Hunger

By Choi Jin-young

It's been a while since I've reviewed a book. Most days, I spend my time on school and creating new designs for my upcoming projects. I can barely fit in a little reading time. However, I think I'd forget what I read the following day if I committed to reading a chapter at a time.

During my recent trip to Vancouver, I visited a bookshop on Granville Island. There, I found Hunger by Choi Jin-Young. The first page pulled me in and held me hostage until I swiped my card and said farewell to my money.

To cut to the chase, I gave this book my first six stars. Here's why I gave it such high praise. Hunger gives you a heart attack and introduces a somewhat dark undertone in its very first sentence. We learn that Dam's partner is found dead on the street. Instead of alerting anyone, as any sane person would, she takes him back to her place and eats him. It's disturbing, uncomfortable, and horrifying. What drives a person to commit such gruesome acts against someone they love?

Those are the questions I carry with me as I continue to flip through the pages. This short story doesn't have chapters marked as one, two, or three. Rather, it shifts between perspectives and timelines. We move between Dam and her stages of grief, loss, and the pain of loving someone so much that they're the air you breathe, and Gu's point of view from the afterlife as he watches the girl who has become his obsession, his light, his reason for living. Both characters are consumed by such a raw obsession with one another that neither can live without the other. They refuse to leave this world unless they can do so together. However, the life they wished, prayed, and begged for was never in their hands to begin with.

As I mentioned, the story shifts between timelines. We see the present, with Dam and her big feast, as well as the past, when they first met and the circumstances they had to live through. At first, the shifts between timelines were difficult to grasp, but I kept going. Eventually, I got used to them and began to immerse myself in their world.

Judgment, hardship, and rawness are themes that are explored, taken apart, and thrown in your face. As I read about their lives, I slowly began to understand why they are the way they are. Rather than focusing on the big picture of cannibalism, look at the tiny details that led to the decisions Dam made. The lives they've lived, the role models who were never present, the eyes that constantly followed them like ghosts that only wanted to torture them. With each passing day on earth, they broke a little more.

This became a story about a relationship just trying to survive the rocky waters of society's norms. Every line made me feel heartache for two individuals who could have had everything, including a healthy upbringing, but were cursed to an ending where they were constantly drowning in debt, people's opinions, and a life that looked down on them.

Dam, a woman surrounded by loss and subjected to crude comments about her looks, figure, and the people she hangs out with. Imagine how it feels when the one person you love avoids you because of society's judgment. You long for him, wait for him, and then the world ultimately takes him away forever.

Gu, born to parents who abandoned him, leaving behind their last gift: a mountain of debt owed to loan sharks, which only pushed him deeper into the ground. No amount of shifts at the convenience store or numerous shady jobs could bring him any closer to freedom. He avoids the only person who lifts his heart because he doesn't want her to suffer the same fate. Fast-forward to the present, when he finally puts the torture aside and reunites with the girl he's longed for, only to have her taken away from him so quickly.

The last ten pages were torture for me. Each page felt like a weight pressing down on my chest. I felt their love and grief for one another. The scene where Gu watches Dam sobbing as she consumes him broke me and left me emotionally wrecked. Dam wanted to consume him so they could both live. She'll live on, carrying Gu with her. As she lives, so does he.

She couldn't wait for their next life. In this one, she'll have him, and no one can take him from her.

She's insane, but so was he. But what drives someone this far? What makes someone even think of doing something like this?

That's a question the story answers, but I couldn't handle the answer.

I took breaks between the last few pages so I wouldn't crumble and disappear into the wind. The story itself explores too many themes that could make someone uncomfortable. Still, if you're open-minded enough, I'd recommend this book. Look beyond what's easy to see; notice the small details that can be missed. Understand the story and come up with your own questions.

I was so consumed by the words on the page that my once-steaming coffee had gone cold and still.

Quotes

“if you must die, I hope it’s a thousand years from now. I want to feel you for a thousand years. Being dead, I can wait for you. For a millennia” - Gu