Title: A Certain HungerAuthor: Chelsea G. Summers
First Published: December 8, 2020
Publisher: The Unnamed Press
Pages: 240
Genre: Horror, Satire, Thriller
Format: Hardcover
Source: Library
Rating:
Synopsis:
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’s A Certain Hunger introduces us to the food world’s most charming psychopath and an exciting new voice in fiction.
Buy the Book: Amazon, PublisherReview
What a deliciously devious book, a gorgeously written horror satire about a murderess and food critic. Dorothy Daniels has undoubtedly become one of my favorite literary killers; she is unapologetically sexy and terrifyingly tall; she has fine taste in food and a devilish desire to consume. If Lady Dimitrescu was a literary character, she would be Dorothy Daniels.
The story is straightforward, it recounts the life of Dorothy, a notoriously famous food critic, and her gradual descent into cannibalism. The story explores the rise of culinary criticism and all the indulgently seedy glamour of the 1980s. The line between food, sex, and violence is thin and Dorothy gleefully indulges in all three. Dorothy is as sharp as she is dangerous, her lusty love life is dramatic and deadly. I can’t get over how much I loved this book and the cunningly seductive Dorothy, A Certain Hunger is lusciously evil and a gruesome good time.
Quote
“When we have sex, we ravish our lovers, nibble their ears, lick their vulvas, or swallow their cocks. Gleeful, we banquet on flesh.”
Content Warnings
View Spoiler »About the Author
About Chelsea G. Summers
Chelsea G. Summers is a freelance writer whose work focuses on sex, politics, tech, fashion and culture. She is a former academic and professor with Ph.D. training in eighteenth-century British literature, a discipline that has proven to be shockingly useful when writing about contemporary culture. She was a columnist for the now defunct ADULT magazine, and her work has appeared in VICE, Fusion, Hazlitt, The New Republic, The Guardian, and Roxane Gay’s Medium series. She splits her time between New York and Stockholm, Sweden.
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