. It was still an amusing read, but I do look for emotion when I'm reading a book.

 The other thing that I found that I disliked about this book was how short it was. I am not a person to automatically hate a book because it's short, in fact I do love some shorter books. But I just feel like Hunger had a bit more potential in the description, and the events in the plot. I still enjoyed the exciting scenes, and there were some full of heart-pumping action, but I felt as if there could have been more.

 Well, anyways, I did love some things about Hunger. I originally really loved the idea, about how an anorexic girl would be appointed Famine, see how hunger effected other people's every day lives, and how she would be able to confront her inner demons through that. And that did not dissapoint with Hunger. The world of an anorexic girl was very vivid, and I did enjoy the world of the horseman of the apocalypse.

 I also enjoyed the characters in Hunger. Lisabeth, her friends, and especially the hot, intriguing character of Death were all complex, layered and entertaining characters. I couldn't feel much emotion from them, but I did like them anyways, though I wished I could've felt more of their emotions!

 Overall, Hunger is definitely a fascinating book to check out, and proceeds of this novel are being donated to help people with eating disorders, which is something I find great!

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