Hunger »

JACKIE MORSE KESSLER is the author of several paranormal and dark fantasy books for adults. Hunger is her first book for teens. She lives in upstate New York.

www.jackiemorsekessler.com

"Thou art the Black Rider. Go thee out unto the world."

Lisabeth Lewis has a black steed, a set of scales, and a new job: she’s been appointed Famine. How will an anorexic seventeen-year-old girl from the suburbs fare as one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse?

     Traveling the world on her steed gives Lisa freedom from her troubles at home—her constant battle with hunger, and her struggle to hide it from the people who care about her. But being Famine forces her to go places where hunger is a painful part of everyday life, and to face the horrifying effects of her phenomenal power. Can Lisa find a way to harness that power—and the courage to fight her own inner demons?

     A wildly original approach to the issue of eating disorders, Hunger is about the struggle to find balance in a world of extremes, and uses fantastic tropes to explore a difficult topic that touches the lives of many teens.

Publishers Weekly

In adult author Kessler's YA debut, first in a planned series, 17-year-old Lisa, who makes a half-hearted suicide attempt and is in denial about her anorexia, learns that she has been appointed to the role of "Famine," one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. When Death, unsubtly depicted as Kurt Cobain, gives her the choice between succumbing to him or joining him, Lisa climbs on her black horse and gallops through the night skies, experiencing world hunger in its literal and metaphorical forms. During alternate scenes, she fights with her boyfriend and counts calories with her bulimic friend. Kessler realistically conveys the vicious nature of the girls' eating disorders, providing graphic depictions of their binging, purging, and starvation. However, the paranormal concept often gallops ahead of its supporting framework, muddling rather than addressing the psychological complexity of Lisa's illness. Perceptive readers will recognize that Lisa's most convincing (and painful) moments--her punishing internal monologue as she debates whether to eat a cheese fry and her resentment toward those who try to help her--are solidly anchored in the real world. Ages 12 up. (Oct.)