She’s always hungry is a collection of short stories with themes of abuse, disordered eating, violence, and body horror. All the classic themes Eliza Clark is known for turned up a few notches. Laced in dark humor and often slow paced to falling into these stories are unsettling and leave you thinking of them long after finishing them. 

I did feel myself struggling to get into a few of the stories that felt a bit more experimental to me. Mainly those dealing in apocalypse and or climate change themes giving them sci-fi elements which were hard to follow.  The writing of these stories (hollow bones, extinction event, the king) were very stream of conscious and had no thorough line throughout. That may work for some people and some people may have fun with that, but they did not work for me. 

My favorite stories in this collection are those dealing with the themes Clark is most known for. In build a body like mine we see what it’s like to deal with body dysmorphia and disordered eating through a new lens. In goth gf we see female dominance in the work place laced with issues of self harm. Nightstalker tells the story of a homoerotic friendship in the 1970s. Shake well is a horror story of grooming and sexual violence with a black market cure for acne that induces  body horror. Much like Clark’s previous books they are dark and full of content warnings so I would proceed with caution. 

I recommend this book to readers who enjoy black mirror, rick and morty and feminist horror. 

Thank you Netgalley and Harper perennial for this arc!