The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa Gray

Star rating: 5/5

"'But you girls, us women, we're water. We can wear away earth and stone, if it comes to it.'"

Anissa Gray's stunning debut novel tells a story of family, pain, the complexities of love, and the strength of women. 

Summary:

This is a story about family. Althea has always been the rock of the family, practically raising her three younger siblings as their mother died young and their father was mostly absent. Now Althea and her husband Proctor are in prison for fraud, and her siblings are tasked with caring for their twin teenage daughters. 

Told in alternating perspectives by Althea and her two sisters, as well as letters written by Proctor in prison, we are slowly given insight into each family members' pain and the defenses they've had to put up for themselves to survive in a harsh world. 

Review:

I have absolutely nothing negative to say about this book, period. It is beautiful, heart-wrenching, raw, intense, and real. Anissa Gray sugarcoats nothing in this novel. She addresses race, sexuality, mental illness, parenting, and trauma in ways that are often upsetting to read - as they should be, because these are real, upsetting, painful human experiences. 

None of the characters in this story are perfect. Each one of them makes harmful decisions, says hurtful things. Each one of them battles their own demons and has suffered. They are not instantly likeable. You, as the reader, have to work to understand them, accept them, love them, as they each struggle to love themselves. In the end, I did love them - even Althea, who I spent most of the book feeling angry and confused by. For fans of Tayari Jones and Celeste Ng, this is a can't-miss novel.