"What Hunger" delivers a haunting exploration of grief, identity, and primal hunger through the eyes of a younger sister, who is unraveling after the sudden death of her older brother. But this is no ordinary coming-of-age tale. As she grieves, she also develops an inexplicable craving—for raw meat.

Some readers may find the visceral imagery challenging, but for those drawn to gothic atmosphere and psychological depth, What Hunger offers a memorable, skin-prickling experience. It's not just a story about a girl who eats raw meat—it's about what grief consumes when we let it.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

One of my reads for AAPI month!

I love a good cannibalism used as a metaphor for girlhood. This story needed more cannibalism actually. I wanted to see everyone suffer and it just didn’t go there. I felt so bad for Ronny though. I don’t even know how to deal with everything she was dealing with. Her parents were so distant with her and her brother was the only one she could look to.

It was interesting to see how Ronny interacted with everyone in her Vietnamese community. She and her brother never felt like they truly belonged being second generation and not really knowing the language. I thought it was super interesting seeing Ronny learn about her parents because they never wanted to talk about life in Vietnam.

There are also a lot of heavy themes here including sexual assault and grief. This is a coming of age story with teeth. While this didn’t go all the ways I wanted it to, it was still a very good read.

Thank you to the publisher for allowing me an early read!
This book is incredible. When I heard that it was similar to Jennifer’s Body, I knew I needed to read it.
It’s much more complex than the typical cannibalistic story. It’s a beautiful and haunting coming of age story that covers heavy topics such as grief, insatiable hunger and its double meaning, and Vietnamese/American trauma and what it means to be a young girl with immigrant parents and family members. I was blown away by how tenderly the topics were weaved through the story and how they shaped the protagonist and her decisions. Ronny genuinely had my heart from chapter 1. Well done, Catherine!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Simon & Shuster for the ARC! Release date: August 12, 2025.

Ronny is one of those characters that solidifies for me that: Yes, I support women's wrongs!

The summer before Ronny's freshman year, her family goes through a traumatic event. When the school year begins and she goes through another traumatic event This event leaves her with a hunger. Filled with rage due to these two back to back traumatic events, she tries ways to sate this hunger and each time she tries, she finds herself with momentary satisfaction. She eventually realizes, her methods are not the right way to go about satisfying this hunger of hers.

I read this book in one sitting which that action alone should explain how good it was. Such a good coming of age story that goes over loss, grief, violence, and the navigation of a teenager girl's first year of high school.

I definitely want to read more of Dang's work!

Sometimes the main character could be a brat and annoying but that’s kudos to the author for capturing a teenagers POV very well.

thank you netgalley and simon & schuster for the arc!

i absolutely loved the way this book touched on grief, family dynamics and the aspect of female rage! What Hunger follows Ronny, as she is discovering new parts of her identity.. aka some cannibalism.. after she finds herself in trouble after attending a party. I didn’t know what to expect going into this but i thoroughly enjoyed it, i would definitely recommend if you’re into the coming of age horror genre, i myself will definitely be checking out more of this author’s work in the future !!

Thanks NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review ✨️💝

This was raw, visceral and a bit unhinged (in a good way!), a dynamic portrayal of a young girl's grappling with grief and generational trauma. The writing was vivid and horrific, adding to the foreboding tone and unexpected violence. It kept me guessing to the very end, where Ronny finally understood her inherited "hunger" and rage. I struggled to get in the groove of the story, and it took me a while to finish. But I appreciated the level of detail and homage to the Viet-American experience.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster for providing this ARC for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

What Hunger by Catherine Dang is a new adult fiction horror story that blends complicated family dynamics and stifled adolescent rage into a single, quick read. Grappling with the death of her golden-child older brother in a Vietnamese immigrant family, our main character also starts contending with the violent urges that begin after things go too far at a party.

What the author really excels in is the description and portrayal of the complicated dynamics at play in the family. From the overbearing visiting auntie to the hidden back stories for each of Veronica’s parents, it’s clear that the author has a tenderness and accuracy for creating a painfully realistic portrait. I loved the way the author made a commentary on the way that the secrets and generational trauma managed to hurt all of the characters, from the deceased brother to the father character. I also thought the segments on Vietnamese Catholics were very interesting—this is an element of both this culture and this religion that don’t get portrayed as often as others.

