Thank you to Erewhon and NetGalley for this ARC.

The first half of this book was interesting and I thought well executed. It goes through POVs of multiple generations of women in the family and while some were more interesting than others, for a while it flowed well. But by the end there were so many peaks and valleys in the narrative it became choppy and unsatisfying and I'm not sure how I feel about the conclusion. The trauma was made to be completely external but not in a way that made it tragic that it's out of the women's hands, just disappointing. After so many climaxes it just fell flat and stayed there.

This is a generational trauma horror told in split perspective, across different time lines and set in five different countries. Despite all these changing perspectives and settings I found it easy to follow and keep things in order once I'd learned the names of the five generations at the centre of the haunting.

Three of the five country changes happen in Pinky's perspective, who is a side character and thus her perspective isn't the main focus. Which means the three countries she travels in before getting to Canada dont muddy the waters too much. Her story introduces the Aswang of Filipino folklore, which is tied in well with the generational haunting of the main family.
<spoiler>I think the aswang works as an explanation for gigi, a comfort woman and origin of the haunting, actually being haunted by a non familial entity in the first place. This non family entity then chases down Gigi, follows her daughter Bette to Canada, haunts her daughter Judy, tries to replace Judy' daughter, Alice who is unaware of the generational curse. And eventually finds the next daughter and her unborn child, Luna on a remote island </spoiler>.

I think the passing down of family trauma is explored really well, explaining how each woman's bad experiences manifest in their own behaviour and are then absorbed by their daughters. Each mother takes a different path but ultimately their trauma is added to the personal trauma of the next generation (trauma which is also set in motion by the entity). The heaviness is inescapable, no matter where they go or how they try to prepare for or shield each other from it.

The Hunger we Pass Down is atmospheric, full of creeping dread and doesn't have a happy ending. This might appeal to fans of Something in the Walls by Daisy Pearce who enjoyed the tense atmosphere and the 'maybe it's possession, maybe it's a mental health problem' of that book.

The Hunger We Pass Down by Jen Sookfong Lee is an eerie, generational horror with emotional bite. It follows single mom Alice, whose doppelgänger mysteriously handles her chores—freeing her up to dig into her family’s haunted past, from WWII comfort women to modern Vancouver. A gut‑punch of intergenerational trauma turned supernatural metaphor. Not exactly feel‑good—but it’s unforgettable, fierce, and profoundly human.

***Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review***

This novel explores intergenerational trauma by utilizing horror, a genre with which I have little experience. The main character, Alice, finds that a shadowy doppelgänger "helps" her get through the day, but that help comes at a cost. Her great-grandmother's experience of being forced into sexual slavery during WWII explains the intergenerational aspect. When things come to a violent head, the story became a little bit muddled, but I thought it reflected well on the confusing nature of that which is unknown and undiscussed within families.

This book drew me in immediately. I love how atmospheric it was. The description of the scents and sounds in each scene made everything feel so real and alive. Though a shared trauma connects them, all the women feel so distinct in how they deal with that trauma how they accept or deflect its influence in their lives.

It feels so rare to read a ghost story where the ghost is so present and yearning as this one is. In my experience too many books try to obscure the supernatural elements and make them so subtle that the reader has to doubt if there really is a ghost at all, so I was glad that this author did not use that same tactic.

I liked the amount of body horror in this book, not only the realistic horror of pregnancy but also the more fantastical elements as well. As someone who does not want children, the conflicting feelings of motherhood in this book fascinated me. The variety of mother/daughter dynamics was great, each generation showing the way they are trying to rectify the misinformed parenting of the one before all connected in their desire to make their daughter stronger than they were but never sure how to achieve it.

This is the first time I’ve read a book by this author and I’m eager to check out some of her other work.

This book is very atmospheric and quite, no so much plot-driven. But I love how unsettling and beautifully sad it is. It feels wel balanced, between timelines, the women, devastation and mundance survival.
The intergenerational hauntings are the core of the book and you feel it. The exhaustion and clautrophobia of motherhood, well-done.
It did drag. It does hammer down the main topics and sometimes I felt like "I read this before?". Now, the writing is grounded, sharp and the emotional punch is worth it.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this book.🫰

This book it was kinda a reality check for me. I don't wanna be a mother for some good reasons and in this novel there are some of them. Also, it was a reality check for the condition of my mum when I was a kid. I was an only child for long time and my mom came back to work as soon as she could and the more I grow up the more I understand her decision.

