Eliza Clark really does it all in this short story collection, from satire to sci-fi. Favorite stories are probably The Problem Solver, The Shadow Over Little Chitaly, The King, and Company Man. I love her range and creativity. Definitely dark, so proceed with caution! There’s a detailed content guide in the book itself (which is awesome).

Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins for my review copy!

First and foremost I am a lover of short story compilations and Eliza Clark so I was pre-disposed to enjoying this. That being said I thought many of these stories were VERY effective and I felt immersed in the different settings immediately. The topics and formats ran the gamut and showed Clark's potential to unleash bangers in many different genres.

Just as an album can't be all singles though, I thought some stories were not as fleshed out (no pun intended) as they could be, but I was never bored. I most enjoyed the speculative fiction stories, especially Hollow Bones which kept making me think of Death Valley by Melissa Broder. If you are a fan of weird body horror & speculative fiction, you should definitely pick this up.

Thank you to HarperCollins & NetGalley for access to this pre-publication copy!

Rounding up from 4.5

WOW. What can’t Eliza Clark do? She’s very quickly becoming one of my favorite authors.

This was gross! Haunting! Sick! These short stories lean much more into the sci fi and body horror genres than her previous work (which was great for me, my fave genres!), but the effortless, weird, fascinating storytelling she’s known for still shines through. It was so fun to see her shift into a new genre, and when I wasn’t reading this book I was thinking about the next time I could read this book. Huge fan. 11/10,

THANK YOU NetGalley for this ARC!

This was an excellent selection of unsettling and weird horror short stories. I loved the nuanced horror throughout these stories -- some stories featured an everyday horror, while others were more fantastical, but still very real. There were moments of levity and light humor interspersed between stories with heavier subjects, which made the experience of reading it less emotionally intense. Of the stories, my favorites were the opener, "Build a Body Like Mine," the eponymous "She's Always Hungry," "The Shadow Over Little Chitaly," "Hollow Bones," and "The King."

I am so excited to read more from this author as this was my introduction to her work! Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Perennial for an advanced copy for my honest review.

Sadly Eliza Clark has been a one hit wonder for me with Boy Parts. Short stories are just not for me but I decided to give this one a go since I loved Boy Parts and disliked Penance. This was full of sci-fi stories which are not my thing and the ones that weren’t I just didn’t find a point to a majority of them. Nothing actually gave me feeling or emotion the way I wanted them to.

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis: A dark, satirical collection of short stories about what it means to be hungry — in all forms.

One of my favorite genres is weird literary fiction. I love an unhinged narrator, body horror, sci-fi, dystopia, etc. This is my first Eliza Clark book, but I am very familiar with her other work. There were content guides with the book that included trigger warnings and chapter themes, which I appreciated. I think my favorite stories were “The Shadow Over Little Chitaly” and “Goth GF.”

Thank you to #NetGalley and Harper Perennial for an advanced copy of #ShesAlwaysHungry. To be published Nov. 12, 2024.

What worked for me in this short story collection really, truly worked. Nobody does weird body horror like Eliza Clark.
I also loved getting to read some stuff from her which leaned into the territory of speculative fiction!
Some stuff in here I did end up skimming through—but I’ll still be recommending this, overall!

“I deal in sickness. My methods are a balm for the diseased, the unsatisfied, the covetous.”

I was extremely impressed by “She’s Always Hungry.” Short story collections can be hit or miss for me — usually, I find myself loving some stories and hating others. In this collection, I enjoyed reading every single one.

The stories in this collection cover a wide range of genres. Some are horror, some are sci-fi, and some are magical realism. This collection is bizarre, darkly comedic, and expertly crafted. My personal favorite stories were “The Shadow Over Little Chitaly,” “Shake Well,” and “The King.” There were a few stories I didn’t love as much as I loved these, which is why I settled on a 4 star rating for the overall collection. I had such a fun time reading this and would definitely recommend it to readers who are interested in reading a collection of short stories that are fresh and outlandish.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Review posted to Goodreads 9/30/24

Eliza Clark has a remarkable ability to excel in any genre she chooses. I would love to see her explore folk horror and delve deeper into sci-fi in the future. This collection offers something for everyone, providing a variety of themes that will resonate with all types of readers. It explores our desires and the lengths we are willing to go to fulfill them.

