Hunger by Michael Grant

Hunger: A Gone Novel
Michael Grant
ISBN 9780061449062
Katherine Tegan Books, 2009
590 pages

Genre: Supernatural

Readers Annotation
It's been three months since all adults vanished, and the society the teens have created is starting to break down as the food supply dwindles. While the teens without special powers begin to turn against those that do, an evil force known as the Darkness gains power and threatens them all.

Plot Summary
Set a few months after the end of Gone, Hunger, the second in a planned six-book series, is set in a town where a mysterious incident caused everyone over the age of 15 to vanish. The society the older teens created is starting to crumble as the food supply dwindles. Crops rotted in the fields, since the teens didn't think to harvest them, and now a group of ravenous earthworms with razor-sharp teeth devours anyone who approaches what edible food is left. The hunger causes the teens without special powers to become suspicious and resentful of the teens that do; a mutant teen is lynched amidst the conflict.

In the meantime, though, a different hunger threatens all the teens. Calling itself the Gaiaphage (and Hungry in the Dark by its nemesis, a 4-year-old autistic boy), the Darkness is a mysterious evil being that has been feeding off the radiation left after a nuclear accident. Now that the radiation is running low, the Gaiaphage, helped by a group of talking coyotes, uses mind control to force teens in the town to do its bidding and set into motion events that will satisfy its hunger and threaten their society.

Critical Evaluation
Hunger features the same non-stop action, gruesome violence, and stock characters as its predecessor. Hunger is tightly plotted, and readers who liked the first book will be eager to find out what else in store for the teens. However, more sophisticated readers will be annoyed by the shallow characterizations and stock characters. This is the literary equivalent of a pure action movie, with the Good Guy, the Bad Guy, the Bad Guy's Evil Girlfriend, and the Girl with the Heart of Gold. Their motives are tranparent, with only the character growth necessary to move the plot along. (Readers who haven't read Gone shouldn't even bother; there's no way to catch up to the events of this book without reading the first one.)

The supernatural element is more prominent in this book than Gone, with the Gaiaphage, the mutant creatures, and the non-mutant teens uprising against the mutants.

Other Books in the Series
Gone (2008)
Four more books are planned but yet to be published.

About the Author
Michael Grant is the co-creator and co-author of the Animorphs and Everworld series of books, which were aimed at middle-school readers. (His wife, Katherine Applegate, received name credit for the books.) Hunger is the second book published under his name.


Reading/Interest Level

The book would be of interest to those in junior high and up, but the intense violence might make it more appropriate to recommend to high school readers.


Curriculum Ties
This book is not suitable for use in any school curriculum.

Booktalking Ideas
1. Briefly explain the premise of the first book, and explain how hunger is threatening the teens' society.
2. Talk about the mysterious dark force that's threatening their society.
3. Focus on the teens' supernatural powers, explaining why the teens without them have turned on those who do.

Challenge Issues
This book could easily be challenged because of its graphic depictions of gore and violence. In addition, one teen suffers from an eating disorder which almost kills her. Should the book be challenged, the librarian should ideally read the book to become familiar with it. If not able to read it, s/he should read all the professional reviews and look for reviews of the book on sites like Common Sense Media that detail any potential controversial elements. S/he should also be able to explain and defend the library's selection policy. To defend Hunger, s/he could point out the positive reviews the book received, especially a gushing review in VOYA.

Selection Criteria
I read Gone as part of my genre presentation project. Though not a huge fan of that book, I was curious enough to see where the story was headed!