The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa Gray (debut)
Publisher: Berkley
Release Date: February 19, 2019
Length: 304 pages
Amazon

{A Bit of Backstory}

Single Sentence Summary

A powerful story about two generations of women, each one longing for the love of her mother.

From the Publisher

“Althea, the eldest sister and substitute matriarch, is a force to be reckoned with and her younger sisters have alternately appreciated and chafed at her strong will. They are as stunned as the rest of the small community when she and her husband Proctor are arrested, and in a heartbeat the family goes from one of the most respected in town to utter disgrace. The worst part is, not even her sisters are sure exactly what happened.”

The Draw

• You’ve got to read a book with a title like that!
• Comparisons to An American Marriage and The Mothers.
• Family in crisis stories often work for me.

{My Thoughts}

What Worked For Me

That Title! – Do you, like me, enjoy thinking about where the title of a book comes from? I like to find it in the text or make sense of it based on the story. I like to think about why the author selected the particular title they did. Rarely have I seen it done more brilliantly than in The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls. This is exactly what the book is about. Sisters Althea, Viola and Lillian lost their mother while still very young, Althea only 12 and Lillian a toddler. Their father was largely absent and it was left to Althea to raise her sisters along with their brother, Joe.

As hard as Althea tried, she couldn’t fill the void left by her mother, not for herself or for her siblings. Each was left to fuel that hunger in other ways. Althea by striving for success and social standing within her community, no matter the cost to others. Viola, with food, binging and purging, never feeling satisfied. Lillian with trying to please her father to gain some attention, some love, and later looking for the same with men she cared little about.

As the next generation of young women begins to blossom, they too lose their mother when Althea’s own longings send both her and her husband to prison. Her twin daughters, Kim and Baby Vi, are left motherless, with their aunts trying desperately to fill the void, the hunger for a mother’s love. Viola and Lillian know better than most just what an impossible task they’ve been left with.

This IS what The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls is all about: caring for and feeding the holes in girls left ravenously hungry by absent mothers, and other painful memories. This was a title that worked!

“ She’s still looking around, holding her hat to her chest with both hands. But my question, apparently, finally catches up with her, and she looks at me. I can see. She’s starving.”

Three Narrators – The sisters, Althea, Viola and Lillian alternately narrated the story each speaking in first person. Their lives were closely intertwined, but also very much unique, so it was good to hear from each as the trauma of growing up motherless played out much differently for the sisters. Althea was left grieving, but also in many ways tasked with filling her mother’s shoes. Viola had fewer memories of her mother and less responsibility, but was plenty old enough to feel the pain of loss. And Lillian didn’t quite know how to grieve for a mother she never really knew. I especially appreciated Viola and Lillian’s perspectives, since they were also the ones dealing with the aftermath of Althea’s crimes.

What Didn’t

The Prison Angle – Althea was in prison the entire span of The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls and so much of what she spoke of was her life in prison. This included cellmates, prison Bible Study group, and other inmates. While a piece of this part in the story proved to be important, for the most part I just didn’t care about it and I learned little about Althea from it. I’d have much preferred to know more of her story, her thought and feelings, and motivation for her crimes. These seemed like holes in her story that might have easily been filled, rather than getting so much about the women she was currently sharing her life with.

Proctor’s Letters – Althea’s husband regularly sent her letters from his own prison cell and I also saw little reason for these. They were brief, but for me added almost nothing to the women’s stories.

{The Final Assessment}

Overall, I really liked The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls. It was a slower paced novel, giving you much needed time to really think about the trajectory of the story. I loved that the title held so much meaning and that I was still thinking about the meaning days after finishing. Debut author Anissa Gray has delivered a powerful story and I look forward to seeing what she’ll do next. Grade: B

If you liked this book you might also enjoy:

• An American Marriage by Tayari Jones – The story of a couple separated when the husband is sent to prison on false charges. The comparison between these books was definitely warranted. (my review)
• Desperation Road by Michael Farris Smith – The story of a man newly released from prison and the desperate young mother he tries to rescue. (my review)

Disclosure: There are Amazon Associate links included within this post.