The Hunger We Pass Down

Praise for The Hunger We Pass Down

“A claustrophobic tale told on an epic scale…Each woman’s story is as captivating—and each character as rounded—as the next. Lee has written a genuinely frightening story of rape, abuse, and neglect. A bold story of intergenerational trauma that creates spooky scares out of real-life atrocities.” —Kirkus, STARRED Review

“The Hunger We Pass Down, examines terrifying generational trauma passed from mothers to daughters in a Chinese Canadian family…Intertwining this dysfunctional family saga with cruel historical reality and spectral revenge, Lee chillingly exposes the monstrous price of women’s survival.” —Shelf Awareness

“Jen Sookfong Lee summons all the monstrous, ferocious power of the gothic to tell a story you don’t dare look away from. This is the kind of book that eats your sleep.” —Kelly Link, author of The Book of Love

“The Hunger We Pass Down chronicles the path of trauma through several generations of women, as it mutates and adapts like a living thing, terrorizing in perpetuity. But as much as it’s a story about the brutal grip of intergenerational trauma, it’s also very much about the bonds forged by this pain. Poignant and biting and haunted by all manner of unsettling spectres, this one really packs a punch.” —Ainslie Hogarth, author of Motherthing

“In The Hunger We Pass Down, Jen Sookfong Lee deftly leads readers through an intergenerational story of women and the ways in which they are haunted by societal expectations of femininity, motherhood, daughterhood, and unattainable perfection. You will fall in love with the characters as much as you will be haunted by them. Prepare to be pulled apart.” —Jessica Johns, author of Bad Cree

“The Hunger We Pass Down is a hauntingly lyrical portrait of grief, trauma, and motherhood. Jen Sookfong Lee’s novel is as terrifying as it is beautiful, and it will linger with readers long after the final page.” —Monika Kim, bestselling author of The Eyes are the Best Part

“Jen Sookfong Lee has crafted a grueling story where evil is thrust into a family like a knife, unasked for and unprovoked. There are sparks of humanity and love and kindness, but they’re merely hopeful flickers against a matte black sky.” —Alex Gonzalez, author of rekt

“Every woman is a ghost story in Jen Sookfong Lee’s masterful new novel The Hunger We Pass Down…Laced with delicious dark wit, piercing insight and unbridled female rage, this terrifying tale will hold you in its tightening grip until the very last word.” —David Demchuk, author of The Bone Mother