Jackie KesslerReviews

This was a disappointing read. The characters were one-dimensional, so poorly fleshed out that it was impossible to relate to them or care about them. The main character, Lisa, had no personality outside of anorexia, and while I understand that eating disorders tend to take over the lives and identities of sufferers, there is still a person underneath the illness. And I think this is a point that all writers of eating disorder fiction and non-fiction need to drive home, so that people can see beyond the illness and reach the real human beings suffering from them. I did appreciate how the author tried to show the ugly side of eating disorders with the detailed descriptions of constipation, bowel movements, and vomiting, but because the characters were so flat, I can only read those scenes from a detached point of view and I feel like they would have been more powerful if I could better feel the characters' pain.

Because the book was so short, the plot moved fairly quickly from scene to scene that the story sometimes felt disjointed and many things were unexplained. The mythology of the four Horsemen was completely lacking. I would have like to know more about where they came from/how they do their jobs/how do they choose who to become a Horseman and why did they choose Lisa? The story was resolved too quickly and easily.

The writing was very uneven. I feel like there is way more telling than showing in the book. Kessler often tells us how a character feels, rather than showing us through the character's actions and behaviour. Occasionally though, Kessler shows that she has a knack for writing description. There are some really wonderful turns of phrase and beautifully-written paragraphs describing the famine-ravaged places that Lisabeth travels to, Lisa's kitchen and her mother. But then Kessler will randomly insert a joke or an awkward description ("..she'd just moved like some sort of ninja superhero. How freaking awesome was that?") which, for an overall very serious book, feels incredibly jarring and out-of-place in the narrative.

Overall I was rather bored with this book. I felt like I was reading a description of a story rather than an actual story. I felt no real emotion while reading this because none of the characters and their situations were really developed, and because of that, I couldn't enjoy it. It was an interesting concept but totally wasted, however I do think Kessler's writing has potential.

As books on eating disorders go, full marks -- fully realized characters, no easy answers, and a cool twist on the horsemen of the apocalypse.

#Readathon book #1 - DONE! :)

This is one of those books I wish had been longer; it had definite potential, but its small size made development rushed and stopped me from really caring about the main character.

It's a very interesting premise; a modernization of the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse, with the person chosen for each Rider having intimate knowledge of the human folly they represent. Lisabeth Lewis is chosen as Famine, and that's because she's anorexic, thoroughly convinced she's fat and too scared to eat normally. But she's also horribly in denial of her disorder, and terrified of her new post.

During her travels as Famine, Lisa learns not only about the true Famine that plagues the world, but how her own problem is related to it, and maybe how she can do something to help both humanity and herself. She also meets the other Riders: gloomy Pestilence, vicious and cruel War, and the amusingly modern and droll Death, who enjoys the disguise of a dead rockstar and acts as Lisa's (sort-of) guide.

The author writes with good style sometimes, but it's a little spare in other parts. Lisa's disorder is represented truthfully because of the author's personal experience with anorexia and bulimia, but her character can be extremely whiny and annoying on occasion because of how insecure and in-denial she is. Like I said earlier, I think a longer book would have made her character quite likeable eventually, but she's just starting to change by the novel's end.

Parts I really enjoyed were the concept, which I already said was great and original, the fact that Famine's horse (to which Lisa gives the irritatingly unoriginal name 'Midnight') had a personality and even a few paragraphs of POV, and Death the Pale Rider, who was yet another utterly unique imagining of the enigmatic and interesting "character" and easily my favorite person in the book. It's so very easy to like a scruffy Death who dresses in a baggy sweater and jeans, sings Nirvana while waiting for Lisabeth to return from riding the world, and switches between gloomy old English and old school slang in the same sentence. "Thou art Famine, yo," indeed.

Despite a couple shortcomings, I am still interested to see how a different Horseman is handled in the sequel, and if the concept is expanded at all.

Good book overall. An incubus is charged with seducing a good girl, one bound for heaven, and damning her to hell. He works his mission slowly but surely but can he maintain his bad side with such a good girl?

