Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC of this comic.

This is a raw, sad and brutally real comic about mental health and eating disorders.

It's contemporary, and we follow a young girl through life where her family pays above normal attention to what she eats, as they want her to be healthy. It gives us a real insight in how even with the best intentions we can hurt the people around us, and they suffer in silence.

The comic is beautifully illustrated, and it was very painful to read, but it's such an important story to tell and to read.

TW: EATING DISORDER & parent loss

This is a raw masterpiece! I loved this so much!
I felt utterly activated & compelled by the art style and artwork, as well as the emotions in the story. It handles a very tough subject in a way that cares but is realistic to ones who suffer and are affected by a disorder and the wrong way a parent tries to help, plus a tragic loss.

Holy moly, as someone who has both experienced an eating disorder and also has issues with their mother, this graphic novel was... wow it hit different. This is the semi-autobiographical story of Val, whose mother is constantly reminding her not to eat too much or she'll get fat, to the point where now her entire existance revolves around food. Eating it, not eating it, uneating it, feeling guilty about eating it.
If you've never experienced an eating disorder, let me tell you, this graphic novel portrays it pretty well. If anything, it's toned down, but it does touch on the shame and self loathing aspects of eating disorders that people don't realize are part of it. It's not always about just how you look. It's about your self worth. It's about not feeling like you deserve anything else.
This graphic novel isn't easy to read. In fact despite being short and mostly pictures, it took me a while. Because it's hard. The scene where Val is talking to her aunt is the entire recovery process distilled into a few simple text boxes and images, and for that reason alone a book like this is so, so valuable, especially in the hands of the right teen. I will always read and promote books like this. 5 stars.

I found this graphic novel to be absolutely gutting: a real, vulnerable, and powerful story about intergenerational conflict, self-image, and how even those who love us can end up hurting us. Valeria has to navigate her mother's constant criticism and pressure to maintain a desired weight, projecting her own body issues (those she inherited from her mother, and so son, and so on) onto her daughter in a misguided attempt to protect her from the world's ridicule. This has deleterious effects on Valeria's self esteem, pushing her into disordered eating and extremely painful dysmorphia. The art has a beautiful, soft, melancholy aesthetic, one that reinforces Valeria's inner turmoil. There is much for young women to identify with here, and I think many, unfortunately, will recognize Valeria's pain (as I did).

This was a powerful and bittersweet story about the impact of family, friends, and body image issues. As someone who has struggled with body image issues and familial pressure on such images, Hungry Ghost hit hard, pulling no punches showing the characters in their most vulnerable moments.
This story will probably not be for everyone, but I think everyone should read it.

Thank you to NetGalley and First Second Books for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a powerful and beautiful story about the impact of generational pressure, and how people who want the best for us can sometimes still be harmful. I did think the resolution happened kind of quickly, and made it seem like it was easy to overcome years of thinking and behaving in harmful ways

This story hits hard, as someone who has struggled with my body image on and off for all of my life. I don't know if the resolution was the best, but I think its different for everyone so that doesn't matter.

Hungry Ghost is a comic about eating disorder, friendship and family. Valeria is Asian and her family likes traditions her mom being an amazing cook. At the same the mom is very strict about Val not getting fat and she keeps pestering her daughter, since Val's friend is, well, chubby. This pressure makes Val bulimic and her father ends up dying too and even fat girls get boyfriends. This all is like a spiral that makes our main character want and need a change. The story isn't too suffocating, but more like full of hope. In a way it feels easy even. I would've liked to know why the mom was the way she was. Also, it seems too easy to Val to free herself from her mom. Perhaps these pages weren't enough to get the story fully work. There's a little bit too much in the story as we also have the death of the father and the Paris trip.

The art looks nice and the soft colors are a good choice surely. Everything looks nice and pleasant even though the topic is horrible. Perhaps it's needed though, since now the comic is interestingly balanced. The topic is very important and finally a lighter way to go through it.