Review: Hungry by: H.A. Swain

Hungry by: H.A. Swain (June 2014)
384 pages

Publisher:Feiwel & Friends
Genre: Young Adult/Dystopian
Source: The Library
Purchase:Barnes and Noble|The Book Depository| Amazon

Goodreads Summary: In the future, food is no longer necessary—until Thalia begins to feel something unfamiliar and uncomfortable. She’s hungry.

In Thalia’s world, there is no need for food—everyone takes medication (or “inocs”) to ward off hunger. It should mean there is no more famine, no more obesity, no more food-related illnesses, and no more war. At least that's what her parents, who work for the company that developed the inocs, say. But when Thalia meets a boy who is part of an underground movement to bring food back, she realizes that most people live a life much different from hers. Worse, Thalia is starting to feel hunger, and so is he—the inocs aren’t working. Together they set out to find the only thing that will quell their hunger: real food.

H. A. Swain delivers an adventure that is both epic and fast-paced. Get ready to be Hungry.

My Review

I honestly don't even know where to start with my review of Hungry. I'm not glad I took a bite out of this one. After reading the synopsis I wanted to see how this whole no food thing would work... too bad I was so curious.

My general feelings towards Hungry are as follows:There were cults, idiots, hunger, and more idiots featured in Hungry.The setting/world seemed not far enough in the future for how it was built, the characters were ugh, and nothing really worked. It's wasn't realistic or believable to me. It had the same dystopian formula/plot as all the others, there was nothing really unique about it. I didn't like the format of the novel either, there were no chapters. It was just weird.My feelings for Hungry were very hot and cold throughout the entire novel, sadly being mostly cold. Every once in a while I would enjoy a scene a great deal and then a few sentences later it would fall flat. Too bad there weren't more than just a handful of scenes that I actually enjoyed.Overall Hungry made me feel...

Now let's talk characters. I didn't like them. They were pretty dumb. Sure some could say that they were dumb due to being insanely naive,but I don't think that is the only reason.

The main characters were just so frustrating. I didn't want them to talk, act, or anything. I only liked one single minor character, Thailia's friend, Yaz, simply because she wasn't dumb, and had some believable character development. The romance was awful. It was insta-love and the two characters are completely wrong for each other, all they do is fight and never really see eye to eye. I just don't understand it. I understand opposites attract, such as my husband and I, but this was just a disaster. Because of how the characters acted I originally thought this would be a good book for a younger audience, I changed my mind when I got to the ending. I'm honestly not sure what audience this book would appeal to. So a quick character summary...

Even if all of those things didn't completely turn me off, one big reveal toward the end of the book did. Without giving anything away all I can say is that this was my response...

The Bottom Line: Hungry left me unsatisfied. The strong epilogue and the occasional light in the darkness couldn't save this novel from being one of my least favorite dystopians ever. I just can't recommend this book to anyone. I just can't. Maybe tech geeks would like this, or people who like reading about cults, I don't really know. If you do read this book I hope it sits better with you than it did me.