What a great book. Love the heroine in this book. Honestly what an outlandish idea to combine eating disorders and the horsemen of the apocalypse in a story. Loved every bit of it, it's a series of four books of course, four housemen. I checked this out at my library but I enjoyed it so much, this is one I will have on my purchase list.

Good book.
An observation I had: even though Lisa spends the whole book telling you how fat she is, I thin we can assume that she is probably pretty skinny. But if she is skinny, why does she think she’s so fat? I think it’s like this: anorexic girls can’t see themselves clearly. It’s like they’re in a hall of mirrors (lie at a carnival) and they’re always in front of the mirror that makes them look fat. They can’t tell when they’re skinny, because if they could, anorexia wouldn’t be near so bad.
See? This book made me think deep thoughts.

Eh, okay, no deep thoughts on this one, sorries.
The thing is, the main point is bullying, and I have never been bullied or a bully, and, having gone to middle and high school as part of that schools first ever class, there wasn’t really a large population of people, so I didn’t observe much bullying, either.
There’s also a point with Alzheimer’s disease which I have even less experience with than bullying.
Also, the way this book happened just seemed weird to me. okay, yes, the White Rider is CRAZY. Kinda guessed that from Lisa’s and Missy’s interactions with him. But what was the point of him tricking five-year-old Billy to be the future Pestilence? More to the point, why? it seems that the former White Rider/Conqueror, in all his craziness randomly picked a five-year-old boy in a playground to trick into becoming future Pestilence. Like, here was no reason there. it confused me.
Oh, and the ending is TOTALLY guessable.
So, now, I’ll just give you my favorite quote from this book and move on:

He thought he heard Death’s bemused voice: The nature of life is to be always on the brink of death.
No, that was just philosophical bullshit. The nature of life was to live , period. He was only fifteen, but even he knew that.

Yep. That there is the best quote in the entire book, if you’re asking me.
Oh, I also feel the need to warn people who hate even the mention of the blood-sucking fiends that have taken over YA literature: the V-word is mentioned in chapter 6, but it’s not important.
Moving on now.
Can’t wait for Breath.

Again, good book. I can definitely identify with this book more than Hunger, because while I do not have an eating disorder, I am a cutter, so I can totally understand where Missy is coming from when she explains why she cuts, because those are my reasons, too.
Now, I have never cut nearly as badly as Missy did in this book, and I don’t think, even if I was chosen to be War, go as far as she did, but then again, I don’t know. All I know is that throughout this book, Death kept saying, “Words have power, but so do actions,” which is so true. I cut because people use words like bitch, idiot and psycho to tear me down, and missy cut when people used words like cutterslut and freak to tear her down.
But actions can be powerful, too. People can use those words to tear you down, but you don’t have to give in. that’s what I’ve been working on for the past year or so. Not giving in. Some days it’s harder than others, but I try.
also, I'm not sure Missy fully appreciates... well, et me explain: Yeah, her sister is a bitch, her ex-boyfriend is a complete asshat, and she her and best friend haven't really spoken for years (but that's kinda her fault) but the thing is, they all NOTICED she was a cutter. to this point, people only know that I cut when I tell them. I'm not as bad as Missy is, but I'm better at hiding it, and the one thing I really, really wish is that people would be able to tell I'm not fine, even though I act like I am. Seriously, NO ONE is as happy as I pretend to be all the time, and SOMEONE should notice, but no one ever does. Unless I tell them. I wish that would see I'm a cutter before It ell them, because that would mean they're seeing ME not the wall I put up that's disguised as a person.
just my thoughts on that, of course.
because I don't want to end this review talking about myself cutting, I'm going to say that one thing I really love about this series, though, is that it is NOT the standard, cookie-cutter girl-meets-vampire story!

Interesting premise. Would have been better if it was a bit longer; I feel that Kessler didn't flesh out her characters and plot enough. I enjoyed the eating disorder bit of the book, even though it got a bit preachy toward the end, and it was interesting to read about the Horsemen of the Apocalypse as modern people. Despite all that, I don't think I'll be reading the other books in this series.

