"Not Hungry," by Kate Karyus Quinn

Audience: Young Adult

Genre: Fiction/Poetry

Overall Content Rating: Somewhat Clean

Content Warnings

Abuse

Verbal abuse/bullying in terms of food and weight

Body shaming

Other

Purging (eating disorder behavior)

Overall Review

To start us off, this one was a reread, so I can't give you my "first impressions" but I can tell you that this book was just as good the second time through as it was the first. One warning before we get into it, though. This story is fairly graphic in the depictions of the MC's eating disorder, it gets into her thoughts and longing for food and then her purging. And the happenings of this book revolve around that, so if you can't handle that, please do not read this book.

That said, though, if you can handle all of that, then this book would be a good book to see what happens inside of a person's head. I'm not saying that all those who struggle with eating disorders are similar, but from my own experience with eating disorders, it's fairly similar to the struggles many people go through. The push-and-pull within the character to eat or not to eat was spot-on and unfortunately, the bullying that June (the MC) endured because of her body was also quite believable. It was body-shaming to the extreme and honestly, it made me look down at myself and cringe a little bit.

While I enjoyed this book, I want to put out a warning rather than a review of this book: this book is immensely graphic and it's going to make you feel some things unless you're shut down or dissociated or whatever else. Please be careful reading this book and be prepared to put it down if you have to.

Overall, while I'd recommend this book to anyone who wants an inside look into what it's like to have an eating disorder, I'd also send a warning to anyone more susceptible to feeling ashamed about their bodies. Y'all, you are beautiful no matter what shape you are, no matter what you weigh, and this book will not change that, but it may change your views on it if you only read the beginning.

Author's Notes: This review was originally posted on my other blog and was simply revised to fit my current needs. If you'd like to see the original, please read: https://www.thefrogblogandfriends.org/post/not-hungry-by-kate-karyus-quinn