The Art of Starving

By: Sam J. Miller

Narrated by: Tom Phelan

Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

Winner of the 2017 Andre Norton Award for Outstanding Young Adult Science Fiction or Fantasy Book!

“Funny, haunting, beautiful, relentless, and powerful, The Art of Starving is a classic in the making.” (Book Riot)

Matt hasn’t eaten in days. His stomach stabs and twists inside, pleading for a meal, but Matt won’t give in. The hunger clears his mind, keeps him sharp - and he needs to be as sharp as possible if he’s going to find out just how Tariq and his band of high school bullies drove his sister, Maya, away.

Matt’s hardworking mom keeps the kitchen crammed with food, but Matt can resist the siren call of casseroles and cookies because he has discovered something: the less he eats the more he seems to have...powers. The ability to see things he shouldn’t be able to see. The knack of tuning in to thoughts right out of people’s heads. Maybe even the authority to bend time and space.

So what is lunch, really, compared to the secrets of the universe?

Matt decides to infiltrate Tariq’s life, then use his powers to uncover what happened to Maya. All he needs to do is keep the hunger and longing at bay. No problem. But Matt doesn’t realize there are many kinds of hunger...and he isn’t in control of all of them.

A darkly funny, moving story of body image, addiction, friendship, and love, Sam J. Miller’s debut novel will resonate with any listener who’s ever craved the power that comes with self-acceptance.

©2017 Sam J. Miller (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers

the art of joy

perhaps it was a perfect alignment of my needs, my wants, and this book. It's been years since a story, a story-telling moved me so. With love, anger, and slipping between realities, the author and narrator unwind a simple, very complex tale so familiar to damaged youths and the adults they've become of trying to establish a place, a sense of control in the world that beats, ridicules, and lures them into destructive thoughts and actions. Using classism, homophobia, and male eating disorders, the author creates a work that is sometimes almost too harsh to continue reading, but please, do continue, finish, and feel the hope, despair, and hope again that make this work so beautiful.

If feel happily sated after I finished this book

The writing and performance give the reader an intimate first-person perspective of a relatable young man coming of age in today’s world. The fanciful aspects of the tale are deftly woven into the mundane, in a way that leaves you believing. Sexual themes are portrayed demurely and do not distract from the sense-laden imagery of how it feels to starve.

Intriguing and important

This book was very intriguing and had an interesting angle into this boy’s mind and look at reality. It was vulnerable, and raw and honest. I particularly appreciate the fact that the main character in a book is portrayed with an eating disorder such as anorexia, actually is a boy. This is so important for the representation, seeing as many eating disorder patients and anorexia patients actually are boys and men. The author also wrote that with the main character, Matt, always saying that he of course didn’t have an ED, because surely only girls got that - all the while he’s telling his story through a book of rules of starving. It was beautiful, raw, honest and well written. A must read for teenagers and young adults, and maybe a teacher or two! I’m a 31 year old male with anorexia (who’s also gay) and felt this book stood out among the others directed at youth precisely due to the fact this story is told through to eyes and the mind of a troubled boy. It was funny and well written!

Transformative book!

I came at this from a speculative fiction perspective more than as YA and I was richly rewarded by a story that offered all this and more.

Beautifully written with powerful observations about how humans work and how the world works. Excellent characters you don’t see every day. I really love this book!

The actor does an amazing job being the voice of the protagonist here— perfectly cast.

Truly Inspiring!

This book was so incredible. I loved it so so much and it really taught me a lot. I would strongly recommend this book to everyone but especially people who are recovering from any sort of mental illness. This book portrays the ups and downs of day to day life and the difficulty's of being alive. This book holds a special place in my heart.

Repetitive

1.5 STARS

THE ART OF STARVING has a lot of positives:
-creative phrases/writing
-minority representation (gay, male anorexic, romance between a Muslim and Jew, class, substance abuse)
-a good handle on the distorted mind of an anorexic

THE ART OF STARVING also has a lot of negatives:
-lack of clarity with distorted thinking
-too much telling vs showing
-lack of clarity in the recovery process

Matt, the narrator, was hard to embrace. The reliability of his narration, particularly when his thought distortions involved his belief that starvation gave him superpowers. Judging from some reviewers, who either thought this was a supernatural element or weren’t sure Sam Miller didn’t present the common symptom of eating disorders with enough clarity for readers. Miller speaks of his own experience with undiagnosed anorexic in the afterword, so I’m fairly sure he didn’t intend to write a supernatural story.

My favorite character was Tariq, the closeted gay Muslim teen. I wish Miller had explored the cultural aspect of homosexuality in the Muslim community (though not all Muslims are anti-LGBT). I loved that Tariq had good boundaries with Matt and gave his secret boyfriend the tough love he needed rather than trying to save him. Too often writers make love the cure for mental illness or don’t recognize that the partner deserves someone who is able to equally participate in the relationship.

THE ART OF STARVING is worth reading, with moderate expectations.