Name: A Certain Hunger
Rating: 3.758968609865471 (223 reviews)
ISBN: 9780571372331

Chelsea G. Summers

Janice E. Cable

After a long and illustrious career writing for glossy food magazines, publishing award-winning bestsellers, and freelancing her way around the world's best eateries, restaurant critic Dorothy Daniels is finally sitting down to pen her memoir. Provocative, glamorous, passionate, Dorothy has always followed where her insatiable appetite leads. 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 gives a no-holds-barred account of her grotesque life-long affair with food, sex, murder - and sometimes all three at once.

A Certain Hunger

Sophia 

 Feminism comes to all things, it seems, but it comes to recognizing homicidal rage the slowest.

Isabelle

One learns so much about a person when one merely wants to fuck him. 

Jaydee (she/her)

tianna

The main thing that youth has going for it is porpoise-tight skin. Raw, wide-eyed newness is meaningless. Nostalgia for knowing nothing is asinine; you can't recapture it and you don't want to relive it. Better to sing a song of experience with your burning tiger's heart.

Helen 

peyton mckenzie

To eat human is to dine on a chimerical hybrid, a marvelous, mythical meat that has the sensuality of lamb combined with the poignancy of wild game and the naif quality of pork. To eat people is to get the taste of a Titan. It's infinite immortalization. It makes a god out of a woman. 

In prison terms, I eat well. On my terms, iť's wretched. Everything iS relative, and, here in prison, nothing is beautiful, except memory.

All humans are bad. Most of us merely live Our lives with our worst, most unethical acts lying like bodies clad in concrete, undiscovered, quiet, and dark. What is heaven but the hope for righteous acknowledgment, and what is hell but the fear of discovery. 

We talk about love like it's an involuntary act. We fall into love, like a hole, a puddle, an elevator shaft. We never step mindfully into love. Love, we seem to think, requires a loss of control; love necessitates that vertiginous giving over to gravity; love wants you to have no choice. Your heart thumps because there's danger and adrenaline in love. You lose yourself in love because you've displaced yourself. But dating sites and yentas, arranged marriages and speed dating, advice columns and blind dates, all argue that love is something we can manage, a losing that we can find. I suppose that if you walk into a minefield, you're more like- ly to explode; if you walk a country lane in the dark, you're more likely to trip; and if you put yourself in the path of dating, you're more likely to fall in love. I maintain that love can't simultaneously be an accident and a premeditated act, yet we treat it as if it is. Iť's a necessary fiction, love's Oxymoronic nature. Love's a contranym as sharp as "cleave" and twice as dangerouS.

I'm only a couple of chapters in and it's disturbing and I'm HOOKED. 

Gisela Ayala 

"It's not that women psychopaths don't exist; it's that we fake it better than men."

Nicole 

“It’s not that women psychopaths don’t exist; it’s that we fake it better than men”

Hotel bars smell like class privilege, desperation, and hope.

It’s not that women psychopaths don’t exist; it’s that we fake it better than men.

From my mother, l earned that beauty was armor. From my teenage friends, I learned that femininity was junk. They were both right.

I rather enjoyed being objectified. I like it when men look at me as if they want to devour me. I find it deeply entertaining. It becomes annoying only when they start talking, as if I’d have any interest in anything that comes out of their mouths.

Our friends see the frailties, the insecurities, the unattractive bits that we have to keep hidden from the rest of the world because -and this is the meat of the matter-it's hard work to be a woman. It's a full-time job. Our female friends, the close ones, are the mini-breaks we take from the totalitarian work it requires to keep up the performance of being female. 

I've always been impatient with my inferiors. It's a weakness.

Syrina

 I enjoy a man who's kissed with a yeasty beastliness. Craddock's staid and studied ersatz Englishness aside, I detect a rumpled rebel's raging heart beating in his white-coated breast, if only when I drink his creations.

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.

