Hunger by Jackie Morse Kessler

Hunger by Jackie Morse Kessler

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I actually really liked this book. I think the subject of anorexia is one that is very overlooked sometimes. I liked the irony in a girl who was anorexic being in charge of famine. I liked that the other riders, Death, War, and Pestilence, were portrayed in a somewhat different way than you normally see. I like the choice that Famine was given. This book did speak to me personally, not that I'm anorexic, but that I struggle with weight, and I understand the feeling of looking in the mirror, and what you see is not what others see. There are times I leave my home and I thought what I put on looked good in my mirror. Then I get to school and walk by a window and see my reflection and hate how fat I look. Or I'm somewhere like a party, in an outfit I planned and thought made me look really good, then I see a picture later and think wow, how fat I really am, and why don't I see that in the mirror when I look. And then other people will say how good I look, and I don't think I look like that. For a long time, when I was younger, I never understood how anorexics could look in a mirror and feel fat, when all I saw was barely any person there. But now that I can't trust my own eyes when I look in a mirror, I get it. And I think this book showcases that very well. I like that at the end it isn't just easy for her to begin eating and be normal. She thinks she can, but soon that "thin voice" is back in her head telling her how many calories, or minutes exercising each food will cost her. And making her feel guilty for even thinking of eating one french fry.

I look forward to reading the next one in the series, Rage. This was a quick read, as it is a short book, and I think there could probably have been more detail to flesh the story out and make it last a bit longer if there was anything that wasn't perfect about the book, that's it.



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The Gardener by S.A. Bodeen

This is the 2nd book I've read by this author, and I see a bit of a trend. But it's a good one! One that I think will bring about more books to read in the future.

Anyway, our main character is Mason, when he was a young boy, he was mauled by a neighbor's dog, and has grown up with a hideously scarred face. He lives in a town with a big science lab called TroDyn. He wants to go work there for the summer, because he is very interested in science, but his mother won't let him. One night when he stops by the nursing home his mother works at, he finds a girl, several young catatonic people actually, that are at what he assumed was a nursing home for older people. While he's waiting on his friend, he slips a DVD, the only thing he has of his father into the DVD player. It is a recording of his father reading a children's book. During certain lines, this girl wakes up. Then the next few lines, she goes back to being catatonic. Mason figures out the parts of the poem wake her up, and so he wakes her up. When he does, she freaks out a bit, not sure where she is, and starts talking about him getting her away before the Gardener comes.

So, Mason takes her away and tries to find out what is going on. It's obvious she was part of some experiment at the labs.

A big point of this story is how someday we are going to run out of food. And the scientists are looking for ways to make humans more like plants, autotrophs in other words, that can make their own food from the sun.

Mason gets wrapped up in the girl's mystery, and even finds some things out about himself.

This was a very engrossing read. I will definitely be recommending it at the bookstore as well as to my students. The trend I see was that in The Compound, the dad was trying to find a way to keep his family alive underground, with some kind of sick experiments. Again, scientists trying to find a way to save the human race with some kind of sick experiments.