Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Jul 2017
384 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
A darkly funny, moving story of body image, addiction, friendship, and love, Sam J. Miller's debut novel will resonate with any reader who's ever craved the power that comes with self-acceptance.
Matt hasn't eaten in days. His stomach stabs and twists inside, pleading for a meal, but Matt won't give in. The hunger clears his mind, keeps him sharp - and he needs to be as sharp as possible if he's going to find out just how Tariq and his band of high school bullies drove his sister, Maya, away.
Matt's hardworking mom keeps the kitchen crammed with food, but Matt can resist the siren call of casseroles and cookies because he has discovered something: the less he eats the more he seems to have ... powers. The ability to see things he shouldn't be able to see. The knack of tuning in to thoughts right out of people's heads. Maybe even the authority to bend time and space.
So what is lunch, really, compared to the secrets of the universe?
Matt decides to infiltrate Tariq's life, then use his powers to uncover what happened to Maya. All he needs to do is keep the hunger and longing at bay. No problem. But Matt doesn't realize there are many kinds of hunger…and he isn't in control of all of them.
"Starred Review. A dark and lovely tale of supernatural vengeance and self-destruction." - Kirkus
"Starred Review. Believing "if someone knows what you want, they can hurt you in all sorts of ways," Matt is a master at suppressing his urges, but there is nothing romantic about debut novelist Miller's portrayal of anorexia; his descriptions are often graphic and disturbing, and discussion of Matt's future is brutally honest." - Publishers Weekly
"Starred Review. It's not always easy to find novels with troubled gay male protagonists who aren't doomed, and Miller's creative portrait of a complex and sympathetic individual will provide a welcome mirror for kindred spirits." - Booklist
"A serviceable title for readers seeking an unconventional look at eating disorders and complicated gay romance." - School Library Journal
"Funny, haunting, beautiful, relentless and powerful, The Art of Starving is a classic in the making." - Book Riot
"This book is an ache, a bruise, a slaughterhouse of a love story; every word is a blow, but every blow is an anthem. This is what truth feels and smells and tastes like, and it's one magnificent monster." - Margaret Stohl, bestselling author of the Beautiful Creatures series
"Beautifully rendered. This novel will break your heart and heal it again." - Coretta Scott-King Award and Newbery Honor winner Jacqueline Woodson
"As gritty with salted wounds as are all great fairytales, The Art of Starving is The Outsiders with superpowers. It should be shelved alongside the classic stories of unexpected salvation." - Maria Dahvana Headley, bestselling author of Magonia
"The Art of Starving is as mind-bending as it is heart-rending. Sam Miller has written a searing, daring, and unflinching story that I will not soon forget." - Alex London, author of Proxy
"Brutal and brilliant, The Art of Starving seizes you and refuses to let you go. Matt is a complicated, compelling protagonist, and his raw emotional vulnerability is devastating. Hands down, The Art of Starving is the best book I've read this year." - Alyssa Wong, winner of the World Fantasy and Nebula Awards
"The Art of Starving is a humane, deeply felt, heartbreaking novel, observed with an edge as sharp as broken glass. A supervillain coming-of-age novel that made me cry - my god, I loved this book." - Alaya Dawn Johnson, Nebula and Norton Award winning author of The Summer Prince
This information about The Art of Starving was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Sam J. Miller lives in New York City now, but grew up in a small town in upstate New York. He is the last in a long line of butchers. In no particular order, he has also been a film critic, a grocery bagger, a community organizer, a secretary, a painter's assistant and model, and the guitarist in a punk rock band. His fiction has been nominated for the Nebula Award and the Theodore Sturgeon Award, was long-listed for the Hugo Award, and has won the Shirley Jackson Award. He's a graduate of the Clarion Writers Workshop. His husband of fifteen years is a nurse practitioner and is way smarter and handsomer than Sam. You can visit him online at www.samjmiller.com.
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