I can't say enough good things about this series and am so excited to have just found a copy of RAGE, the second book. As for HUNGER: wow! The author strikes a careful balance between cleverness in having her main character (who has anorexia) represent Famine and a sincere concern for sensitively handling the topic at hand. Engaging, funny, touching, real...well, as real as a book about the Four Horsemen of The Apocalypse can be!

This book had a great premise - a teenage girl suffering from anorexia who becomes Famine, one of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse. However, the writing did not deliver! The book was basically slow and Lisa Lewis had very little personality and was nothing short of annoying. However, I thought the author portrayed anorexia and bulimia very well, in fact in horrific detail at times.

The only characters I liked were Suzanne, Lisa's ex best friend, and Midnight, the majestic black steed that Lisa rode.

I definitely won't be trying any more books in this series.

I read this not because of the fantasy (because I hate fantasy), but because of the eating disorders (not because I have ever had an eating disorder). I was intrigued by this mindset that is so... the opposite of mine. Like when I look in a mirror I don't think fat, like ever. I am more likely to think, "Niiiice!" and give myself a little jiggle (Hahaha, I actually just subconsciously did a little a jiggle and my boss laughed a little and asked, "What are you doing?" and I'm like, uh... dancing).

So thankfully this author writes eating disorders well. Economically. Without, well.. fat. None of that slightly irritating, "describe-things-all-flowery-to-make-it-poetical-and-be-more-writerly" crap. Instead she writes whole scenes to be evocative. She's written the conversation or the thoughts or the actions to be emotionally recognizable, instead of relying on cliches to cue your feelings. All the more impressive because I do not often experience anorexic feelings or starvation.

Unfortunately, I don't think such economical writing works well with fantasy (hey, that might be why I don't usually like fantasy!). I think people tend to want a little more lushness when they are introduced to a new universe. But hey! I wasn't reading for that. So. Good.

I thought it was good but it got a little too personal with what happened to me. I felt like I was the main character Missy and that made me question lots of things

"Angeli dell'Apocalisse. Tra il bene e il male" è il primo romanzo di una nuova serie fantasy composta, presumibilmente da quattro volumi, che l'autrice Jackie Morse Kessler ha creato nel tentativo di sensibilizzare i giovani lettori nei confronti di alcune problematiche adolescenziali. Sfruttare i romanzi fantasy per fare breccia nelle giovani menti è stato senza dubbio un vero colpo da maestro, un po' come "insegnare senza l'ausilio dei libri".

L'autrice è incredibilmente brava a gestire una tematica difficile come i disturbi dell'alimentazione - che è la l'argomento che affronta in questo primo romanzo - con eleganza, originalità e spirito.

Lisabeth ha diciassette anni, è anoressica e vive in una sorta di timore revenziale/odio nei confronti della madre che, da sempre concentrata su se stessa, si ricorda di avere una figlia solamente nel momento in cui può criticarla o, diversamente, usarla come trofeo da mostrare agli amici.

Lisabeth deve essere bella e perfetta al punto che diventa una mania. Si vede grassa e non c'è nulla che la possa convincere della sua bellezza e, successivamente, della sua estrema magrezza, non c'è nulla che non va. Per Lisabeth non è e non sarà mai troppo magra, proprio come non sarà mai - ovviamente - perfetta. Arriverà a voler controllare il suo corpo al milligrammo e a conoscere il cibo come il suo peggior nemico.

Ma, una sera, dopo una lite particolarmente accesa con il suo ragazzo - che adora! - finirà per ingurgitare una dose sporpositata di tranquillanti: vuole morire.

Sarà proprio in quel momento che farà la sua entrata in scena Morte, uno dei quattro Cavalieri dell'Apocalisse, sottoforma di fattorino e le consegnerà la bilancia - e il titolo - di Carestia.

Inizierà una lenta e dolorosa presa di coscienza che porterà Lisabeth a scendere a patti con la sua nuova carica, che la porterà a confrontarsi con l'Ancella della Morte, Guerra, e con se stessa. Lisabeth non desidera fare del male, anzi è portata a fare del bene, eppure non si rende conto che la persona a cui sta facendo più del male è proprio se stessa privandosi del cibo che le da energie necessarie per vivere e, perchè no, per aiutare il prossimo.

