Hunger: A Personal Reflection on My Relationship with My Body

Rachel Lucero: I feel so honored to have read this story and this be, in some way, an observer in someone else’s journey. This is such an concisely written explanation of health and happiness in terms of actual loved experience rather than “objective” or societal measures.

United States on Nov 14, 2023

Maribel R.: I just began reading the book today and I have read 56 pages in an hour. I am so hooked and can barely put this book down. This book is so relatable in many, many ways. I have cried 3 times within my hour of reading because of the many things in this book that I can relate to. I love the book.

United States on Aug 15, 2023

Shine: Fantastic book. Reading Roxanne’s memoir seemed like travelling through my own mind. Her dichotomies are so relatable. I’m not fat but I didn’t feel any different from her. Quite like her we too are prisoners of our own expectations. The book pushes us in a corner to think, really think if we want to curtail our happiness to accommodate unrealistic standards set by a group of people.

India on Jul 18, 2023

aiukubi: Témoignage poignant de la genèse de l’obésité dans une évènement traumatique lors de l’adolescence et de la réalité à affronter à l’âge adulte. Impressionnant et très touchant par le dévoilement de ce qui reste tabou dans la société.

France on May 03, 2023

AlexandraAlexandra: The book looked used and the cover was all dirty

United Kingdom on Mar 17, 2023

Rose: Roxane Gay was raped when she was 12.

In reading Roxane's autobiography, I was reminded of another woman's rape words about how she disassociated and felt herself floating above, watching her own rape from the ceiling and these are her words: "I will spend the rest of my life trying to reattach the parts of me that watched from the ceiling that day".

"Coming back" from rape is a journey, and it is usually punctuated with a lot of self-destruction, and Roxane's story has a lot of that. She often runs towards self-destruction because maybe on the other side of that, there is some kind of familiarity, some kind of safety, some version, perhaps twisted, of love. She writes of "needing to be a victim of some kind over and over. That was something familiar, something I understood" (p.236 of my paperback copy).

After sexual assault, it seems less harmful for a girl to inflict damage upon herself rather than having others do it. Sexually abused women will almost always have issues revolving around control because they often feel some of their control was relinquished, stolen, or lost in the abuse. And since sexual abuse involves her body in such a direct way, it is...

United States on Sep 24, 2022

Junipero: That is my own measly opinion, of course. I think this book left people confused on either end of the spectrum, in different ways. I've read 1-star ratings calling it boring, disappointing, circular, with no light at the end of the tunnel; the memoir of a very unlikable human being who gets nowhere in this book.

Like it's meant to be some kind of fairy tale, or the lesson to be learned is meant to leave the reader feeling accomplished and good. Like wisdom always feels good or something.

Or the 5-star ratings that praise this as though it's this suspenseful and emotionally captivating read—which I personally feel is misleading and such a misrepresentation of why this book exists.

"LOVE IT!!!" feels cheap. Calling this book amazing feels like a lie.

When I started reading Hunger, I knew I was going into a memoir that was probably going to feel very uncomfortable; both in just reading about the real trauma a real person had experienced, and the fact that I have also suffered trauma. I am also obese and have experienced the fear of losing weight for the same reasons the author has and does. I get it and I felt myself bearing down and then a dull sense of...

United States on Sep 08, 2019

Janie U: I read this author's novel "An Untamed State" recently and was hooked by her approach. Even though it was a novel there was clearly a huge amount of her personal experiences in the narrative. That led me to read this memoir to find out more about her.
The book details her struggles with her body. After a terrifying experience as a teenager she ate as a form of protection which resulted in a lifelong battle with obesity. Her weight remains a powerful identifier.
In the book RG is incredibly honest - I actually struggled to believe that someone was brave enough to say everything she does. Almost everyone struggles with weight at some point and to some degree or another, this means that there will be something in this book that will be familiar. Her reactions and weight issues are more extreme than most people's but she writes in such a frank manner that there is no opportunity (or desire) to judge her choices.
Admittedly this goes against some of the morals of the book but I loved the cover of the edition I read (end of a fork), although it took me a while to work it out!!
I try very hard to be non judgmental and think I can often empathise with people who are different...

United Kingdom on Mar 09, 2018

Hande Z: ‘The frustrating thing about cages is that you’re trapped but you can see exactly what you want’. RG was raped when she was 12, and then she ate and ate until her body became a fortress. But then she admits that when she was young she knew nothing about anything. She kept her secret and misunderstood her body. She was led to that belief by the world that worships thinness.

Then after she wrote her book ‘Bad Feminism’ there was a photo-shoot for the book promotion. Staring at her full-length body shot she realized that that was her. That was what she looked like. That was the beginning of her coming to peace with herself and the world.

This book is not a sop story. It is not a story that ‘demands to be told and deserves to be read’. It will be impossible not to like RG when one has read the last line of the book and feel with her, sharing her jubilation, enjoying her freedom. It is a book that everyone who is in a cage should read – and who is not in a cage?

United Kingdom on Nov 03, 2017