Spectacular, give me 14 of them (idk how many were in this collection but DAMN.) I'm not really a short-story person but these were truly stunning. I appreciate the content guide for ppl who may need them! Deep and dark and creative, though, 10/10.

I'm a huge fan of Eliza Clark's previous work. I have a hard time when it comes to short stories, however, Eliza has done it again! Her writing and prose is brilliant. All the stories were focused on some sort of hunger. Each story was unique to the theme. My favorite were the ones that focused more on body image over the sci-fi ones. All the stories were weird, spooky, uncomfortable and brilliant! I look forward to reading more of Eliza's work.

I am a big fan of Eliza Clark’s. Having read her two previous novels, I was incredibly excited to read her newest book of stories. She’s Always Hungry is full of the great writing that I expect from Clark, though overall the book is somewhat of a hodgepodge. I have a feeling that this is more of a compendium of stories Clark has written in the past, rather than one created with the intention of forming a collection. Like Clark’s other work, a few of the stories in here are her trademark rage-filled realism. They deal with teenage bodies and girls’ coming of age. But as you progress further into the collection, there’s also some dystopia, science fiction, and satire.

Given the diversity of stories included, I’m sure that anyone who’s liked Eliza’s previous work will find something to love in this collection. There’s also a good chance that they will find something that doesn’t quite work for them, like I did. And that’s okay. I savored the stories I loved, skimmed the ones I didn’t, and in the end, I had a great time with this book.

I really liked this collection! It gave me a new appreciation for Eliza Clark’s skill. I actually enjoyed this more than her two full-length novels I’ve read. There’s a very wide variety here. Eco horror, very visceral body horror, and a story or two that weren’t even horror at all. I will say that a couple of them had abrupt and somewhat unsatisfying endings, but the pieces that worked for me were really good. I will probably revisit them again at some point!

The collection starts off strong with a super gross first story. Clark does not hold back when it comes to dark or heavy subject matter. Not everything in this book is creepy or disturbing, but those were definitely my favorites.

The title story was a tad difficult for me to follow at first but once I got into the swing of things with the prose and tone I found it very fun and strange and a standout among the rest. (Strong A24’s “The Lighthouse” vibes!)

One of the oddest short pieces I’ve read in a while was essentially just a collection of online customer reviews for a terrible food delivery service. There wasn’t much to this one, but I guess I did admire Clark’s willingness to write with so many typos and terrible grammar for the sake of realism.

I loved the sci-fi horror story “Hollow Bones.”Scary and uncomfortable body horror, unique characters, and great world building within a short time. I would read an entire novel in this genre by Clark.

She is also good at writing from perspectives vastly different from her own and creating believable and well realized characters in general.

Another piece I really liked was “Shake Well,” a very gross story about a teenage girl who can’t stop popping the acne on her face, and it only gets more disturbing from there. (That one was a tough read for me!)

There’s a kind of ridiculous but entertaining story that I’m convinced had to be at least partly inspired by the Fallout franchise, called “The King.” (But also, take that statement with a grain of salt because everything reminds me of my favorite games.) In this one, Clark’s dark humor really shines.

But it’s not all fun and scares, as one story called “Company Man” is both devastating and bleak.

There’s a handy content guide at the end of the book that goes over any trigger warnings you may need to know about, but I’ll also mention a few here in my review. Please note that I read an early copy and the story titles could be subject to change.

Thank you to Netgalley and to the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review! All opinions are my own.

TW: Disordered Eating, Mention of Chronic Illness, Sexual Assault, Mention of Self-harm, Body Shaming, Child Death, Drug Use

If you are a girl or aspire to be a girl, absolutely read this book. Get out a highlighter and some Post-its. Be prepared to take notes.

