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Famished
There is no United States. There is no world. An asteroid has destroyed what the human race knew as earth and The Great Famine has wiped out most of the surviving human population. For the few remaining survivors, food is scarce-- precious--a luxury. A luxury that most humans can’t find.
Seventeen year old Georgina Carver is fortunate. She’s survived the destruction. She eats three times a day while the rest of humanity is plagued by The Great Famine. And she’s safe, hidden away in an underground colony with her family and several other families of survivors.
All of that changes the day she’s randomly selected to be a gatherer. Georgina must leave her safe yet simple world and venture out into a world unknown. A vast, dangerous, destroyed world that could literally eat her alive.
After Georgina is severely injured, her life begins to fall apart. She can’t remember how she got home or what happened to her while she was on the new earth. The boy she is crushing on avoids her and she keeps having visions that involve an unknown person with violet eyes.
As Georgina begins to unravel the truth, it doesn’t take her long to figure out that maybe her safe yet simple life isn’t that safe at all.
Seventeen year old Georgina Carver is fortunate. She’s survived the destruction. She eats three times a day while the rest of humanity is plagued by The Great Famine. And she’s safe, hidden away in an underground colony with her family and several other families of survivors.
All of that changes the day she’s randomly selected to be a gatherer. Georgina must leave her safe yet simple world and venture out into a world unknown. A vast, dangerous, destroyed world that could literally eat her alive.
After Georgina is severely injured, her life begins to fall apart. She can’t remember how she got home or what happened to her while she was on the new earth. The boy she is crushing on avoids her and she keeps having visions that involve an unknown person with violet eyes.
As Georgina begins to unravel the truth, it doesn’t take her long to figure out that maybe her safe yet simple life isn’t that safe at all.
280 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 26, 2011
9 people are currently reading
3943 people want to read
About the author
Lauren Hammond
29 books1,088 followersLauren Hammond knew from a young age that she was born to be a writer. After publishing her first novel in 2007, she then went on to write several screenplays and a few award winning poems.She aspires to be a positive role model for young people who have a pencil, a piece of paper, and a dream. Never give up on your dreams, you might wake up one day and regret not pursuing them.She has two more novels in the works, as well as some film projects
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 74 reviews
August 2, 2011
WARNING, if you are a fan of this book, you aren't going to like what I have to say.
Let's start with the beginning shall we?
This book is about people who live underground (The Hunger Games) who are controlled by a murderous tyrannical freak (The Hunger Games) who have survived the end of the world and the Great Famine (The Hunger Games) and have to worry about cannibalistic human beings who roam outside their little colony...One of the few things original about this book, I assure you.
Georgie got on my nerves. She came off as a self righteous brat who threw temper tantrums whenever someone didn't tell her what she wanted to hear. If I talked to my parents the way that she talked to hers...I would have been back handed. Not only is Georgie completely self absorbed, but she has a stupid crush on a teenage murderous man slut. That's right girls...go find yourself a serial killer man slut and see how far you get, cause if you aren't tough like Georgie (who isn't tough at all) then you probably won't live to see the next day. This girl has been at deaths door two or three times in this book and every single time she just GAVE UP!!!! Not something that teenage girls want to read about. They want a strong heroine, someone who fights for what the want and need. Not someone who takes what they have for granted (like Georgie). It also doesn't help when the author, who I'm guessing realized that she has a weak female lead, has to put a dialogue into the story between two men saying just how "tough and cunning" Georgie really is. If you have to insert that into your book you really should go back and figure out what you did wrong. Not only did Georgie NOT come off as TOUGH or CUNNING, but I felt that the character lacked extreme depth. She was shallow, and a big fat whiner. JUST BECAUSE YOU MAKE THE GIRL OUT TO BE A BITCH DOESN'T MEAN SHE'S EFFING TOUGH, SMART, OR PARTICULARLY FUNNY.
