The Art of Starving (2017)
Written by: Sam J. Miller
Genre: YA Fantasy
Pages: 384 (Hardcover)
Publisher: HarperTeen
Why I Chose It: The Art of Starving is nominated in the Young Adult category for the Hugo Awards, but it also fits into my 2018 resolution to bring more diversity to my reading, as it was written by a gay man and the main character is also gay.
Premise:
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.
No Spoilers (Content warning: brief discussion of eating disorders)
Discussion: The one thing that I really enjoyed abut this book is how unique and diverse it was. The main character, Matt, is gay and Jewish and another important character, Tariq, is Muslim. I liked that Matt’s sexual orientation is a part of his identity but not the focus of the story. Many of the young adult books of my youth had a preachy, after school special feel and if a character was gay, that was their entire storyline. The Art of Starving is more organic and real. Most books about eating disorders are about women, so it was also an unusual experience to read about a young man with anorexia.
Although I didn’t expect a book about eating disorders to be cheerful, Matt’s story is relentlessly depressing. Not only does Matt have anorexia, he is beaten up at school for being gay, his only friend moved to another town, and his father abandoned him. Maya, his beloved sister, ran away and he is afraid that something terrible happened to her. Plus his family is poor and his single mother is in constant danger of losing her job slaughtering pigs at the local hog farm. Nothing in Matt’s life is happy and it makes for a bleak reading experience.
I also felt that the book was misleading, heavy-handed, and confusing. I was set up to believe that someone hurt Maya. Matt first notices his powers while he is spying on other students, trying to figure out what happened to her. Maya’s plotline fizzles out and the real reason that she left home isn’t very dramatic. The secret that Tariq, the popular soccer star who is friends with Matt’s bullies, is keeping might as well be spelled out in fifty-foot high neon lights. I assumed that Matt’s powers were real only because The Art of Starving was nominated for a Hugo award. If I hadn’t known this, it would have taken me almost the entire book to be certain that his powers were not just a delusion caused by his mental illness. Matt’s superpowers weren’t nearly as interesting as they could have been. He stops time to learn that Ott, one of his bullies, is ashamed that he once fooled around with another boy, and then Matt forgives him. I wouldn’t have been nearly so generous to my bullies in high school. I wanted Matt to get revenge. I expected Matt to use his powers epically, like Stephen King’s Carrie, but even the climatic use of his powers is something that can be written off as a prank.
I am firmly opposed to restricting teenagers’ reading. Even when I was a child, my parents never forbid any books, mostly because I read too much for them to keep track, but I think it made me a better person and a more devoted reader. However, I think that Sam J. Miller can be fairly accused of glorifying eating disorders. The Art of Starving is presented as Matt’s journal and it is a how-to manual for starving yourself. It gets grim.
As they approach true mastery of the Art of Starving, students will see that eating disorders are merely one part of a board spectrum of self-harm. Cutting, addiction, suicidal ideation. These are all ways to assert your power. To prove that you’re not weak. To show you’re strong enough to control your own destiny by destroying yourself. (p.199)
Matt’s superhuman control over food gives him an incredibly strong sense of smell and hearing, the ability to control animals, and even allows him to stop time. His superpowers get stronger as he starves himself and weaker when he gives in and eats. No one would literally think that anorexia bestows superpowers but I still think this book could be potentially triggering for someone with an eating disorder.
In conclusion: Although this book wasn’t my personal cup of tea, Sam J. Miller is a talented writer and I was glad to see a young adult book with diverse characters. I haven’t read any of the other books nominated in the young adult category, but I think this book’s odd premise gives it a good chance.
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