Louder Than Hunger by John Schu
Apr. 19th, 2024 05:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
When Jake’s stomach growls, it’s the Voice that answers.
Don’t eat that garbage!
You already ate an apple today!
You didn’t exercise enough!
But listening to the Voice isn’t good for Jake. His mom knows, his grandma knows and the staff at Whispering Pines, where Jake has been sent to heal, all know too. If Jake is going to lead the life he wants - the one he deserves - he must learn to silence the Voice and find his own.
It’s 1996.
13-year-old Jake Stacey lives in the Chicago suburbs with his mum and dad. He loves musicals, rollerblading and his grandmother (who takes him for drives in her big red car). But he hates school where he is bullied and ostracised by the other kids and worse, he is keeping a secret: inside him is a Voice, which tells him to exercise more and eat less. The Voice tells him not to trust anyone, tells him that the Voice is all he needs.
When Jake’s worried parents take him to Whispering Pines, the Voice tells Jake not to co-operate with the staff who want to help him to get better. But the staff are keen to show him that he doesn’t have to listen to the Voice, that he can build a different life for himself if he can just find it in himself to silence it …
John Schu’s YA novel told in verse form is an incredibly moving book based on his own experiences of having an eating disorder. I felt desperately sympathetic to the vulnerable Jake whose relationship with his grandmother is clearly very important to him but more could have been made of his relationship with his parents, which is much too lightly sketched and should have been explored given his mum’s anxiety issues seem to feed into Jake’s.
Since starting my blog back in 2006, I have read a number of YA novels about eating disorders told from a girl’s perspective but this is the first novel I’ve read that looks at it from a boy’s perspective and I think that’s to be applauded. The fact that the Foreword by Kate DiCamillo and Schu’s own author’s note at the back say that this is based on Schu’s own experiences gives the book authenticity and, for me, makes Jake’s battles all the more poignant.
Schu has used a verse form for the book, which I found to be very effective. It’s all Jake’s voice as he sets out his experiences and his battles with the Voice and his experiences at Whispering Pines. It is important to note that She says that treatments for eating disorders have changed since the 1990s, but I think what he shows in this book is still compassionate and moving.
In fact I just ached for Jake all the way through this book. He is such a vulnerable character who knows he’s different and who seems to want to almost disappear into himself thanks to the bullying he’s been suffering at school. I thoroughly enjoyed his relationship with his musical loving grandma, and did wish that there had been more of these scenes in the book because she’s such a warm, loving character who nevertheless seems unsure as to what to do or say to help him.
My main criticism of the book is that the relationship between Jake and his grandma highlights how underdeveloped Jake’s relationship with his mum and dad is. There are suggestions throughout the text that his mother has anxiety or some other mental health issue, which has had a knock on effect on Jake but this is never really made clear (it is certainly something I wished had been explored within the therapy). His relationship with his father is even sketchier with a suggestion that he is quite masculine and cannot relate to Jake’s love of musicals and suggestions that he may be gay. Again, I wished that this had been explored more in the therapy sessions, even if just to explore to what (if any) extent it makes him want to take control over his life. None of this spoilt the book for me at all, but I did think it was a missed opportunity because although there are a lot of suggestions as to what has fed into creating the Voice but at no point does Jake seem to confront any of it. Rather his treatment is all about learning to ignore what it tells him.
My criticisms aside though, I do think this is a powerful and necessary book and there are scenes when I was moved to the point of tears. It would not surprise me if this book was on a number of awards list this year and I think it would thoroughly merit its place there. Certainly it has left me excited to read what Schu writes next.
The Verdict:
John Schu’s YA novel told in verse form is an incredibly moving book based on his own experiences of having an eating disorder. I felt desperately sympathetic to the vulnerable Jake whose relationship with his grandmother is clearly very important to him but more could have been made of his relationship with his parents, which is much too lightly sketched and should have been explored given his mum’s anxiety issues seem to feed into Jake’s.
LOUDER THAN HUNGER was released in the United Kingdom on 4th April 2024. Thanks to Walker Books for the review copy of this book.
