Review: Hungry by H. A. Swain

I can't with this book. I really can't. I truly wanted to love Hungry. I like the cover, and I found the summary to be interesting. Then I started reading it. And.. just, no. It was not good. I'm not sure there was a single thing I actually truly liked in this book. Which makes me so sad. It comes out in June, and I was able to read an ARC of it early because of Macmillan. <3

I have no idea what to write in this review of mine. How to start. I just did  not like it. I don't know how to begin. As there is so much that I could talk about; as there is so much that bothered me. I'm sorry, but this will not be a positive review. As there was nothing I enjoyed. Except for a very small thing.

The one thing I could have liked in this book was the world. It sounded interesting that no one ate anything. That all the animals were gone. All the green. A lot of things weren't there. But then. The book never turned interesting for me. As the characters live pretty great. Main character is rich with well-known parents. The book made me think it was Dystopia, but then it just wasn't. Not for me. It was too boring; yet so much happens. Too much, I think. It felt like the author tried pushing too many worlds into one story. I didn't like that. There was too much.

Hungry is told from the point of view of Thalia. I never once felt a connection to her. I disliked her a lot of times, as she was way too dramatic. She had a fight with Basil; she goes omg I can't believe I ever liked him. Seriously. And she watch her best friend say something about her in a newsfeed, and she thinks right away that she betrayed her. Thalia just didn't know how to think for herself. She was so naive. More than normal. Like the farm. Things were so obvious. She didn't get anything. Very annoying.

I just had a lot of trouble with the main character. She was just.. not for me. I hated how she was with her mom. It was just weird, in my eyes. And her mom. SERIOUSLY. I can't get over this. She forced her child into rehab. Who the hell does that to their own child? I would never forgive that. Never ever. (Granted, she manages to escape pretty early. But I will never forgive her mom.) And her dad. I actually liked him a little. And her grandma. But I also didn't really care for any of them. I wanted to, but I didn't.

I liked her best friend Yaz a little bit. Though not that much. I just did not connect to any of the characters in this book. Probably because I found the writing to be awful. I did not like it. At all. I had such huge issues reading this book. I did not like the way the characters talked to each other. Sigh. Then there was Basil. I wanted to love him. But seriously. Insta-love. A bad case of it as well. She sees him one time, and she can't stop thinking about him and she gets all excited and blah blah. Did not like it.

I kind of liked reading about Basil's past. But it wasn't that interesting. And I hated how he and Thalia were together. The romance was not good. I wanted to like it, I could have, but it was done very badly. They suddenly fight for no reason. Several times. They change personality. Several times. I just did not ship their relationship at all. Good part, though, there is no love triangle. But I couldn't even be happy about that. Sigh. I liked the ending, but not sure I will read a sequel. There must be one, though.

I don't want to say more about this book. There was just too much that I did not like. The writing. The characters. The romance. And I was so disappointed that the world ended up being so.. wrong. It could have been done so well. But yeah. I did not like it. Sorry. Not sorry. I haven't said much about the plot. Mostly because I didn't felt like there was much of a plot. Then there was this farm thing near the end that didn't make much sense to me; compared to the first part of the book. Just, not a book for me.

I was a little conflicted in how to rate this book. I had been thinking about a two star most of the time, but then I finished it. And I never once liked the book. Not once. I spent the whole time reading it wishing I was done reading. And I never want to feel that way while reading books. Sniffs. I'm so sad that I didn't like this book. But I also did not like it. And I will be honest about my feelings. Which is why I have decided on giving this book a one star. Maybe a one point five. But nothing above that; sorry.

Despite my very huge issues with this book, I'm happy with my ARC copy of it; as it is very pretty. <3 Huge thank you to Ksenia at Macmillan Kids for the chance to read and review Hungry early :) I'm sorry I couldn't love it. But yeah. It was just not a book for me. At all. I'm not sure if I think others would enjoy this book. I think some will. But I also know how much I disliked about it. So I am curious about what all of you would make of Hungry. Would love for you to share with me, if you read it :) Also, best of luck.

Goodreads - Pre-Order