Books › The art of starving
The art of starving
400 pages
A visceral, surreal exploration of trauma and control where a bullied teen's destructive hunger blurs the line between delusion and supernatural power.
What it feels like
This intense, propulsive YA novel plunges readers into a dark and hallucinatory headspace where trauma and magical realism collide. The narrative feels sharp and visceral, mirroring the protagonist's desperate attempt to forge power from deprivation. As the story unfolds, the mood grows increasingly surreal and tense, blurring the boundaries between psychic phenomena and the devastating physical reality of an eating disorder. It is a raw, unflinching exploration of the illusion of control, the deep scars of bullying, and the complex journey toward self-acceptance. Readers who gravitate toward psychologically complex, queer-centered fiction will find themselves gripped by this harrowing yet deeply empathetic portrayal of a boy consumed by hungers he cannot tame.
- Mood
- surreal
- dark
- tense
- hallucinatory
- Tone
- raw
- intense
- desperate
- defiant
- Pace
- propulsive
- Themes
- the illusion of control · destructive coping mechanisms · the trauma of bullying · queer identity and self-acceptance · family fracture
- The writing
- Sharp, visceral, and increasingly surreal as the narrator's grip on reality fractures under the weight of starvation.
- The arc
- Moves from a desperate, self-destructive quest for control to a harrowing confrontation with the true nature of his hungers and the necessity of self-acceptance.
- Who it's for
- Readers who appreciate dark, psychologically intense YA fiction that uses magical realism to explore trauma, eating disorders, and queer identity.
Content notes
- eating disorders
- starvation
- bullying
- homophobia
About the book
A bullied gay teen boy with an eating disorder believes he's developed super powers via starvation.
Matt's stomach stabs and twists, pleading for a meal, but Matt won't give in. The hunger clears his mind, keeps him sharp-- and the less he eats the more he seems to have the ability to see things he shouldn't be able to see. Maybe even the authority to bend time and space. And Matt needs to be as sharp as possible if he's going to find out just how Tariq and his band of high school bullies drove his sister, Maya, away. But Matt doesn't realize there are many kinds of hunger-- and he isn't in control of all of them.
Description from Open Library.
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