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A Certain Hunger
254 pages
A decadent, blood-soaked feast of a novel that savors the darkest extremes of female appetite.
What it feels like
Reading this novel feels like sitting down to a Michelin-starred meal where you slowly realize the meat is something forbidden, yet you cannot stop eating. It is a masterclass in sensory indulgence, wrapping pitch-black horror in the velvet prose of high-end food criticism. The narrative voice is arrogant, erudite, and utterly magnetic, pulling you into a mind that views murder and gastronomy with the exact same meticulous passion. The pacing is steady and deliberate, savoring every drop of blood and splash of wine with equal reverence. It is a macabre, darkly funny, and unapologetically feminist exploration of monstrous appetites. This is a book for those who delight in fiercely unlikable narrators, razor-sharp social critique, and a story that refuses to apologize for its own grotesque decadence.
- Mood
- sensual
- macabre
- indulgent
- chilling
- Tone
- arrogant
- decadent
- darkly comedic
- unapologetic
- erudite
- Pace
- steady
- Themes
- monstrous appetites · female rage · sensory indulgence · performance of femininity · subversion of power
- The writing
- Lush, visceral, and razor-sharp, dripping with culinary metaphors and unapologetic arrogance.
- The arc
- Moves from a seductive immersion in high-society indulgence to a chilling, unapologetic embrace of ultimate transgression.
- Who it's for
- For readers who love fiercely intelligent, unrepentant female protagonists and have a stomach for pitch-black humor mixed with visceral horror.
Content notes
- cannibalism
- graphic violence
- murder
- explicit sexual content
- psychopathy
About the book
Food critic Dorothy Daniels loves what she does. Discerning, meticulous, and very, very smart, Dorothy’s clear mastery of the culinary arts make it likely that she could, on any given night, whip up a more inspired dish than any one of the chefs she writes about. Dorothy loves sex as much as she loves food, and while she has struggled to find a long-term partner that can keep up with her, she makes the best of her single life, frequently traveling from Manhattan to Italy for a taste of both.
But there is something within Dorothy that’s different from everyone else, and having suppressed it long enough, she starts to embrace what makes Dorothy uniquely, terrifyingly herself. Recounting her life from a seemingly idyllic farm-to-table childhood, the heights of her career, to the moment she plunges an ice pick into a man's neck on Fire Island, Dorothy Daniels show us what happens when a woman finally embraces her superiority.
Description from Open Library.
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