She wanted to make herself as undesirable as possible, so that she could feel safe. She kept this trauma as a secret for a very long time. One day the boy she had a crush on led her into the woods, where they met up with his friends. They proceeded to gang rape her. The plot (again, STOP reading if you want to be totally surprised): Roxane led a fairly normal and happy life until she was 12. Equally as impressive was the manner through which she did.
It takes tremendous guts to share such personal experiences and address the challenging topics she did so in her book. Before I get into the grit of this post, I want to acknowledge how brave I think Roxane Gay was to bare her soul so vulnerably. 'Hunger' was the kind of book where after you read it, you're like, omgsh, I need to talk to someone. It certainly won't ruin the experience of reading it yourself if you know the plot prior, but in case you want to be totally surprised - stop reading this post now! :)
Many of my thoughts about this book cannot be addressed without discussing the plot. So when I was state-side I went to Barnes & Noble, and purchased it. It's not the typical book I would have chosen, but I was looking for materials to assist in the demographic and brand research for one of the companies I do copywriting for, and this fit the bill. I heard of 'Hunger,' by Roxane Gay because I saw someone that I work with post about how great she thought the book was on Instagram.
