Pages:
293
Publisher:
Hammer
Release
Date: 17th
January 2013
Edition:
UK hardback,
review copy
Other
Titles by this Author: Junk, Doing It, Sara’s Face,
Nicholas Dane, Kill All Enemies, Bloodtide, Bloodsong, The Hit and many more
When Beth wakes up one morning covered in dirt, she
puts it down to an extreme case of sleepwalking.
But when reports of a desecrated grave start to
circulate, her night-time wanderings take on a sinister air.
Soon the city is being plagued by strange sightings
and sudden disappearances.
Beth knows that something is changing within her.
Something that’s filling her with an urgent,
desperate hunger that demands to be satisfied – at any cost...
Hunger
is unlike
anything I’ve ever read by Melvin Burgess and I’m really not sure what I thought
of it.
Right from the get go, Hunger creeped me out. It threw out eerie
situations and strange questions: where’s all the dirt come from? Why can’t
Beth remember what happened? Why can she smell death? Why is she so hungry all
the time? It unnerved me so much that I had to stop reading. The vagueness of
the events that kick-started the novel really amped up the tension beautifully.
Although I was glad I stopped jumping
out of my skin at every noise surrounding me, I was a little disappointed when
the creep-factor trailed off once the story got going. I became a little more
like your average supernatural novel for me.
If it wasn’t for the signature Melvin
Burgess touches, I don’t know whether I would have liked Hunger. As ever, issues of sex, drinking, death and bad language
were tackled head on and not a single punch was pulled. I love the Burgess tells
it as it is. The novel also delivered a powerful religious message about
Heaven, Hell and the absence of God that many authors void studiously avoid.
I was impressed with the choice
of supernatural creature though. Ghouls and demons are encountered so rarely in
YA, in fact I think the TV show Supernatural
is the only other place I've really come across them! I really enjoyed learning
about creatures and mythology that I hadn’t really come across before and my ignorance
made it so much more exciting.
Though I was unsure about Hunger, the things I enjoyed definitely outweighed
the negatives. I mean, come on, it was written by Melvin Burgess.
Thanks to Arrow/Hammer for
providing me with a review copy.
Sophie
I have just got to the point where it stops being really creepy and understand what you mean. However I do think Melvin Burgess uses every word to his advantage, all carefully thought out.
ReplyDeleteI love Burgess's writing style and the fact that it was a creepy read sounds really intriguing - although I'm not a big fan of books with supernatural elements :( I might have to check it out, though!
ReplyDeleteI have this book waiting for me to read it and I really should get to it sooner rather than later! (I'm reading Melvin Burgess' latest book at the moment though!)
ReplyDelete