And Collin, the murderous man slut...first of all, being a man slut should have sent red flags to Georgie, who is not a slut at all. Any girl with a half a brain knows that most eye candy can not be trusted. Duh...But apparently Georgie doesn't have half a brain, because she gets cornered by Collin, not once, but twice. And what does Collin do? He man-handles her, and what does Georgie do? She does nothing, she lets this boy put his hands all over her, because she's got a stupid crush. This is NOT ok young ladies. Even if you have a crush on a boy, if he is forcing you into a situation you do not want to be in, you better haul off and smack the shit outta that kid! Not only does Collin put his hands on Georgie, but he also leaves her to die at the hands of cannibals, and then comes skulking back later with an apology. Yea fucking right.
Onward people onward! Let's talk about the writing style of the book. What did the author do? Did she text the entire book to herself, email it to her home computer, print out the pages and then fax them to a blind publisher? WHO IN THE HELL EDITED THIS BOOK!
SUGGESTION: If your editor is less than adequate, go back through your freaking book and reread it. The grammatical errors in this book were absolutely ABYSMAL! AND THIS, IS NOT, HOW, YOU USE, COMMAS!
THE DIALOGUE: As I mentioned before, we had to have it EXPLAINED to us that Georgie is smart and cunning. I guess because we didn't see much of it in the book, we had to be told. The dialogue was force and seriously cheesey, and Georgie kept talking out loud to herself. Honestly, I thought the girl was mental, not cunning... you don't need to have a character talk to herself just for the sake of someone speaking.
There was no detail in this book. I couldn't picture anything that the author wrote about. So I went through this entire book feeling confused. Let me ask you something. If the end of the world came, and EVERYTHING (it is made clear in the book that EVERYTHING was wiped out) how in the hell do they have electricity? Generators. And what do generators need to run? Gasoline....whoops, guess we didn't think that one through now did we. Not only that, but these people are feeding off food that is pretty hard to believe. Vegetables that are grown by artificial lighting, chickens...you see where I'm going. Where do they get the water to hydrate those vegetables and chickens? And for that matter themselves? Your guess is as good as mine.
This book could have been a great book. The concept was there, the execution was terrible. My advice, go back through and fix the things you screwed up on, put a little bit more depth into this book, and then get it republished.
That is all.
Let's start with the beginning shall we?
This book is about people who live underground (The Hunger Games) who are controlled by a murderous tyrannical freak (The Hunger Games) who have survived the end of the world and the Great Famine (The Hunger Games) and have to worry about cannibalistic human beings who roam outside their little colony...One of the few things original about this book, I assure you.
Georgie got on my nerves. She came off as a self righteous brat who threw temper tantrums whenever someone didn't tell her what she wanted to hear. If I talked to my parents the way that she talked to hers...I would have been back handed. Not only is Georgie completely self absorbed, but she has a stupid crush on a teenage murderous man slut. That's right girls...go find yourself a serial killer man slut and see how far you get, cause if you aren't tough like Georgie (who isn't tough at all) then you probably won't live to see the next day. This girl has been at deaths door two or three times in this book and every single time she just GAVE UP!!!! Not something that teenage girls want to read about. They want a strong heroine, someone who fights for what the want and need. Not someone who takes what they have for granted (like Georgie). It also doesn't help when the author, who I'm guessing realized that she has a weak female lead, has to put a dialogue into the story between two men saying just how "tough and cunning" Georgie really is. If you have to insert that into your book you really should go back and figure out what you did wrong. Not only did Georgie NOT come off as TOUGH or CUNNING, but I felt that the character lacked extreme depth. She was shallow, and a big fat whiner. JUST BECAUSE YOU MAKE THE GIRL OUT TO BE A BITCH DOESN'T MEAN SHE'S EFFING TOUGH, SMART, OR PARTICULARLY FUNNY.
