I was immediately drawn to this book based on the intriguing title, beautiful cover and a premise that is very much catered to my interests, and while I did enjoy the book enough to see it through, I can’t help put feel it had pacing issues. The constant back and forth was quite jarring and often took me out of the experience.

Overall this was a good read, and my heart aches for the women of this story.

Beautifully haunting. The Hunger We Pass Down is about 5 generations of Chinese women and the demons that follow them from Hong Kong to Canada. The story follows Alice, a divorced single mother who struggles to manage her business, take care of her teenage daughter Luna and young son Luca, and have a secret boyfriend. She starts to lose track of time and can’t remember doing certain things. Is it the alcohol that is making her forget or something else?

During this time, her mother Judy opens up about their family history and the curse that follows them. The curse starts with Alice’s great-grandmother Gigi, a young woman kidnapped, imprisoned, and exploited as a comfort woman during World War II in Hong Kong under Japanese occupation. Gigi gives birth to Bette, who grows up dealing with her own demons and the curse is passed down to Judy. Can Judy and Alice stop the curse before it gets to Luna?

What a heartbreaking story filled with so much despair and hopelessness. The horror each female character had to experience is truly haunting. The story was an excellent example on how intergenerational trauma (especially passed from mothers to daughters) can have long lasting negative effects for generations to come when not addressed. It showed how rage and grief can be such a powerful force. I really enjoyed the POVs of the multiple women (including Pinky, the Filipina nanny). They all connected to add more to the story and fill in any blanks. It was gut wrenching to read Gigi’s POV. Even sadder knowing it’s based on real life events.

I definitely recommend this if you enjoy bleak and depressing stories. I can’t wait to see what else Jen Sookfong Lee will release in the future. Check for triggers.

Thank you, NetGalley and Kensington Publishing | Erewhon Books, for the ARC.

I’m often stuck on how to review a story like this—one that didn’t fully land for me, but that I genuinely think will resonate deeply with other readers. I was initially drawn to The Hunger We Pass Down for its horror elements and the comparison to Us by Jordan Peele. The first half had me more than the second; I was especially intrigued by the moments when Alice discovered things she couldn’t remember doing, and I wanted to dig even deeper into that psychological unease.

The theme of multigenerational trauma is powerful and likely to connect more strongly with others (I always hesitate to critique something so personal just because it didn’t hit for me specifically). Overall, I did enjoy this read—it just didn’t totally knock it out of the park, but I absolutely see its impact for another reader.

Alice is an overwhelmed single mother trying to manage her online diaper business while dealing with her resentful teenage daughter Luna, her screen-obsessed son Luca, her hard-edged mother who's finally ready to share the family's dark history, and a new boyfriend who doesn't quite understand what he's walked into and which sucks for him because Alice isn't ready to introduce him to her family anyhow. When Alice starts waking up to find all her household chores mysteriously completed overnight, it kicks off a story that uses shifting timelines to focus on each of the women in her family - her great-grandmother's horrific experience as a comfort woman during WWII, her orphaned daughter, Alice's mother, and Alice herself - showing how trauma moves and transforms through each generation. You know how the best part of any creepy story is when everyone's getting increasingly freaked out but nobody wants to say anything because they'll sound crazy? That mounting dread where people are secretly theorizing and panicking on their own until something finally forces them to compare notes? Most authors can't stick the landing once that moment hits, and unfortunately, this one falters too, once things start becoming apparent and real conversations start happening. This was an absolutely great story for me until that inevitable moment when the mysterious thing is acknowledged and addressed - Lee builds all of that tension beautifully, but once things come into the open, it all gets wrapped up too quickly and chaotically, leading to a spectacularly bleak ending. Despite my complaints about how everything ends, the parts that worked were numerous - Lee's mastery at building that creeping dread, the genuine mystery of what was happening to Alice, the complex tension in the family dynamics, and the deep love these women have for each other despite everything they've endured. The prowess of both the writing and the storytelling made it worth reading even with the disappointing conclusion, and overall I think it was pretty good.

This emotionally resonant, quietly powerful story explores generational trauma, womanhood, and the deep connections between memory, culture, and food. Told through interwoven timelines, it captures the lingering effects of grief and love passed down through families. With rich interiority, evocative imagery, and a focus on small, intimate moments rather than grand conflicts, it leaves a lasting impact despite its brevity—a tender, haunting meditation on what we carry and why.

This book pulled me in right away. It’s about a woman dealing with a generational curse—haunted, quite literally, by the ghost of her twin who died at birth and now takes over her body at night. It’s dark, eerie, and emotionally heavy in the best way.

I couldn’t stop turning the pages; it was fast-paced and kept me hooked. But I have to admit, I wasn’t a fan of how it ended. I was hoping for something more satisfying or resolved. Still, the story itself was powerful and unique.

If you’re into dark, haunting reads that explore family, identity, and the weight of what we inherit, I’d definitely recommend it.

This is a multigenerational story told from multiple perspectives, combining several genres. Two main plot lines intertwine. We follow Alice, a divorced mother of two in Canada in 2024, as she seems to slowly descend into alcoholism and depression, overwhelmed by her daily responsibilities. In the other thread, we start off in 1938 Hong Kong, where Gigi, still a teenager, gets kidnapped and trafficked into being a comfort woman for the Japanese army during WW2.

The book's description gives away far more information than that, but in my opinion it's a little spoiler-y, since it belongs in the second half of the book. It's where the novel turns into speculative fiction.

Despite containing many characters and story lines, the book is surprisingly easy to follow. Everyone gets introduced at a good pace and the writing is very accessible. It's definitely a slow burn, taking its time to unfold a tale of generational trauma and the horrors of being a woman in a hostile world. There's a lot of sexual and domestic violence in here, but it's never gratuitous or played for shock. The way each woman's experiences got shown and braided together over the years was my favorite part.

The last quarter of the book was a bit of a letdown. Suddenly the plot was rushing towards an ending, which was kind of jarring after the calm and steady pace of the rest of the novel. Already humanity's most frightening horrors (like war, violence, dehumanization, oppression, loss) have been on display throughout this book, and the introduction of a certain ultimate terror was somewhat of an anticlimax. That was supposed to be frightening -more than all that it represented, all that had already happened, all of life? Fortunately the (bleak, bleak) epilogue kind of patched it all up for me, though.

Overall it was a good read, easy to get lost in for hours at a time despite its sorrow and difficult subject matter.

Oh, this was a good one. This had me emotional. I dont even know how to write this review. It will stick with me and I will be recommending this to people!

On the one hand sorrow-filled and full of futility, this is also a story about fighting for a life to live… It specifically illustrates the struggles of women, to which I related in deep ways. The narrative is one of escalating dread and strangeness and interconnectivity, using interweaved timelines to paint a vivid picture of trauma perseverating through generations. While I can’t comment on how scary or disturbing it is, as those aspects don’t faze me, all the imagery is sensory and evocative and consistent. The highlight for me was the rich interiority, which is so refreshing in a landscape of so many stories propelled by plot and surface actions and large conflicts instead of the small ones, the patterns, the microfrictions that burrow in over time.

Thanks to NetGalley and Erewhon Books for the ARC!

This was so so good. When it comes to multigenerational family stories, this one is near perfect.

This books has shifting time lines and perspectives. We spend most of our time with Alice, a divorced mother of two who is deeply overwhelmed and struggling in most of her relationships. We also spend a good deal of time with Gigi, a young Chinese girl whose life takes a devastating turn during Japan's occupation of China.
Through other perspectives we learn how these two women's lives are linked in ways Alice could've never imagined.

As I said before, this was a near perfect book. I felt so much for these women and what they had to live through. It was truly heartbreaking at times. The loss, the abuse, and the guilt they felt who all so tangible.

The familial drama of this novel was so good that the supernatural element almost felt unneeded. I was all in on just learning about these characters and their lives. The weakest part of the story to me was the present day timeline and Alice, in general. Everything else was so strong that it kind of overshadowed her story a bit.

This book does such an amazing job personifying trauma and how it can permeate the lives of those who are even, seemingly, far removed from it. As the child of an immigrant, it really just brought back to mind the fact that we never know how much had to happen and how much had to be endured just for us to be here. And for those who do know, that weight can be overwhelming and crippling if not acknowledged, honored and appreciated.

This is a layered, multi-generational story that focuses more on emotional inheritance than horror, and that’s where it truly shines. I loved how the author explored trauma, motherhood, and sacrifice through four generations of women. That part of the story gripped me more than the haunting elements.

It’s a sad read with a slow pace, but it never felt boring. I do think it would have been even more impactful in first person. That closer perspective might have made each woman’s journey resonate more deeply, which is why I’m giving it four stars instead of five. Still, this is a great book that is quietly powerful and rich with generational weight. A thoughtful and emotional read that stays with you.

Thank you NetGalley and Kensington Publishing for the e-arc.

This book hit me in such a deep, emotional way. It’s tender, raw, and full of heart. I didn’t expect something so short to leave such a lasting impact, but it did.

Reading about family, food, and the pain and love that gets passed down through generations felt so personal. The way memories, grief, and culture are tied into the smallest things—especially food—was beautiful and bittersweet. It made me reflect on my own family and the things we carry, even when we don’t realise it.

It’s the kind of book you sit with after finishing. Quiet, powerful, and full of feeling.

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.