L'autrice porterà pian piano Lisabeth a rendersi conto dell'importanza del cibo attraverso una sensibilizzazione della ragazza nei confronti delle tragedie del mondo. Di fronte alla morte di decine di persone che non hanno - e no, che non vogliono - da mangiare, spingerà la protagonista a rendersi conto dei suoi errori e a farle ammettere il suo bisogno di aiuto.

Lo stile un po' noir, condito da una buona dose di humor, permetterà al romanzo di evolversi e snodarsi fra queste tematiche molto complesse, con una facilità e una scorrevolezza impressionante.

Impossibile non rimanere affascinanti dalle figure di Morte, apparentemente giovane ragazzo dalla fredda pacatezza assolutamente inquietante, e Pestilenza con la sua incredibile umanità. Guerra, invece, risulta essere il personaggio più stereotipato e quindi quello che coinvolge di meno, nonostante sia l'antagonista di Carestia ( Lisabeth) fin dal primo momento vista la tendenza di Lisabeth a non scatenare volontariamente le lotte per il cibo in giro per il mondo, scontentando così la sete di sangue di Guerra.

Un romanzo piacevolissimo e dal finale inaspettato - anche se un po' troppo semplicistico - e positivo. Probabilmente, visto che l'idea è decisamente originale, l'autrice avrebbe potuto approfondire di più il confronto fra Carestia e Guerra ( e il conseguente scontro) e, successivamente, il finale che tende troppo al "...e vissero felici e contenti" peccando un po' di superficialità.

Il fatto, però,che ogni romanzo sia autoconlusivo è assolutamente positivo e, senza dubbio, merita una plauso la Newton&Compton per la copertina stupenda e il prezzo assolutamente ragionevole.

Jackie Kessler's story of Melissa Miller is one part gutting, one part touching with a sprinkle of violence. Even though I haven't experience first hand what Melissa is going through, after reading this story I can't help but understand it better. Jackie Kessler does a great job of allowing the reader to view the world through Melissa's eyes and to experience her pain and her shame. There were times that I felt as though I was walking in Melissa's shoes, I account this to great storytelling. Now, having read this book, I'm not going to go around saying I know what it is like to be a self-injurer. However, the narrative gives you a glimpse into the life of one, and a realistic one at that.

On the fantasy side, I appreciated Melissa as War. The analogies between the two different blades that she uses were interesting, and allowed more insight into Melissa and what she felt. The story happens over a short period of time, there isn't much dialogue but for the story, this works. I had a bit of trouble understanding the relationship between Melissa and the Sword, but that was cleared up in the end.

This isn't a happy-go-lucky kind of book, while it touches on fantasy a lot of the issues it talks about are real. I can see this book (and series) as a great discussion piece on the things that teens (and some adults) deal with but might not necessarily want to say out loud. It's recommended reading, but not something to take lightly.

[review of arc via netgalley]

I’ve had this book on my TBR for a long time, but some part of my brain pigeon-holed it as “another anorexia book,” so it took me a while to get down to reading it. Fortunately, it was well-written, focused and interesting, with a mythological twist that kept me reading. It’s definitely worth the read!

I like that this book is so short. There are many, many 400-page YA books that I just want to slice down to half the page-count because the protagonists spend so much time wandering around, wondering what to do and wondering who they are. Hunger gets right down to the story, who the characters are, and what they want and need.

Lisa, an anorexic who is about to commit suicide, is chosen as the new Famine, who is one the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Death is the one who gives her the job, and he seems to be the leader of the four. War and Pestilence come into the story, too, in their own ways. I really enjoyed how the Four Horsemen were modernized, so to speak, and it was really interesting how Lisa’s struggle with anorexia feeds into her role as Famine, and how her role of Famine influences the rest of her life choices. Death, War, and Pestilence were all really interesting characters in their own right, although we don’t get to completely know any of them; this is one of the drawbacks of the shortness of the book. However, there are three sequels for the three Horsemen aside from Famine. Death was the most intriguing and fleshed out (so to speak).