Being a mother could be something really unhinged. And in a sense, I'm grateful that my mother never choose me as a FULL priority, also because I have a super present dad who has been really good and understood his father role really clear, because these choice could erased her life and personality.

Reading this novel I've felt so much grief, so much traumatic events for the characters that I was always sad to hear their thoughts.

I think the horror elements have could been a bit better than I've seen, but I think the real horror is how we treat women and how we think about maternity and women's role in this world.
The message was powerful and really really clear. Good job!❤️

I really enjoyed her earlier book, The Conjoined. The writing was great in this one. However the subject matter was very, very bleak and dark. You made it hard to get through. There was not a good ending. Not a great book for these troubled times if you want a little break though it was very well written and evocative.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

Generational trauma is a hefty, hefty piece of subject matter. It weighs with a grief that is not always the easiest to understand, and there’s a certain context that’s required to comprehend just how much it can feed into your blood when it’s part of your family history.

This book is very much a study of generational trauma and the things that we carry with us down to our children and children’s children. There’s a part of this book that’s dedicated to breaking the cycle, and the curse of said trauma, but in a sense, these elements were not as critical as the women they affected.

The main characters throughout were easy to follow, which is a blessing in a book with multiple points of view. Some of the women were more empathetic and likeable than others, but all of them were certainly irrevocably human.

The book was well-written too, with some nasty shocks throughout. There were a couple of scenes that weren’t as powerful as they could have been, but the story thread was definitely still strong throughout.

I did think some of the horror elements could have been a little better- the monster and the ghost themes were a little unclear in places, but the message was very much clear. This book is a powerful one, and is well worth a read.

Thank you to @netgallery and @kensingtonpublishing for this e-arc (out on 30th sept '25)

Mother-daughter bonds are one of the most challenging and emotive bonds you can have; the premise of this story is told from multiple POV and from from timelines - from Hong Kong during the second world war, and Vancouver. This story tracks Gigi (Alice's great grandmother), Alice and her children Luna and Luca. Gigi's narrative and Alice's narrative met at the present day 2024.

"Maybe cursed isn't the right word...maybe we were angry. Maybe we were haunted"
Alice wakes up each morning where all of the overwhelming tasks of the day appear to have been completed already, she begins to wonder who and what has been doing this in her stead... Alice learns about her own Mother Judy who is making the pilgrimage back to Hong Kong to visit the infamous Nam Koo terrace where her own grandmother was kept as a Comfort Woman.

"Rage is what she ate for breakfast"
Part eerie horror, and part historical fiction Lee has done a brilliant job of weaving gender violence, bodily trauma, and memory into this impactful book.

My favourite quotes
"Her blood ran in my blood. Her rage was Bette's rage"
"You will know when goodness is required and when selfishness and rage are the only things that will help"

This is one incredible book. I was glued to the pages from the beginning to the end. This is a very heavy novel but it is written so incredibly well that it's hard to put down. The characters and the plot are so well written. I can't recommend this book enough!

<b>4.5⭐️ I was so surprised by how much I ended up liking this!</b>

Alice is a single mom who’s barely holding on. She’s constantly gravitating towards alcohol bottles while also trying to be a good mom to her two kids.

In <i>The Hunger We Pass Down</i>, like the title suggests, we don’t just follow Alice, but also other women like her daughter, mother, grandmother and even her great grandmother.
We see how trauma is being passed down from daughter to daughter.

<i><b>She just couldn’t shake the feeling that she was the source of all her daughter’s rage.</b></i>

Usually I’m not the biggest fan of multiple pov’s but here it really worked. Every single pov felt so raw and captivating. The author definitely wasn’t afraid to make the fmc’s somewhat unlikable at times, which made them feel so real. Trauma isn’t pretty and she really knew what she was doing with this.

<i><b>“Women carry everything with them.” Judy nodded. “Only men ever truly forget. That’s why they’re so stupid.”</b></i>

It’s literally fiction mixed with historical fiction and horror elements and I just absolutely loved it.
It also deals with some very heavy subjects so definitely check out trigger warnings!

Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher, for the arc.

4.5/5 stars rounded up

raw, haunting & depressing. do not expect a happy ending with sunshine & rainbows, this is so so heavy but written so beautifully it was hard to put down. the fact that Nam Koo Terrace is a real place makes this even sadder.

shifting between multiple narratives during different times & places from Hong Kong during World War II to present day in Vancouver, we're following three women & the different struggles they each went through. even though the synopsis mentions a doppelgänger, it's not the main focus. to me the real horror lies within the things these women experienced, the trauma that followed after & the how that trauma got passed down through generations.

this was filled emotions. rage, sorrow, hopelessness, & depression just drip off the pages. I hated reading GiGi's POV, i found myself feeling so depressed reading through her chapters.

