In Familiar Hungers, Christine Wu examines her identity through food, language, rituals, and familial relationships. The poems play with forms, visually and structurally. I want to preface this by saying that poetry is the most subjective of writing forms and this collections shows a lot of merit, but not something that I look for in poetry. The structure often felt like a gimmick and some of the poems were just sentences broken up by lines. The verses were not tight enough, often being repetitive. For a collection that had sections in Cantonese, English, and French, the language was not used nearly enough, whether to draw parallels or find a unique intersection of languages to create something poetic. That being said, I will look out for more work by Christine Wu because I am still very interested in topics she explored in this collection.

An immersive and poetic undertaking of race, family, the immigrant experience, and of course soup.

I loved the continued use of food as a metaphor for the immigrant experience. The repeated use of food in all forms; cooked, uncooked, the act of cooking, the community housed in grocery stores and the lack of it in school cafeterias really highlighted everything Christine Wu was trying to say.

Wu’s poetic voice is lyrical and strong, a true feast of a collection of poetry.

This collection stays tightly on theme—complicated familial relationships, the immigrant experience, and religious trauma illustrated by poem after poem about food. The poems are accessible, sensory, and at times deeply moving.

A powerful collection of poetry that combines 90s nostalgia, broken families, Chinese culture, food, and the struggles of being a second generation immigrant into a gorgeous web.

The exploration of food and memory and emotion in this collection was powerful and moving; the readers experience the authors sad memories just as equally as the good, and we join the author on this journey to reconcile the two.

I deeply enjoyed this collection and look forward to reading more of the authors work.

A powerful collection of poetry from Christine Wu, she speaks on the difficulty and trauma of being a first generation immigrant. I gave this collection a 4/5 because some poems in the collection were more powerful than others. I can see a lot of this trauma playing out in my students, which only made the impact these poems had on me that much stronger. The way that Wu speaks on language, food, and her familial relationships is raw and devastating, especially the way she speaks on the staples of her childhood and their mixed origins.

Hauntingly beautiful and painful. Wu captures a feeling of fragmentation and loss that is relatable to many immigrants and immigrants’ children. Some of her phrases really lingered with me: shadow histories and hungry ghosts to name a few. It was also striking that Wu was honest and vulnerable about shame, guilt, and family dynamics (re: abuse, lack of contact, resentment). I was comforted by seeing myself in her poetry while learning about her culture and generational trauma/history that is different than mine yet somewhat similar. This is truly a beautiful collection of poems that is unapologetically raw, honest, and mournful. Thank you for allowing me to review this book.

This was a beautiful and mouthwatering collection of poetry. Discussing the ins and outs of the authors life as a second generation immigrant and her relationship with her family’s food, history and culture as a result. I absolutely fell head over heels into this collection and was enthralled the entire time. The food imagery was exquisite, all around an amazing read.

4.5 stars rounded up to 5 stars.

This isn't well written nor is it very inspiring. I get it, the constant enjambment is meant to punctuate the author's own feelings of fragmentation but my God it reads like someone is having a stroke.

Gorgeous poetry collection that explores the themes of belonging, family, and identity through the lens of food.

I found myself savoring each poem. Each felt like a meal that took time to digest and tended to sit with me throughout the day.

Wu is exceptionally gifted at evoking strong emotions with just a few words. I especially loved her vivid descriptions of food (dishes and ingredients), as well as her thoughtful commentary on how food intersects with class, race, and relationships.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

Familial Hungers is a beautiful collection of poetry. It covers so many topics including colonialism, culture, family life and more from an introspective perspective and includes many references to to food of this culture. I can't speak to the accuracy of any of the translations or anything like that, but this was an eye-opening reading experience into a culture and experience that I wasn't previously familiar with. And at the same time, there were still so many things that I could connect with and experiences that are universal, like grief. These are the kinds of stories and perspectives that are so important to read to learn about other experiences to build empathy and understanding for a world full of all different kinds of people. And the poetry was just beautiful and so well-done.

Beautiful poems about family and growing up. Experiencing racism and battling with fitting in. Lots of talk of food and how it's related to ones identity.

This book of poems is very poignant. A beautiful read and worth your time to relate or perhaps get a different perspective.

this book was poetic feast!!! it was serving up identity, race, and family through the lens of food. each poem brims with flavor—both literal and metaphorical—bringing together the warmth of home-cooked meals, the sting of cultural problems and the feeling of belonging.

the way it was written was so sharp & honest. the author using ingredients like ginger scallion fish and Sichuan peppercorns to explore the complexities of being an immigrant daughter made this book a 5 star read to me. food isn’t just nourishment here—it’s history, expectation, and sometimes, a battleground. colonialism, language loss, and family tension simmer beneath the surface, creating a rich and layered reading experience for EVERYBODY. also, what makes this collection so compelling is how seamlessly the author blends the personal and political. her poems capture the bittersweet realities of assimilation, the weight of generational pressures, and the quiet grief of losing pieces of one’s heritage. yet, through it all, there’s resilience, tenderness, and a deep love for the flavors that shape us.

Familial Hungers is a must-read—bold, intimate, and full of heart. this poetry lingers like the aftertaste of a long-forgotten dish, bringing both comfort and revelation. such an amazing one-sit read. i cannot pick a favorite.

thank you so much Christine Wu & Literary Press Group of Canada for my copy! i will embrace this book with all my ❤️

Thank you to the Literary Press Group of Canada, Brick Books, and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Truly one of my favorite poetry books I’ve ever read. Each poem was poignant and fit into the larger collection seamlessly. I especially loved “Before You Ask” (I want to write my own similar response poem as a journal exercise), “How to Speak Home,” “The Grocery Store Calls Them Cuties,” and “Why I Stopped Coming Home For the Holidays.” The structure, cadence, and overall composition of the poems are extremely thought-provoking and will be with me for a long time. Looking at familial and generational trauma through the lens of food is brilliant. The cover of this book is also stunning!

Highly, highly recommend

Thank you to NetGalley for a free arc in exchange for an honest review.

Familial Hungers is a very personal poetry collection. I really love the exploration of culture and loss of culture through food. The way that Wu discusses hunger, nostalgia, and longing feels so visceral.

Admittedly, I struggled to decide on a rating for this collection (as I often do with poetry and short story collections) since there were some poems in here that were so incredibly powerful, and others that I didn’t connect with at all. With that being said, there weren’t any poems that I disliked, so 3.75 rounded up to 4 seems fair to me.

I will be thinking about this for the rest of my day. Christine Wu blends her personal stories with traditional dishes we all know and love. It packs a beautiful punch, tangy with the everlasting struggle of being raised in a culture outside your own. I saw myself in this book— from the dishes, the feelings, just- wow!!! I’m floored.

Reading this poem collection felt like the moment your fight with your mother and it's still stinging, but she's already set a bowl of noodles wordlessly in front of you as the apology.

The struggles with identity in this book will resonate with a lot of Asian-Americans like myself. There's a very specific kind of hurt, shame, and pride that comes with that territory that is so difficult to put into words. Christine Wu has managed to articulate these experiences and feelings so well - over and over again in this collection.

I absolutely devoured this in one sitting.