The Art of Starving--"More authors need to write books like this: young adults should discuss addiction, sexuality, and bullying openly, without fear of judgment"

Title: The Art of Starving

Author: Sam J. Miller

What it’s about (in 75 words or fewer): Matt a lonely, gay, high school student, finds that when he starves himself, his senses are heightened; and he can develop his superhuman powers (such as mind reading and control). Matt must befriend and then destroy Tariq because Tariq hurt Matt's older sister, Maya, causing her to run away.  Matt's mother, a closet alcoholic, is stressed because she is afraid she will lose her job at the slaughterhouse.

What I think (in 250 words or fewer): Matt, the (very unreliable!) narrator, is written so well, readers (or at least I) want to trust and believe him. I found myself wondering if your senses do heighten if you're hungry (they don't).

The fact, however, that I felt compelled to research it just shows you how believable Matt's voice is.

Matt introduces each chapter with a Rule for The Art of Starving, inspired by The Art of War, but with rules about controlling your body using hunger, rules that become decidedly more disturbing the more Matt downwardly spirals.

The Art of Starving is not a comfortable book, but it's not supposed to be.  I agree with Alspach's (2017) review that says "it's a tough book [that] will challenge you in so many ways and may change the way you think about your own inner demons."

This book reminded me of Neil Shusterman's Speeding Bullet in that we do not know if the main character really had powers, or if the story's events were due to coincidence and/or luck. Matt is such an unreliable narrator that he is not even sure whether what he is perceiving is reality or not.

OR--maybe Matt, Maya, and their mother really do have some kind of ESP.

I really like it when books mess with your head like that--it makes them great books for literature circles. Therefore, (and for other reasons), The Art of Starving wins the coveted MLCF award.

I also love Maya's critique of On the Road.  You go, girl. 😜


This book is on the 2018 Rainbow Book List.


My final takeaway (in 75 words or fewer): This is not a comfortable book to read--rather, it is upsetting and makes you squirm. However, more authors need to write books like this: young adults should discuss addiction, sexuality, and bullying openly without fear of judgment.

These issues should never stay locked away in some metaphorical closet.

I would recommend that anyone who struggles with an eating disorder read this with a teacher or therapist's guidance, mainly because it may trigger unresolved issues.


My favorite (and/or notable) quotes/passages from the book:

• "Straight men will insult and assault and beat and kill gay men because they are terrified.  Because masculinity is the foundation they built their whole worldview on, the set of lies that lets them believe they are inherently better than women, and gay people expose how flimsy and arbitrary the whole thing is" (hardback edition, pg. 9).
• "A haircut is a costume, a disguise we wear to trick people into thinking we're someone better or more successful or cooler or just different than we really are, and this insight makes me want to scream and shatter the mirror, and I controlled myself only with great difficulty, because my hunger had progressed so far that I was in a more-or-less constant state of war with my body" (pg. 161).
• "All that time I'd believed my body to be the enemy, when it had been my mind all along" (pg. 185).
• "Remember this is the fifties.  Jim Crow time.  These guys couldn't have gone driving around having wild adventures all over America if they were black.  Lots of businesses wouldn't serve them, lots of mechanics wouldn't repair their cars, and they'd risk physical violence if they ended up in a whites only 'sundown town.'  So it's [On the Road] a book about white privilege, too" (pg. 336).

Other reviews: Tor.com  and Teen Librarian Toolbox

This book is available in the Greensboro Public Library.