When Jake’s stomach growls, it’s the Voice that answers.
You already ate an apple today!
You didn’t exercise enough!
But listening to the Voice isn’t good for Jake. His mom knows, his grandma knows and the staff at Whispering Pines, where Jake has been sent to heal, all know too. If Jake is going to lead the life he wants - the one he deserves - he must learn to silence the Voice and find his own.
It’s 1996.
13-year-old Jake Stacey lives in the Chicago suburbs with his mum and dad. He loves musicals, rollerblading and his grandmother (who takes him for drives in her big red car). But he hates school where he is bullied and ostracised by the other kids and worse, he is keeping a secret: inside him is a Voice, which tells him to exercise more and eat less. The Voice tells him not to trust anyone, tells him that the Voice is all he needs.
When Jake’s worried parents take him to Whispering Pines, the Voice tells Jake not to co-operate with the staff who want to help him to get better. But the staff are keen to show him that he doesn’t have to listen to the Voice, that he can build a different life for himself if he can just find it in himself to silence it …
John Schu’s YA novel told in verse form is an incredibly moving book based on his own experiences of having an eating disorder. I felt desperately sympathetic to the vulnerable Jake whose relationship with his grandmother is clearly very important to him but more could have been made of his relationship with his parents, which is much too lightly sketched and should have been explored given his mum’s anxiety issues seem to feed into Jake’s.
Since starting my blog back in 2006, I have read a number of YA novels about eating disorders told from a girl’s perspective but this is the first novel I’ve read that looks at it from a boy’s perspective and I think that’s to be applauded. The fact that the Foreword by Kate DiCamillo and Schu’s own author’s note at the back say that this is based on Schu’s own experiences gives the book authenticity and, for me, makes Jake’s battles all the more poignant.
Schu has used a verse form for the book, which I found to be very effective. It’s all Jake’s voice as he sets out his experiences and his battles with the Voice and his experiences at Whispering Pines. It is important to note that She says that treatments for eating disorders have changed since the 1990s, but I think what he shows in this book is still compassionate and moving.
In fact I just ached for Jake all the way through this book. He is such a vulnerable character who knows he’s different and who seems to want to almost disappear into himself thanks to the bullying he’s been suffering at school. I thoroughly enjoyed his relationship with his musical loving grandma, and did wish that there had been more of these scenes in the book because she’s such a warm, loving character who nevertheless seems unsure as to what to do or say to help him.
My main criticism of the book is that the relationship between Jake and his grandma highlights how underdeveloped Jake’s relationship with his mum and dad is. There are suggestions throughout the text that his mother has anxiety or some other mental health issue, which has had a knock on effect on Jake but this is never really made clear (it is certainly something I wished had been explored within the therapy). His relationship with his father is even sketchier with a suggestion that he is quite masculine and cannot relate to Jake’s love of musicals and suggestions that he may be gay. Again, I wished that this had been explored more in the therapy sessions, even if just to explore to what (if any) extent it makes him want to take control over his life. None of this spoilt the book for me at all, but I did think it was a missed opportunity because although there are a lot of suggestions as to what has fed into creating the Voice but at no point does Jake seem to confront any of it. Rather his treatment is all about learning to ignore what it tells him.
My criticisms aside though, I do think this is a powerful and necessary book and there are scenes when I was moved to the point of tears. It would not surprise me if this book was on a number of awards list this year and I think it would thoroughly merit its place there. Certainly it has left me excited to read what Schu writes next.
The Verdict:
John Schu’s YA novel told in verse form is an incredibly moving book based on his own experiences of having an eating disorder. I felt desperately sympathetic to the vulnerable Jake whose relationship with his grandmother is clearly very important to him but more could have been made of his relationship with his parents, which is much too lightly sketched and should have been explored given his mum’s anxiety issues seem to feed into Jake’s.
LOUDER THAN HUNGER was released in the United Kingdom on 4th April 2024. Thanks to Walker Books for the review copy of this book.