The problems of this book have to do with the way the horror plot fits into the family story. Unfortunately, they just aren’t seamless. The fact is that if her rage was taken out in a more realistic, less gory way, it would have played out relatively the same. The descriptions of Veronica’s acts are very, very gory and well crafted, but they just don’t seamlessly blend very well. Ultimately, the horror elements are the weaker elements compared to the family segments.

I also thought that the book rips by at a rapid fire pace, often to the detriment of the story. There is very little description, very little set dressing. We have very little information on who the main character is—only who she isn’t in comparison to others. The book is very lean. I was able to read it in about 5 hours, and I felt like it was almost missing some of the descriptions I would have liked.

Personally, I thought that for people who really like Jennifer’s Body or The Eyes are the Best Part may enjoy this story. I would hazard to say though that people who did really enjoy those media pieces may find that this is enjoyable, but not of comparable execution.

For me this is a 3/5.

This book starts out as your typical ‘coming of age’ story, but turns dark and disturbing very quickly. Ronny, the daughter of Vietnamese immigrants, is your typical 14 year old girl. She has bossy parents and a close bond with her older brother, Tommy. The summer before she starts high school, tragedy strikes her family. Her life continues to unravel from there. Soon after, during her first high school party, a boy takes advantage of her. By fighting him off, she awakens a hunger within herself. And now she craves raw meat anyway she can get it.

“And even as I pushed the thought away, it slowly warmed me up all over: I could eat him.”

This book is perfect for readers that are into cannibalism expressed as female-rage. That seems to be a trend lately and I am definitely here for it. It reminded me just how shitty it was to be a 14 year old. Just a ball of angst and rage with no outlet for your emotions.

4.25 stars

Thank you NetGalley for the arc!

I don't know what this says about me, given the subject matter of the book, but reading this just really made me hungry. All the descriptions of the food made me homesick and I wanted some home cooking!

I did enjoy the actual book along with the food descriptions. I felt connected to the character (minus the cannibalism), especially as the younger sibling to a "golden child." I'll look forward to reading more from this author in the future!

This book had a solid premise rooted in grief and coming of age horror. The main character, Veronica, could be bratty at times but she was a teenager dealing with a lot and this only made her more believable. I thought the family dynamic between Ronny and her parents, though strained and upsetting, was also complex and vividly constructed. I especially liked the sibling relationship between her and Tommy, and really appreciated the Auntie character and how Veronica’s opinion of her changed throughout the story.

The plot quickly grows depressing and then dark as Ronny encounters blow after blow to her well-being. Not to give too much away, but the Goodreads description does mention that she develops a sudden alarming craving for raw meat that she needs to satisfy as if her life depends on it. She is also consumed with the rage of an adolescent girl who has been hurt and wronged, and the combination of the two makes for an interesting time. (I hesitate to say "fun," since so much of the subject matter was troubling, but Ronny's reaction to the meat craving and a couple of other things made me want to keep reading to see what she was going to do next!)

So why the three stars? Well, there’s something a little simplistic about the writing itself, and a couple of plot points don’t feel entirely believable. (Also, why doesn't Veronica ever get sick from eating raw meat? The author sort of offers up a possible explanation eventually, but it's a stretch.) I felt like her whole "awakening," the anger, the cravings, etc. was almost meant to be more symbolic than literal even though it was very much happening. There was a bit of a disconnect there for me.

There are a couple of twists at the end. One was not a surprise, because the “hints” were laid out very clearly throughout the book. (So much so that I was wondering why Ronny was surprised when the truth was revealed.) The other one, though, was a bit more unexpected. I liked the ending overall.

I'm leaving a major plot point out of the trigger warnings so as not to spoil it, but some of the other reviews do mention it. (The actual book blurb does NOT.) What I will say, as a hint, is that if descriptive passages about eating (and savoring!) raw, bloody meat from a butcher shop put you off then you definitely won't be into this.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the Publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review! All opinions are my own.

Biggest TW: Bodyshaming, Animal harm/death, Death of a Family Member, Domestic abuse, *Sexual Assault, Alcoholism

4.5 stars rounded up! What Hunger is a brutal coming of age story of a Vietnamese-American teenage girl who discovers something hiding deep within herself—cannibalism?

Right away, I was in Ronny’s world and could feel the complexities of her life in the Midwest as the daughter of immigrants. Her relationship with her brother at the beginning of the book was so raw and real, and I’m glad the book had traces of Tommy in it until the very end.

