She kept this trauma as a secret for a very long time. One day the boy she had a crush on led her into the woods, where they met up with his friends. Surprisingly, despite how tough they are, I kind of want to read some parts again. The plot (again, STOP reading if you want to be totally surprised): Roxane led a fairly normal and happy life until she was 12. Roxane Gay is an incredible writer and can't wait to read her other works. So while I won't recommend this memoir to everybody, it's still beautifully written and impactful. It was like reading into someone's therapy sessions. You have no idea how many times my heart ached for Roxane Gay or how many times I was reminded of my own struggles while reading about hers. It's an amazing memoir but also an emotional one. But that, to me, makes Hunger so different from all other memoirs: it's brutally honest, vulnerable, and unapologetic for being so. Not everyone can read about topics such as sexual abuse, emotional abuse, body image, and depression all in the same memoir. This book is mainly hard to read because of its hard subject matter. Yes, this book is a lot to take in, but with Gay's writing and structure, it becomes approachable in a way. She creates a balance between chapters that makes this book nor dreadfully hard to read. The structure of the book is also perfect for the story she is telling each chapter differs from the last one, so in one section you get her thoughts on body image while in the other you get an explanation as to how her worth has been shaped since she was gang raped by her boyfriend and his friends. As for Hunger, I have mixed emotions about this book. I wasn’t familiar with Roxane Gay before I listened to this book, but I am going to be reading/listening to some of her other books in the future. The title and subject matter had me intrigued as a plus-size woman myself. Roxane Gay has a innate talent for writing that is very hard to come by, and her ability seeps through every single page. I had been wanting to read this book for a couple of years. I don't mean it's a hard book to read because it's bad in fact, it is extremely good. She mentions how this is "by far the hardest book ever had to write" and with good reason it's also a hard book to read.
This memoir follows Gay's struggle with her weight, body image, yearning, and self worth.
I can't remember the last time a book left me this speechless. It's hard to write about Roxane Gay's Hunger.