A satire of early foodieism, a critique of how gender is defined, and a showcase of virtuoso storytelling, Chelsea G. Summers' A Certain Hunger introduces us to the food world's most charming psychopath and an exciting new voice in fiction.

erin

i found it way more funny than i probably should have

Yulez

⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 EAT. SLAY. LOVE “I learned that being female is as prefab, thoughtless, soulless, and abjectly capitalistic as a Big Mac. It's not important that it's real. It's only important that it's tasty.” Imagine our narrator as an unhinged food critic version of Samantha Jones from Sex and the City with an unusual appetite for her love interests and this is what you get here. You take a deep dive into Dorothy Daniels mind and her thought process into why she does what she does. You won’t truly grasp her reasoning or sometimes not even really want to know, but she’s going to take you there anyways— because what better way to be immortalized than to tell your story, albeit a dark and twisted one. A Certain Hunger was absolutely bonkers in the best way.

The writing was flowery in the extreme with a lot of explaining explanations but the story was amazing. I felt confused when the writer was confused, it was wonderful 

Abbi Brown 

This book follows Dorothy Daniels, a food critic who also happens to be a convicted serial killer. With an insatiable appetite for both gourmet cuisine and chaos, she recounts a life filled with culinary delight and chilling confessions. Her dishes weren't just rich in flavour-they held dark secrets, often including a deeply personal ingredient: her past lovers.

This book is steeped in sensory indulgence, blending culinary eloquence with gruesome satire. Dorothy turns meals into art, even when they involve human flesh. The writing is lush, provocative, and rich with vivid food descriptions. Honestly, it's the kind of book that begs to be read with a glass of wine in hand.

This book follows Dorothy Daniels, a food critic who also happens to be a convicted serial killer. With an insatiable appetite for both gourmet cuisine and chaos, she recounts a life filled with culinary delight and chilling confessions. Her dishes weren't just rich in flavour-they held dark secrets, often including a deeply personal ingredient: her past lovers.

This book is steeped in sensory indulgence, blending culinary eloquence with gruesome satire. Dorothy turns meals into art, even when they involve human flesh. The writing is lush, provocative, and rich with vivid food descriptions. Honestly, it's the kind of book that begs to be read with a glass of wine in hand.

A good gory, descriptive, vulgar read. Maybe a few too many similes than I cared for, but this is a great book! I love evil women!

james cao

Certain Hunger

its alright. at first i was so into it but then idk what happened in the end, maybe i was disappointed because i was rooting for her? anyways i just didnt like who the book ended thats why its a 3-star rating. like whyd the love of her life pop out of nowhere like that, it didnt really make sense to me and i wasnt amused at all by it. but overall, the book was a fun experience.

so beautifully written. the unique writing style and detailed descriptions of pretty much everything (food, sex, violence) made it a beautiful read. 

by far one of my favorite books for december. every chapter was such a gasping moment. dorothy self aware queen? it was definitely overwhelming with how it was written 

march🐇

This book would likely make a fine screenplay, but as it stands the main character is so insufferable to read about. Entirely self-indulgent and quite frankly boring. 

Brynn Sklar

The writing was good, a little flowery. Overall the story fell flat and I found myself bored a lot while reading. This book is less than 300 pages and it felt like it would never end. I think I just expected this story to be more gripping with such an interesting premise?? I’m left feeling disappointed with this one, but happy to have read a book that’s been on my shelf for 2+ years. 

Alli

It was okay. Some good quotes.

The writing was good, a little flowery. Overall the story fell flat and I found myself bored a lot while reading. This book is less than 300 pages and it felt like it would never end. I think I just expected this story to be more gripping with such an interesting premise?? I’m left feeling disappointed with this one, but happy to have read a book that’s been on my shelf for 2+ years. 

the first chapter of this book was so irritating i almost DNF’ed it but i’m glad i kept going because the rest of the book is much less heavy handed stylistically 

mallorie 🦌

Original writing style, which was the best part for me. Plot was a bit predictable and repetitive, sometimes nauseating and not in a thrilling way. Felt like the story could have been integrated a bit better and main points weren’t fully fleshed out and were incredibly heavy handed at the end. For book club! 

taylor miles hopkins

what a great book, a definitely must read

Maria

Caroline Williams

Book theme of the month: female rage

Beautiful prose, engaging narrator, genuinely fun to dive into the mind of a female psychopath. Loved discussing this as a group.

Liyah 🤎

A very strange but compelling book. A bit gory for me personally. Enjoyed the prose and gave me lots to think about. Excited to discuss in bookclub!