And Collin, the murderous man slut...first of all, being a man slut should have sent red flags to Georgie, who is not a slut at all. Any girl with a half a brain knows that most eye candy can not be trusted. Duh...But apparently Georgie doesn't have half a brain, because she gets cornered by Collin, not once, but twice. And what does Collin do? He man-handles her, and what does Georgie do? She does nothing, she lets this boy put his hands all over her, because she's got a stupid crush. This is NOT ok young ladies. Even if you have a crush on a boy, if he is forcing you into a situation you do not want to be in, you better haul off and smack the shit outta that kid! Not only does Collin put his hands on Georgie, but he also leaves her to die at the hands of cannibals, and then comes skulking back later with an apology. Yea fucking right.
Onward people onward! Let's talk about the writing style of the book. What did the author do? Did she text the entire book to herself, email it to her home computer, print out the pages and then fax them to a blind publisher? WHO IN THE HELL EDITED THIS BOOK!
SUGGESTION: If your editor is less than adequate, go back through your freaking book and reread it. The grammatical errors in this book were absolutely ABYSMAL! AND THIS, IS NOT, HOW, YOU USE, COMMAS!
THE DIALOGUE: As I mentioned before, we had to have it EXPLAINED to us that Georgie is smart and cunning. I guess because we didn't see much of it in the book, we had to be told. The dialogue was force and seriously cheesey, and Georgie kept talking out loud to herself. Honestly, I thought the girl was mental, not cunning... you don't need to have a character talk to herself just for the sake of someone speaking.
There was no detail in this book. I couldn't picture anything that the author wrote about. So I went through this entire book feeling confused. Let me ask you something. If the end of the world came, and EVERYTHING (it is made clear in the book that EVERYTHING was wiped out) how in the hell do they have electricity? Generators. And what do generators need to run? Gasoline....whoops, guess we didn't think that one through now did we. Not only that, but these people are feeding off food that is pretty hard to believe. Vegetables that are grown by artificial lighting, chickens...you see where I'm going. Where do they get the water to hydrate those vegetables and chickens? And for that matter themselves? Your guess is as good as mine.
This book could have been a great book. The concept was there, the execution was terrible. My advice, go back through and fix the things you screwed up on, put a little bit more depth into this book, and then get it republished.
That is all.
July 12, 2011
:)... Of course I like it. lol. I wrote it.
December 9, 2015
This could have been fabulous...it wasn't.
GREAT concept. So much could have been done with the storyline, but there were too many unbelievable circumstances, gaping plot holes, and even from the first paragraph it goes wrong.
Ok, so like, an asteroid is coming right? And the people have six hours to prepare. SIX HOURS. And in that SIX HOURS this girl's father manages to not only just start digging in his backyard, but in six hours he actually creates a complicated, multi-roomed underground bunker with concrete floors, an infirmary, a rec room, secret hidden compartments, a kitchen, multiple family quarters, a council meeting room - oh, and create the COUNCIL. They also have beds, clothing, school supplies, games, books, linen, food, medicine, live chickens, fresh vegetables growing, and I would assume laundry and bathing facilities, which means piped in running water. In six hours.
Also in that six hours, her father manages to invite other families to participate in the colony, form a council, and during this time, the bad guy manages to implant SENSORS (not censors) inside the heads of all the children. Without their parents knowing. In six hours.
I give the author her props for innovativeness, and this could have been an outstanding book. But the horrible editing - or complete lack thereof, plot holes you could drive a truck through (for one, how is the bad guy running his equipment???), and completely unbelievable storylines ruined it for me.
I hope the author keeps at it, because the idea of this was great. The execution was not.
GREAT concept. So much could have been done with the storyline, but there were too many unbelievable circumstances, gaping plot holes, and even from the first paragraph it goes wrong.
Ok, so like, an asteroid is coming right? And the people have six hours to prepare. SIX HOURS. And in that SIX HOURS this girl's father manages to not only just start digging in his backyard, but in six hours he actually creates a complicated, multi-roomed underground bunker with concrete floors, an infirmary, a rec room, secret hidden compartments, a kitchen, multiple family quarters, a council meeting room - oh, and create the COUNCIL. They also have beds, clothing, school supplies, games, books, linen, food, medicine, live chickens, fresh vegetables growing, and I would assume laundry and bathing facilities, which means piped in running water. In six hours.
