Reviews

Hungry Ghosts by Joel Rose, Anthony Bourdain

jesdcay's review against another edition

adventurous challenging fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

ninahuynh's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I like the use of many different Japanese scary characters, such as yōkai, yūrei and obake. I learned more about the different types of mythological horror characters in Japanese folklore. Personally, the stories were not scary as much as they are gross and grimy. Maybe my scare threshold is broken and numbed but even the drawings were not scary. I commend the details though, but there is no scare factor in them- nasty and grim, yes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Chronic illness, Death, Misogyny, Vomit, Confinement, Alcohol, Body horror, Cannibalism, Eating disorder, Gore, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Kidnapping, Blood, Sexism, Violence, Child death, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Murder, and War

spauffwrites's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

I appreciated all the spooky details in the artwork of this collection of retold Japanese ghost stories. Each story centers around food in some way; characters are starving or gluttons or chefs; some are man-eating monsters and some are parasites. I also enjoyed learning more about the history Japanese ghost stories toward the end, and I hope to try some of the included recipes soon.

jess_mango's review against another edition

4.0

Bourdain’s last writing project before his death in June of last year...a collection of food-related ghost stories in graphic novel format.

megabooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective fast-paced

3.0

bouldermimi's review against another edition

5.0

Read 11/13/2020 - eBook

Wonderfully illustrated, though the stories were gruesome. Anthony Bourdain is truly missed.

chibiyokai's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

4.25

kandisebrown's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.0

dragonstea's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

3.0

stopnodont's review against another edition

3.0

Turns out Bourdain was a bit of a weeb. Maybe not full-on, but between this book and Get Jiro it's safe to say he was a big admirer of Japanese culture at least.

I hate to be blunt, but if the art wasn't so good then this book would suck. The stories are neither scary nor compelling, and it's fairly short. It establishes a narrative framework at the beginning but then never returns to that - just sort of ending after a series of short ghost stories instead. None of them are particularly memorable, although some of the panels of art are. Haven't made any of the recipes but I'm sure they are good.

A cool book for any Bourdain fan to have on the shelf, but it's not a great piece of graphic literature by any stretch of the imagination.