A Certain Hunger

By: Chelsea G. Summers

Narrated by: Hillary Huber

Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

Eat Pray Love meets American Psycho in a seductive and sinister debut literary thriller.

Food critic Dorothy Daniels indulges in her homicidal urges by murdering her lovers and devouring their organs in this intense, visceral, and lushly told tale of food, sex, power, and the pursuit of a very particular taste set between New York and Italy.

Please Note: A Certain Hunger contains adult language and depictions of violence. Discretion is advised.

©2019 Chelsea G. Summers (P)2019 Audible Originals, LLC.

Revenge is best served....

interesting story which I enjoyed. Got a bit gory in places. I liked the narrator after getting used to her.

Different is good...

Very bold concept for a book. A female urban professional who also just happens to be a murderous psychopath.

Delicious and Sexy

I have listened to this book at least 4 times. I love it more every time. The story and characters are compelling, the humor is dark, and the content is grisly. I also learned a lot about tortufo bianco and kosher butchering, which was a nice bonus. Highly recommend. This book is perfection. Can’t wait to see what Summers’ next book will bring! (She’s also written some amazing articles. I am indeed a fan).

Inimitable, genius and groundbreaking.

I have never had as much fun with a novel in my lifetime of reading and listening to them.
This psychotically original classic makes the beat use of the audiobook format possible and delivers a viscerally satisfying 11-hour psychopathic monologue you’ll never want to end.
I can’t wait for the print version to drop December 1st so I can properly savor every bon mot, double entendre and hidden literary truffle, but I’ll never be able to replace the kinesthetic delight of traveling throughout my city, bathing in the frank, hilarious, horrifying, sexy, erudite narration of Dorothy Daniels, an emotionally unreliable narratrix stuffed with factually unerring eviscerations on everything from the corrupt USDA to millennial ADHD.

Fun and flirty

I'd always wanted a girl Hannibal Lecter. Now we have one. I thought this story was fun, maybe a little campy, and the purple prose were spot on. So fun.

Skipped a few meals reading this

I feel an explanation why I read this is necessary. In July 2022 I read an article in the New York Times about a rise of interest in books, TV shows and films that include scenes of cannibalism, and that article included this book, among others. As a fan of dark and disturbing fiction and nonfiction, I was intrigued.

As I said in a mid-book comment, I wasn't sure if I was loving it or hating it, but maybe both. Now finished, I stand by that conclusion: I loved and hated it. Psychopathy is at work here, and that comes to the readers at a slow boil, like lobsters in a cool pot of salted water.

But I had difficulty relating to Dorothy Daniels, although I believe we are close in age and shared in some 1990s cultural experiences. But she cared way too much about things like status and fitting in, things I didn't about at all. So as smart and sharp-witted as she was, I also found her vapid. She chose to make her life more traumatic than it really was.

I couldn't put the story down, even as I dreaded where it would go next. I probably won't forget this one, and I thought the narrator Hillary Huber did an excellent job. I just don't know who I'd ever recommend this book to.

Loved

Five stars for story + performance. Lit fic done just the way I like it. Won’t be for everyone.

Tantalizing imagery

The main character is well written and the words used to describe the plot supporting characters, erotic scenes and most of all the food is exquisite.

Punchy, erotic, and full of teeth

The story isn’t quite what I was expecting, but I loved it just as much as Dorothy Daniels loves food.
More of a commentary on exotic foods, the female condition, and capitalism, this book was drizzled in murder and soaked through with smart and lurid prose, and so much sex you could smell it.
I loved every inch of this book. Dorothy even made me think I might like the taste of tongue… (not human, of course).

As for the narrator. I thought she sounded a bit like Julia Roberts. She was amazing, and read the story with such obvious relish that it brought it to life.

Keep Listening!

The author used far, far too many metaphors and similes. So many, in fact, that I almost did not make it through the first chapter. The figurative language was simply overwhelming, I wish the editor had cut a lot of it out. But, keep listening because the story itself, was quite intriguing. I loved how the author cleverly interwove the telling of the story between present time and the past. You were given a glimpse into the mind of a psychopath. Thanks to the gifted narrator, the story was fascinating, horrifying, and believable!