Book Review: Hungry Bones by Louise Hung
Publisher’s description
A chilling middle grade novel about a girl haunted by a hungry ghost.
Molly Teng sees things no one else can.
By touching the belongings of people who have died, she gets brief glimpses into the lives they lived. Sometimes the “zaps” are funny or random, but often they leave her feeling sad, drained, and lonely.
The last thing Jade remembers from life is dying. That was over one hundred years ago. Ever since then she’s been trapped in the same house watching people move in and out. She’s a ‘hungry ghost’ reliant on the livings’ food scraps to survive. To most people she is only a shadow, a ghost story, a superstition.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Molly is not most people. When she moves into Jade’s house, nothing will ever be the same—for either of them. After over a century alone, Jade might finally have someone who can help her uncover the secrets of her past, and maybe even find a way out of the house—before her hunger destroys them both.
Amanda’s thoughts
REALLY good read. Really.
13-year-old Chinese American Molly Teng and her mom, Dot, move around a lot. Their latest move is to Buckeye Creek, Texas, but Molly can’t imagine they will stay there long. Molly would love to settle somewhere, call it home. She always feels a little of place, beyond constantly being the new kid. Molly gets what she calls “zaps,” or visions, when she touches certain items. She sees pieces of memories, pieces of lives. She doesn’t love it, but she’s learned how to cope. Meanwhile, in Molly’s new home, there’s already someone who lives there: Jade, a ghost. Molly can see and hear her, much to Jade’s surprise. Not only that, she doesn’t seem particularly scared of Jade. Jade, for her part, is kind of amazed by Molly. She’s not sure she’s ever seen another Chinese person before, at least not that she can remember.
Jade’s ghostly life is complicated. She’s what’s called a “hungry ghost,” someone who has no one left to remember her, to offer her comfort, someone who lives with a ravenous monster inside of her. With Molly there, Jade somehow feels more human than she’s felt in a century or more. And while Jade knows she’s dead, while she remembers waking up dead, she can’t remember much about her life, about anyone who may have loved her or missed her. She’s not sure who she is, really, or why she can’t leave the house she died in.
Molly wonders if she can help Jade, so begins to do what she can: provide food, make her feel important, and try to find a way to figure out Jade’s story. But doing so will involve some big-time zaps, some help from an estranged family member, and some serious understanding of not just Jade’s past but that of so many Chinese people in America, specifically in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Molly has to ask herself what we owe the dead, what our responsibility to them is. By caring for the dead, we care for our pasts, our history. It connects us, gives us context. And maybe what Molly has seen as always a kind of curse, a burden, really is a gift. Maybe she can truly help Jade.
Well-written, complex, and unique. An excellent read.
Review copy (ARC) courtesy of the publisher
ISBN-13: 9781338832587
Publisher: Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date: 10/01/2024
Age Range: 8 – 12 Years
Filed under: Book Reviews
About Amanda MacGregor
Amanda MacGregor works in an elementary library, loves dogs, and can be found on Twitter @CiteSomething.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
SLJ Blog Network
Our 2025 Mock Caldecott Program
And, Too, the Fox: A Cover Reveal and Conversation with US Poet Laureate, Ada Limón
Papercutz Adds a Second Volume of Lost in the Future | News and Preview
The Seven Bills That Will Safeguard the Future of School Librarianship
Gayle Forman Visits The Yarn!
ADVERTISEMENT