Also in that six hours, her father manages to invite other families to participate in the colony, form a council, and during this time, the bad guy manages to implant SENSORS (not censors) inside the heads of all the children. Without their parents knowing. In six hours.
I give the author her props for innovativeness, and this could have been an outstanding book. But the horrible editing - or complete lack thereof, plot holes you could drive a truck through (for one, how is the bad guy running his equipment???), and completely unbelievable storylines ruined it for me.
I hope the author keeps at it, because the idea of this was great. The execution was not.
August 23, 2012
Review from http://indiebookclub.wordpress.com/
- - -
Plot:
An asteroid is to strike the Earth in six hours. One family, driven by a need to preserve themselves and something of humanity, build an underground cavern system and invite their friends and loved ones to share it with them. Hounded by an evil genius, they strive to survive against all the odds in a post-apocalyptic world.
Sounds good, doesn’t it? It should have been good. It’s a good idea.
It’s execution is horrific.
When an author has an idea, they should write it down. They should then map out the major events they wish to express around that idea to give it flesh, and then they should constructively dismantle it to ensure their plotline holds up. This should be done before pen is put to paper on a single line of text.
None of these steps were attempted by this author. And that is disappointing because, as you will see later, their writing style is fresh and light.
This plot rating only gets more than nothing because it has a decent premise. The nugget that the story should hang from is a good one, deserving of at least some praise and displaying a primary trait of good storytelling; the creative art of a rounded concept. But on every other level it fails completely.
I can not tell you to suspend your disbelief and things will be better. If you suspend that much disbelief, you will rightly be able to theorise you can fly, and I do not wish to held accountable for your death.
And don’t say “It’s dystopian, it’s supposed to be a bit disjointed”… This book has plot holes the asteroid is starts with could easily fit through, and there are parts of it, namely around the evil genius and his ‘plan’ that bear all the hallmarks of delusion. If this makes sense to any of you, and I am being quite serious here, take yourself to the local sanitarium, check into your new home, and ask them to throw away the key. Your time on this plane of reality is over.
Plot Rating: (1/5)
- – -
Character:
For a Young Adult Thriller, the mix of primary characters is well pitched. The main character(s) are well-rounded and are given enough depth to be freely visualised. The story evolves the characters effectively (what little of it makes sense) and the discourse and interactions are vivid and pitched correctly, enticing the reader to continue to be involved, as the events unfold.
It is therefore such a shame there are three character issues in this book that cannot be avoided, no matter how many times you attempt to blot them from your mind.
1) The father figure. He’s a genius – and I mean an ‘Einstein-could-not-lay-a-finger-on-him’ genius. He’s also Superman, Batman and the Flash, all rolled into one. I love my father too, Miss Hammond. I think your father now knows you love him also. A hug at an appropriate time may have been sufficient. You did not need to show your affection by ruining your story.
2) The evil genius. He’s not evil, he’s nowhere near the genius of the father, and he’s a mind-reader (literally, in some cases). He can also predict the future, can work at the speed of light and does not require power for any of his equipment. He’s not even remotely scary, and most of the time you wish he’d leave the story (what little of it remains if he is removed) alone.
3) Our lead character’s love interest, for a Teen Thriller, is so wrong I cannot even begin to tell you. After thinking about this for a while, tempering my thoughts against point 1, I have but one conclusion: you have severe father/abandonment issues Miss Hammond. They need to be overcome. Seek counselling.
I want to give this more stars because some of the characters are clear, defined, engaging and well drawn. Re-write the book with the family (changing what the father can do in six hours – or whenever he is asked – to something more realistic, and get rid of the murderous, sexual-predator boyfriend thing that’s going on) and you are on to something. Until then, expect that the rating falls because of the issues listed above (and many minor others).
Character Rating: (2.5/5)
- – -
Style:
I am annoyed by how good the writing style is.
It’s descriptive, free-flowing and peaks expertly at key moments in the story (or what the author perceived would be key, if their story held together at all).
It is the major redeeming factor of this novel.
But that’s if you can ignore, (and I read hundreds of submissions a month, so I know how bad literary standards have become in the UK), the quite ridiculous use of punctuation found therein.
Who edited this book for you? Was it someone who didn’t like you?
Just for curiosity’s sake, I scanned the book and ran it through Word (that’s right, Microsoft useless-piece-of-junk Word), turned on Grammar and Style check (I’m assuming you know how to do this?) and was stunned to find 813 grammar errors, 84 spell-check warnings and 1486 style warnings. Just to be sure, I checked my scan against the original, on pages that were really bad. It was the same.
Before you publish anything else, please, just for your own sake, run it through a word processor that didn’t come free with PC Pro magazine in 1989. Or get someone to read it. Potentially someone who won’t hurt your feelings if they point out your comma to full-stop ratio is 3.4:1. That’s right. Your average sentence has just over three commas in it.
Please try again. There is ability here. But it is being buried under things that are easy to fix.
Style Rating: (2/5)
- – -
Impact:
There should be a lot. The scenery and images are dramatic. The backdrop is one that should pull the heart-strings and stir the imagination.
I could see neither because of the plot.
It was almost a relief when bad things happened, because I knew those involved would not be involved much longer.
I’m desperately trying to find anything to say that doesn’t come back to your plotline.
I can’t.
Please sort the plot out. You have a very well crafted, teenage angst character in here, who is as frustrated to be in this mess, as I am in reading it.
Impact Rating: (0.5/5)
- – -
Readability:
The readability score of the parts that make sense, have good grammar, with well placed language and story, is exceedingly high (4.5/5).
The rest of the book, a good 80% thereof, is painful.
I do not have the energy remaining in me to further describe the dichotomy of this novel.
I am sorry.
Readability Rating: (1.5/5)
- – -
Overall Rating
(1.5/5)
What a waste of a good idea. Save for a few memorable character exchanges, this book is only good as a warning - stapled to the screen of every Indie author out there. It should be kept for all time, as an example of what happens if you rush a book to print as soon as the last line is written, ignoring the red, blue, and green squiggly lines under said text in Word - whilst simultaneously excluding all review efforts on your absurd plot, psycho characters and not-so-evil dumbass-genius bad-guy next-part-to-come-later thing.
- - -
Paul Anderson / 2012
http://indiebookclub.wordpress.com/
- - -
Plot:
An asteroid is to strike the Earth in six hours. One family, driven by a need to preserve themselves and something of humanity, build an underground cavern system and invite their friends and loved ones to share it with them. Hounded by an evil genius, they strive to survive against all the odds in a post-apocalyptic world.
Sounds good, doesn’t it? It should have been good. It’s a good idea.
It’s execution is horrific.
When an author has an idea, they should write it down. They should then map out the major events they wish to express around that idea to give it flesh, and then they should constructively dismantle it to ensure their plotline holds up. This should be done before pen is put to paper on a single line of text.
None of these steps were attempted by this author. And that is disappointing because, as you will see later, their writing style is fresh and light.
This plot rating only gets more than nothing because it has a decent premise. The nugget that the story should hang from is a good one, deserving of at least some praise and displaying a primary trait of good storytelling; the creative art of a rounded concept. But on every other level it fails completely.
I can not tell you to suspend your disbelief and things will be better. If you suspend that much disbelief, you will rightly be able to theorise you can fly, and I do not wish to held accountable for your death.
And don’t say “It’s dystopian, it’s supposed to be a bit disjointed”… This book has plot holes the asteroid is starts with could easily fit through, and there are parts of it, namely around the evil genius and his ‘plan’ that bear all the hallmarks of delusion. If this makes sense to any of you, and I am being quite serious here, take yourself to the local sanitarium, check into your new home, and ask them to throw away the key. Your time on this plane of reality is over.