This book, though short, put me in a reading slump twice. The descriptive nature of it nauseated me, and made it difficult to read more than a couple chapters at a time. However, the ending of this book was fantastic. Everything tied up so nicely and I wasn’t left with a single question. Dorothy is definitely an interesting character and I enjoyed her strong voice. This novel is so unique— I’ve never, and probably never will again, read anything like it.

Abigail Marie

Elisavet Rozaki 

I've never had such a vivid image in my mind while reading a book

maitha mana

the canniblism was so tame, i just wanted more of that “dark” stuff 

envie,

kayla 

I believe in women’s wrongs. Very descriptive when it comes to the how the organs and body parts were prepared and the taste profile. The writing is very dynamic and a bit crass. I like that the language used contrasts the image of the main character and it just shows how much work she put into keeping it. Very funny. 

definitivamente foi diferente do que eu esperava, mas isso é bem comum entre as minhas leituras, já que tenho costume de não procurar saber tudo sobre um livro antes de ler ele, gosto da sensação de ir descobrindo sobre enquanto leio. 

a escrita me agradou bastante, mas imagino que talvez não seja o tipo de livro que vá prender a atenção de alguém que prefere uma leitura acelerada, os capítulos não são entediantes mas são desenvolvidos de forma lenta e a narração é bem paciente.

é como uma versão feminina de american psycho, inclusive apesar de não ter lido o livro, eu suponho que a narração deles deva ter suas semelhanças. foi uma leitura que eu gostei, mas preciso admitir que eu tinha expectativas um pouco mais altas quando quis ler.

gosto muito de como a quantidade de informações sobre personagem foi distribuída cautelosamente, era como se realmente a cada página lida o leitor entendesse mais o funcionamento da mente conturbada da dorothy ( protagonista e narradora ), e as razões “justificando” seus pensamentos, suas ações e as consequências de tudo. achei legal a ironia dela ser canibal e crítica de gastronomia, deu um toque hannibal para a trama ( apesar de que os dois não tem nem comparação no meu ponto de vista ), também gostei de como a obsessão dela por comida e alimentação é algo demonstrado desde o começo do livro de uma maneira que faz você ficar imerso nessa linha de raciocínio onde algo tão cotidiano o quanto a alimentação tem um vasto significado na vida dela.

gosto de toda a desenvoltura inicial do livro, onde se descobre que ela saiu de uma vida onde sua alimentação vinha direto da fazenda para a sua mesa, fazendo seu passado contrastar com a ação de se revelar uma serial killer canibal que abraçou seu senso extremo de superioridade, o começo foi minha parte favorita. 

tay menezes

definitivamente foi diferente do que eu esperava, mas isso é bem comum entre as minhas leituras, já que tenho costume de não procurar saber tudo sobre um livro antes de ler ele, gosto da sensação de ir descobrindo sobre enquanto leio. 

a escrita me agradou bastante, mas imagino que talvez não seja o tipo de livro que vá prender a atenção de alguém que prefere uma leitura acelerada, os capítulos não são entediantes mas são desenvolvidos de forma lenta e a narração é bem paciente.

é como uma versão feminina de american psycho, inclusive apesar de não ter lido o livro, eu suponho que a narração deles deva ter suas semelhanças. foi uma leitura que eu gostei, mas preciso admitir que eu tinha expectativas um pouco mais altas quando quis ler.

gosto muito de como a quantidade de informações sobre personagem foi distribuída cautelosamente, era como se realmente a cada página lida o leitor entendesse mais o funcionamento da mente conturbada da dorothy ( protagonista e narradora ), e as razões “justificando” seus pensamentos, suas ações e as consequências de tudo. achei legal a ironia dela ser canibal e crítica de gastronomia, deu um toque hannibal para a trama ( apesar de que os dois não tem nem comparação no meu ponto de vista ), também gostei de como a obsessão dela por comida e alimentação é algo demonstrado desde o começo do livro de uma maneira que faz você ficar imerso nessa linha de raciocínio onde algo tão cotidiano o quanto a alimentação tem um vasto significado na vida dela.

gosto de toda a desenvoltura inicial do livro, onde se descobre que ela saiu de uma vida onde sua alimentação vinha direto da fazenda para a sua mesa, fazendo seu passado contrastar com a ação de se revelar uma serial killer canibal que abraçou seu senso extremo de superioridade, o começo foi minha parte favorita. 



A Certain Hunger

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