Ronny is discovering herself as a teenager with this newfound hunger, and I loved how intertwined the growth was. She is a messy, confused, impulsive, dramatic, and overwhelmed teenage girl, and you feel every piece of that throughout her story.

The entire tone of the book is unsettling, with a slow, meandering sense of dread and doom. Although I’d say everything ends on a lighter note, it struck a balance of satisfaction and the unknown.

I devoured (pun intended) this in less than a day and I can’t wait to recommend it to all my weird girl summer readers. I look forward to reading more from Catherine Dang!

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC of this book! It comes out on August 11, 2025.

I really liked the concept of this book. It reminded me so much of The Lamb by Lucy Rose. This was a fun, short, but yet interesting read.

It is a coming of age story with bits of cannibalism and feminine rage mixed in with it. It made the story all the more interesting and a bit unpredictable too.

I think what I would've have liked to have seen was the girl getting her revenge on one of the characters at the end. The ending felt a little weird to me.

3.75 Stars

A coming-of-age story that is chock-full of female rage, a story of maternal bonding, and... cannibalism. Dang crafted a wonderful novel that hit it's mark. The writing was more fitting for a younger crowd, while I'd argue the content is aimed towards an older crowd reflecting on their childhood. 13 year old me would've read and loved it, 27 year old me read, loved, and understood it.

What It’s About:

Yet another coming-of-age cannibalism story (I read another last month), we follow Ronny, a young Vietnamese American girl, through a summer filled with compounding traumas. As she navigates adolescence and the changing dynamics of her small family, she develops an insatiable appetite for raw meat. Unexpectedly, she finds connection with her mother and learns more about her family’s history and is ultimately able to embrace both this newfound familial closeness as well as her hunger.

Why I Liked It:

This book has a hazy and bleak summertime feel to it, somewhat similar to that of The Guest. E.K. Sathue (Author of youthjuice) described it as “hypnotic” and I’d agree - I see heat waves rippling off the sidewalk and distorting the characters when I think back on it. It wasn’t my favorite of the female rage → cannibalism pipeline books I’ve read as of late, but I really appreciated the infusion of food imagery and Vietnamese culinary culture threaded throughout. If you enjoy complicated mother/daughter relationships and/or Jennifer’s Body, you might like this one.

This was a strange, disgusting, graphic book about adolescence, female rage and cannibalism. If that sounds like something you want to read about, give this a shot! A few of these scenes are going to stick with me for a while, and I think I'm gonna stick with a salad for dinner tonight.

Thank you for the arc!!
I literally stayed up until 2 am to finish this in one sitting that’s how good this book is. I am OBSESSED. I cried literally 20% in and the hits kept coming, but I couldn’t look away!! Amazing narrator, amazing sensory details, love all the characters (my favorite was the aunt though. She was so funny). Also despite being vegetarian and allergic to almost all of the food in this book it made me soooo hungry. Can’t say much because I don’t want to spoil it, and this book is best going in blind, but you HAVE to pick it up when it’s released. Early in the year but I’m 100% confident it’ll be one of my top 10 reads.
5 stars!!!

Cannabilism seems to be trending in the literary world these days, and I'll eat it up every time (pun intended). I think this book did a great job exploring themes of grief, trauma, and female rage, and I like that a lot of questions were left unanswered at the end. Even though this book was pretty short, it had a slow build up and a satisfying conclusion.

Never read a book that made me want to go vegetarian, but here we are.

“What Hunger” tells the story of Ronny a 13 year old child and her immigrant Vietnamese family. Two rounds of tragedy later and Ronny finds herself wanting to follow a very specific and disturbing diet.

Was very interesting how the author combines all the elements of a coming-of-age story and incorporates it with all these food elements, a heaping amount of female-rage, and dash of revelations that make for a very interesting read.

I read this one shortly after the finishing ‘The Lamb” by Lucy Rose and I am on a real cannibalism kick, apparently. The prose in this is gorgeous and spare and full of righteous female anger. It centers on a teenager who endures tragedy and finds herself insatiably hungry, metaphorically and literally. Deng has a lot to say about generational trauma and how it’s passed down through generations, and also just how much it sucks being a teenage girl. The writing about Vietnamese heritage and being the child of immigrant parents is also really beuatiful, if heartbreaking at times. This is definitely body horror, and comparisons to “Jennifer’s Body” and “Little Fires Everywhere” are apt for sure, but for me the best comparison is Julie Ducournau’s “Raw.” I love books about angry, vengeful women.