Will I love Hunger?

If you’ve ever had a complicated relationship with your body, welcome to the club. Gay’s memoir is refreshingly unvarnished—no filters, no gloss, just the stark reality of living in a body that the world often sees as a problem to be solved.

Her vulnerability is disarming, offering insights that are as profound as they are uncomfortable. It’s like she’s sharing secrets you didn’t even know you had, making you laugh at the absurdity of societal expectations while also leaving you with a deeper understanding of the complexities of identity and trauma.

A “best of books about chronic illness list” would not be complete without Gay’s heartbreaking memoir.

The bestselling author delves into chronic overeating, PTSD from a trauma she suffered as a young girl, and a complicated relationship with her overweight body. This book is both devastating and devastatingly beautiful. She explores her history with food as a Haitian-American woman as well as society’s expectations of women and women’s bodies. Gay is a true warrior, and she writes her story with guts.

Trigger Warning: this book contains explicit depictions of sexual violence.

Hunger speaks to the near-universal experience of women hating their body.

Dr. Roxane Gay writes about how her childhood sexual assault drove her to gain weight to feel unseen and therefore feel safe. As a fat, queer, Black woman, she recounts numerous experiences of harassment and hatred based on intersecting identities.

Hunger is a powerful retelling of the deep cuts inflicted by daily encounters of fatphobia. Hunger demands that we create a world that is more considerate of the realities of the bodies of others at the same time we become more accepting of our own bodies. Dr. Gay’s vivid,… show more.

Roxanne Gay is a stunning writer and it’s critical that the voices of women of color, particularly LGBTQI+ women of color, are given a big platform and are amplified.

Eating disorders are rampant in our culture. I know. I suffered from anorexia from age seventeen to nineteen before it was widely known as a thing. Our society gives young women all sorts of messages and some of us play out our insecurities, our voicelessness, our desire for control with food.

Roxanne Gay bravely shares her story, how she felt, how she behaved, and how she was treated, illuminating the struggle… show more.