A Certain Hunger tells the story of Dorothy, a psychopathic, unapologetic, murdering cannibal and food critic. It’s gritty, authentic and a real page turner. It tells her life story nonlinearly, because of this it provides insights into how she became the way she is in a way that keeps you on the hook. The descriptions of food are immaculate and left me HUNGRY when I was reading (other than her dishes containing more exotic meat…). The social commentary regarding how society views women was well stated. Some sections tend to be quite wordy, but it still gets the point across. I really liked diving into Dorothy’s persona. It gives a really interesting perspective and some of the more gruesome depictions made me cringe in disgust, while others made me laugh out loud.

Dorothy’s relationship with her best friend starts off in the strangest way. They are unwilling roommates and later on Dorothy bails her out of jail for seemingly no reason other than a passing interest. Their interactions throughout the novel did well to ground Dorothy some, and this humanization of the character made her more relatable for the audience. Though she is a psychopath, she could still make actual friends. It gives those with substandard human interaction capabilities some hope.

The author paints Dorothy’s thoughts in a way that really gives us a glimpse into her mind as it is written from Dorothy’s point of view. There is a part were she is murdering a man and she addresses the reader saying how easy it would be for her to skip over the details, but she does not. The following describes what she does to her victim in visceral detail much to my discontent. This interaction with the reader illustrates how much the main character does not care about others and wants to revel in her glorious escapades.

Though it is not told linearly, which is a bit confusing at first, there is a natural flow to the story and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I love a good “girlboss” but this novel takes it too far. Dorothy does some despicable things for no reason other than her own mental instability. If you like wild rides with light social commentary, this one is for you.