Lisa’s adventures as Famine, both in faraway countries and close to home were very interesting, but every time she got on her horse (Midnight, who is much nicer than you might expect from a Horseman’s steed), the tone of the book became almost surreal and very dream-like. I liked that. It made you question a little just how much of it was really happening, but it doesn’t really matter because it all reflects what is happening in her real life so well.

There is also a small cast of human characters in Lisa’s “real” life. Her boyfriend James and her ex-BFF Suzanne have realized Lisa has a problem and are trying to help her. Her new best friend, Tammy, is bulimic, and Lisa looks up to her but comes to realize that Tammy isn’t as confident or self-controlled as Lisa had though. Lisa’s parents are polar opposites but were a really great part of the cast. Her mom and dad are both flawed, realistic characters but still her parents.

There are a lot of detailed descriptions of anorexic or bulimic habits, which were really unpleasant to read but really helped me to understand the lengths people with those illnesses will go to feel some sort of control over themselves. Obviously, it’s really sad, and Hunger, through Lisa and Tammy, helps you understand and sympathize with those characters.

(my review also posted on my blog, bahnree.wordpress.com)

I’ve had this book on my TBR for a long time, but some part of my brain pigeon-holed it as “another anorexia book,” so it took me a while to get down to reading it. Fortunately, it was well-written, focused and interesting, with a mythological twist that kept me reading. It’s definitely worth the read!

I like that this book is so short. There are many, many 400-page YA books that I just want to slice down to half the page-count because the protagonists spend so much time wandering around, wondering what to do and wondering who they are. Hunger gets right down to the story, who the characters are, and what they want and need.

Lisa, an anorexic who is about to commit suicide, is chosen as the new Famine, who is one the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Death is the one who gives her the job, and he seems to be the leader of the four. War and Pestilence come into the story, too, in their own ways. I really enjoyed how the Four Horsemen were modernized, so to speak, and it was really interesting how Lisa’s struggle with anorexia feeds into her role as Famine, and how her role of Famine influences the rest of her life choices. Death, War, and Pestilence were all really interesting characters in their own right, although we don’t get to completely know any of them; this is one of the drawbacks of the shortness of the book. However, there are three sequels for the three Horsemen aside from Famine. Death was the most intriguing and fleshed out (so to speak).

Lisa’s adventures as Famine, both in faraway countries and close to home were very interesting, but every time she got on her horse (Midnight, who is much nicer than you might expect from a Horseman’s steed), the tone of the book became almost surreal and very dream-like. I liked that. It made you question a little just how much of it was really happening, but it doesn’t really matter because it all reflects what is happening in her real life so well.

There is also a small cast of human characters in Lisa’s “real” life. Her boyfriend James and her ex-BFF Suzanne have realized Lisa has a problem and are trying to help her. Her new best friend, Tammy, is bulimic, and Lisa looks up to her but comes to realize that Tammy isn’t as confident or self-controlled as Lisa had though. Lisa’s parents are polar opposites but were a really great part of the cast. Her mom and dad are both flawed, realistic characters but still her parents.

There are a lot of detailed descriptions of anorexic or bulimic habits, which were really unpleasant to read but really helped me to understand the lengths people with those illnesses will go to feel some sort of control over themselves. Obviously, it’s really sad, and Hunger, through Lisa and Tammy, helps you understand and sympathize with those characters.

(my review also posted on my blog, bahnree.wordpress.com)

I'm abstaining from giving this book stars of any kind for basically one reason. As I was going along I though I don't like this book, I shared my complaints with a fellow reader who responded without isn't that how those books are suppose to be. After finishing it and giving that some thought I came to the conclusion that 27 year old me does not like this book but junior high/ high school me would have loved it and that is really who this book is for.

Lisabeth is fighting anorexia and is suicidal. When she goes to pop some of her mom's pills, Death pays a visit and gifts her Famine's scales of balance. She is now one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and must ride her black stead. Lisabeth now sees the world differently and is able to reflect on who she is and the importance of having balance in life. I really enjoyed this book and how the author meshed a social issue with an interesting paranormal adventure. The only downfall was the story was too short, I wanted more. At under 200 pages the story was a quick read and worth every turn of the page. I can't wait to read the sequels featuring other horsemen facing other social issues: cutting and bullying.