I loved almost everything about this...my only complaint is I was let down just a smidge at the end. there was soooo much tension & was set up to have such a great ending but it was too rushed & left me a little underwhelmed. I wish we had gotten more of the last 3-5 chapters with the doppelgänger & Alice. overall I think this is 100% worth a read for any horror fans.

This book is pretty heavy and does not make you feel good after reading. It is about multi generational trauma and follows one family of women while also including POVs from supporting characters. Readers who enjoy horror and suspense will love this!

An eerie look at the sprawling effect of intergenerational trauma, specifically from mothers to daughters. As we spend time with each woman, we are left with an ever-increasing weight in the pit of our stomachs...like the feeling you can't outrun the monster in a dream. There is stifled rage and sadness with devastating effects, showing up in their lives in different ominous shapes and forms.

The only issue I took with the book is the rushed ending. I felt like pages were wasted on characters unrelated to the trauma of the curse; it just took me out of the story a bit.

I love when authors use horror as a device to examine trauma and this was an excellent example of that.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Publishing for the ARC ebook in exchange for my honest opinion. The book changes POV between Gigi, a teen in 1930s Hong Kong, Alice, a single mom in the 2020s in Vancouver, and their female relatives. I enjoyed the way the characters related with each other and found some moments very real, particularly Luna’s interactions with her mother. This is a horror story that has many dark themes-human trafficking, rape, domestic abuse, incest/rape, parental abuse, alcoholism…it begins to feel like too much after a while, which detracted from my enjoyment from the story. Additionally, the ending felt rushed and multiple characters made sudden surprising choices that seemed out of character, which made it hard to feel invested in the end of the story. I enjoyed her writing overall and would probably read another book by this author, but I wish the book had more time for the ending.

intergenerational trauma feasting on the past and what’s still forming…

a bleak, unfiltered, creepy look into the individual and shared wounds each woman in a haunted family carries. we’re made to sit with each woman’s pain, their identities distinct yet deeply intertwined. the pain they face may echo your own and that of many others. beautifully written, sobering… that ending.

I really enjoyed reading this dark tale, the plot was really captivating and the writing style really drew me in from the beginning. I’ll definitely have to recommend this to my friends.

An incredibly haunting tale about how generational trauma, passed down from mother to daughter across generations, shapes these women and literally haunts them. This novel is so full of rage, sadness, and yet so engaging.

Lee crafts this story lovingly, she crafts her characters with such care and treats the historical context of the novel with so much respect and attention. The tension throughout the novel was also very well-done. As we learn more about the women, we also learn more about the curse, and you can feel it creeping along throughout the pages.

My only complaint is that the ending felt a little rushed compared to the rest of the book. It gets bogged down with the inclusion of characters unrelated to the curse and who have very little development. I think this book could’ve benefitted from being a little longer to accommodate what the ending was going for.

Overall, I think this debut novel is a must-read horror experience. It’s filled with so much emotion and history that makes it hard to ignore. I’m very excited to see what Lee does next!

Actual Rating: 3.5 stars rounded down to 3 stars

‘The Hunger We Pass Down’ is the story of a generational trauma that has not only psychologically affected generations of woman but has also physically manifested into a terrifying monster. Told through multiple perspectives over the course of decades, we see how the pain and violence inflicted on one woman becomes a burden that all her future female descendants inherit, taking shape in different forms but always as something horrifying.

The story was, for the most part, a slow burn in which you could feel the tension building as more insight into the curse and the lives of each of the women who lived with it was revealed. I particularly enjoyed how the curse manifested as different things for each woman, taking their own individual experiences to create their own personal demon that would deal the most amount of anguish. However, in the final third things started to feel quite rushed- characters who have no prior knowledge of the curse come to accept it as fact with very little convincing- and the pre-epilogue ending felt unearned. The epilogue itself did give the story a more believable ending within the context of the curse, but at the same time did feel a little tacked on.

I did enjoy this read but was ultimately left dissatisfied upon finishing. The story had so much potential, and the set-up was done well, but the execution of the ending felt clumsy compared to the rest of the book. I would say this is still worth a read for horror fans who want something a bit different, a bit more grounded in reality, but be prepared for an interesting concept to not be fully paid off.

Thank you to Kensington Publishing | Erewhon Books and NetGalley for the chance to read this ARC. This review can be reviewed on my Goodreads page at the following link: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7581814433