The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls – Book Review

Last updated on October 6, 2020

Summary of the Book

In The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls, Anissa Gray weaves a story of a family navigating life. Althea and her husband make choices that lead them to jail, which leaves their twin daughters Baby Vi and Kim on their own. Well, they are not really on their own, because Althea’s sisters Viola and Lillian step in to help. However, there is only so much that they can do to shield the teenagers from the community’s backlash. The situation is especially difficult for Kim, who was the one who initiated the investigation of her parents.

Viola and Lillian have no children of their own. Viola’s relationship has fallen apart when we meet her and she is going through a difficult time. She works with young people with eating disorders but also suffers from binge eating and purging. The other sister, Lillian, takes care of her elderly ex-mother-in-law. Their brother, Joe, is a preacher, but his relationship with his sisters become more strained as Lillian reveals how he abused her as a child. As the story moves back and forth through time, we learn how the members of all three generations in this story struggle to overcome the burden of their past experiences and choices.

Themes Explored

This story in this novel kept me interested throughout. I felt empathy for each of the characters at different points. When I was about a quarter of the way through the book, I didn’t yet have a clear idea of the story in this book. The main feeling that struck me then was one of sadness for the suffering of every character. It’s interesting how the author explores the concepts of shared history and individual history within a family. In fact, this book is quite dense in exploring many themes including aging, abuse, forgiveness, marital infidelity, incarceration.

Rating

While there is no perfect ending here, there is a neat ending, with many issues resolved or on their way to resolution. I’ve developed an appreciation for books that leave me hanging over time, but a book with at least a suggestion of a tidy ending is still my favorite type. I highly recommend The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls.