The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa Gray

 

Hello my lovely readers!

OK. So I think I was a bit harsh with my last post about modern fiction by Black female authors. Honestly, I think I'm just growing out of the type of fiction I was reading by those authors (thrillers, social horrors, current events etc.) I'm known to be a tad bit overdramatic!

I think I'm still trying to figure out the type of fiction that I enjoy. It used to be thrillers, but I'm over that genre. Maybe it's realistic modern fiction? I loved novels like The Mothers and The Woman in Valencia and Adele. I think I should gear more in the direction of those kinds of novels, but I won't force it. I'm definitely a history, biography and non-fiction girl through and through.

Anyway, The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls did restore my hope in modern fiction by Black female authors, but I was left kind of...meh. Let's get into it!

SUMMARY

Althea Butler-Cochran and her husband Proctor are arrested and thrown in jail for fraud.

This sends the Butler family into a tailspin as Althea's younger sisters Viola and Lillian now have to tackle life without the substitute matriarch of their family which includes taking care of her daughters and confronting their own secrets.

MY THOUGHTS

I for once actually agree with the blurb that says this book is a mix between The Mothers and An American Marriage. The writing was incredibly strong and the plot was great.

However, I didn't feel any kind of emotional connection to the novel like I did when I read both of those novels. There's a quote from the movie 10 Things I Hate About You that goes: 

I know you can feel overwhelmed and I know you can feel underwhelmed....but can you ever just feel whelmed?

That quote entirely sums up my feelings about this novel. I'd give it a solid three stars, but I felt like it was unfinished. I wanted something more final, especially with Althea. Again, there are no negative feelings or positive feelings toward this novel. It's just kind of there, but again, really great writing and plot.