Oh my god I cannot even begin to explain how this book was right up my alley. I love body horror. I love Eliza Clark’s writing style and the way she sets up her story. I was hooked from the very beginning.

A quick breakdown, all the stories have something to do with one thing: hunger. Sometimes it’s physical, sometimes it’s more metaphorical. But each story is unique and engaging and covers a VERY important topic. I don’t want to share too much because I think it’s best to go in knowing as little as possible. Personally, I feel like short stories are very hard to execute and I ate this up, no pun intended.

This is definitely a book I will be recommending to everyone but please do check TWs!!!

Overall a really great collection of stories. I feel like the first half of stories were stronger. Definitely recommend if you are a fan of her work!

I. Loved. This. Collection.

IMO this is thee perf collection for mood readers. I'd heard from others that there was an expectation of more commitment to horror with this one, but I was SO pleased to find out Eliza Clark didn't lose sight of her hilarity - AT ALL. One story had me literally LOL'ing 95% of the time I was reading it. I think the downfall will be that this collection doesn't stay steadily enough in one genre to appease those looking for something hardcore; there may be a sort of alienation for those readers from one story to another depending on if they're hoping for mainly unhinged & funny or mainly horror. But again, as a mood reader this was SUCH a nice change from the super thematic collections I'm used to. Of course hunger is the star of the show throughout, but you don't feel like you're stuck in one "vibe" for very long.

Build a Body Like Mine 3.5/5
The Problem Solver 6/5 - the v last sentence is a mic drop, that's all I'm gunna say
She's Always Hungry 3.5/5 - close to 5/5 but the end lost me
The Shadow Over Little Chitaly 7/5
Hollow Bones 3/5 - ok, ew
Goth GF 4.5/5 - loveee all the pop culture refs
Night Stalkers 3/5
Shake Well 4/5 - loving this & BABLM's take on beauty and relationships
The King 7/5 - apparently loved this so much I didn't waste any time to write anything other than "pt 1 giving vamp satire"
Company Man 4.5/5 - losing yourself in a relationship to the point is it even "yourself" that you're losing anymore?

Side note, but I hope to eventually be able to throw out made up words like they're household names or kitchen staples like Eliza does. The liberties taken, I love it.

{Thank you bunches to NetGalley, Eliza Clark and publisher for the eARC in exchange for my honest review!}

give me more short stories by eliza clark NOWWWW!!! These were so good and spooky, in a good, yet uncomfortable manner. Just freaky short stories with great writing. another eliza book to add to your shelves.

Of course it’s natural with story collections to enjoy some more than others, but unfortunately most of them fell in the middle of the road for me.

My favorites were the ones examining the extremes of body image and beauty standards; they reminded me of Mona Awad’s work. Though I do kind of wish these had been pushed even further, given Clark’s reputation as a “weird” writer.

The others, while entertaining and imaginative, didn’t leave much of an impression. When reading the notes at the end, I found myself thinking “oh yeah… I guess I did read that.”

Despite how negative this might sound, I *would* recommend this. I think that active fans of short story collections will enjoy this more than I did; I just mesh better with longer form fiction.

Eliza Clark's She's Always Hungry was everything I hoped it would be and more! With a deep love for Clark's work, I was already primed to dive into the strange and unsettling worlds she so expertly creates. True to form, this collection of short stories brings out the absurd, the eerie, and the downright horrifying in ways that are both unexpected and completely engrossing.

Clark doesn’t shy away from the grotesque, but instead, she revels in it, taking readers on a journey into the most twisted corners of human experience. What I love most about her writing is how she effortlessly combines the mundane with the utterly bizarre—she somehow makes horror feel weirdly relatable. It’s rare to find an author who can balance absurdity with genuine scares, and Clark nails it. This collection feels like a perfect example of her ability to keep readers on their toes—just when you think you know what’s happening, she pulls the rug out from under you. If you’re a fan of weird, dark, and thought-provoking horror,