Lisabeth is fighting anorexia and is suicidal. When she goes to pop some of her mom's pills, Death pays a visit and gifts her Famine's scales of balance. She is now one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and must ride her black stead. Lisabeth now sees the world differently and is able to reflect on who she is and the importance of having balance in life. I really enjoyed this book and how the author meshed a social issue with an interesting paranormal adventure. The only downfall was the story was too short, I wanted more. At under 200 pages the story was a quick read and worth every turn of the page. I can't wait to read the sequels featuring other horsemen facing other social issues: cutting and bullying.

Lisabeth is fighting anorexia and is suicidal. When she goes to pop some of her mom's pills, Death pays a visit and gifts her Famine's scales of balance. She is now one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and must ride her black stead. Lisabeth now sees the world differently and is able to reflect on who she is and the importance of having balance in life. I really enjoyed this book and how the author meshed a social issue with an interesting paranormal adventure. The only downfall was the story was too short, I wanted more. At under 200 pages the story was a quick read and worth every turn of the page. I can't wait to read the sequels featuring other horsemen facing other social issues: cutting and bullying.

Missy is a self injurer and whenever things are too much to handle she cuts herself with a razor. One night after a terrible party where she is exposed to the entire school and Missy cuts too deeply. In comes Death offering her the job of War the red horsemen of the Apocalypse. Missy takes the job and finds herself in an internal battle with the spirit of War and with herself.

At times Missy was very difficult to relate to. Understanding the impulse to injure yourself as a way of feeling control is difficult to understand, particularly since as a general rule people fear pain. I think that writing about a cutter is just more difficult. I did think that the author did a good job of showing the kind of alienation and the huge emotions that she was experiencing both before and after everyone knew what Missy was doing.

I absolutely loved the interactions between all of the Horsemen, it was nice to see Famine again although I wish they had let us know earlier that she retired from life b/c I was really confused trying to remember what happened. I thought Pestilence was scary in a very cool way. I am hoping that the next book is about him I really love how Missy's powers are all about passion, not just literal war and arguing; and again seeing how Missy was able to use her powers to help not just harm was pretty cool.

I think that so far this series is doing a great job. While they are obviously issue books they don't feel like issue books because of the fantasy component of the Horsemen. I also think this series works well to bring a series of issues to a group of kids that wouldn't necessarily read "issue" books.

I thought I wasn't going to like Hunger at all. I don't always do so well with issue books, but the idea of a fantasy issue book intrigued me and I ordered it for the library collection because I thought it would be a good way to bring an important issue to a different group of kids. Lisa is anorexic and in denial. She thinks she needs to be skinny to earn her mother's approval and to be good enough for her boyfriend so she counts calories and over excercises. One night Death shows up at her door and offers her the job of Famine, one of the four horseman of the Apocalypse.

Death appears in the guise of Kurt Cobain, now I love Nirvana but Lisa calls him old. Kurt Cobain was popular and died while I was in elementary school which wasn't that long ago. That's not old. Lately people calling thing's that happened in the ninties old has been making me a little touchy.

Other then that I really liked the book. I really liked all of the other horseman. I liked the way Pestilence and Famine found ways to use their powers both to destroy and to rebuild. I also really loved Midnight. He was so sweet to her and if I had a horse I would want him to be like that.

I thought it was important that becoming Famine is not an easy fix for Lisabeth. Yes it teaches her about balance and that is a lesson that she is sorely in need of. It also helps make her a stronger person. But at the end of the story she still needs to go get counseling and more help to become healthy again. I thought that was really important. This was a quick read that presents an important issue in an interesting and clever new way.

Jet and Iridium went through superhero training school together as teenagers. Then things change and they become archenemies; Jet the hero and Iridium the villain. However there is much more going on in this book then a simple superhero story. The book goes back and forth between Jet and Iri's time at the academy and the present. The story touches on many issues from homosexuality to human experimentation, however it still moves along at a pace fast enough for the most impatient reader.