Plot Rating: (1/5)
- – -
Character:
For a Young Adult Thriller, the mix of primary characters is well pitched. The main character(s) are well-rounded and are given enough depth to be freely visualised. The story evolves the characters effectively (what little of it makes sense) and the discourse and interactions are vivid and pitched correctly, enticing the reader to continue to be involved, as the events unfold.
It is therefore such a shame there are three character issues in this book that cannot be avoided, no matter how many times you attempt to blot them from your mind.
1) The father figure. He’s a genius – and I mean an ‘Einstein-could-not-lay-a-finger-on-him’ genius. He’s also Superman, Batman and the Flash, all rolled into one. I love my father too, Miss Hammond. I think your father now knows you love him also. A hug at an appropriate time may have been sufficient. You did not need to show your affection by ruining your story.
2) The evil genius. He’s not evil, he’s nowhere near the genius of the father, and he’s a mind-reader (literally, in some cases). He can also predict the future, can work at the speed of light and does not require power for any of his equipment. He’s not even remotely scary, and most of the time you wish he’d leave the story (what little of it remains if he is removed) alone.
3) Our lead character’s love interest, for a Teen Thriller, is so wrong I cannot even begin to tell you. After thinking about this for a while, tempering my thoughts against point 1, I have but one conclusion: you have severe father/abandonment issues Miss Hammond. They need to be overcome. Seek counselling.
I want to give this more stars because some of the characters are clear, defined, engaging and well drawn. Re-write the book with the family (changing what the father can do in six hours – or whenever he is asked – to something more realistic, and get rid of the murderous, sexual-predator boyfriend thing that’s going on) and you are on to something. Until then, expect that the rating falls because of the issues listed above (and many minor others).
Character Rating: (2.5/5)
- – -
Style:
I am annoyed by how good the writing style is.
It’s descriptive, free-flowing and peaks expertly at key moments in the story (or what the author perceived would be key, if their story held together at all).
It is the major redeeming factor of this novel.
But that’s if you can ignore, (and I read hundreds of submissions a month, so I know how bad literary standards have become in the UK), the quite ridiculous use of punctuation found therein.
Who edited this book for you? Was it someone who didn’t like you?
Just for curiosity’s sake, I scanned the book and ran it through Word (that’s right, Microsoft useless-piece-of-junk Word), turned on Grammar and Style check (I’m assuming you know how to do this?) and was stunned to find 813 grammar errors, 84 spell-check warnings and 1486 style warnings. Just to be sure, I checked my scan against the original, on pages that were really bad. It was the same.
Before you publish anything else, please, just for your own sake, run it through a word processor that didn’t come free with PC Pro magazine in 1989. Or get someone to read it. Potentially someone who won’t hurt your feelings if they point out your comma to full-stop ratio is 3.4:1. That’s right. Your average sentence has just over three commas in it.
Please try again. There is ability here. But it is being buried under things that are easy to fix.
Style Rating: (2/5)
- – -
Impact:
There should be a lot. The scenery and images are dramatic. The backdrop is one that should pull the heart-strings and stir the imagination.
I could see neither because of the plot.
It was almost a relief when bad things happened, because I knew those involved would not be involved much longer.
I’m desperately trying to find anything to say that doesn’t come back to your plotline.
I can’t.
Please sort the plot out. You have a very well crafted, teenage angst character in here, who is as frustrated to be in this mess, as I am in reading it.
Impact Rating: (0.5/5)
- – -
Readability:
The readability score of the parts that make sense, have good grammar, with well placed language and story, is exceedingly high (4.5/5).
The rest of the book, a good 80% thereof, is painful.
I do not have the energy remaining in me to further describe the dichotomy of this novel.
I am sorry.
Readability Rating: (1.5/5)
- – -
Overall Rating
(1.5/5)
What a waste of a good idea. Save for a few memorable character exchanges, this book is only good as a warning - stapled to the screen of every Indie author out there. It should be kept for all time, as an example of what happens if you rush a book to print as soon as the last line is written, ignoring the red, blue, and green squiggly lines under said text in Word - whilst simultaneously excluding all review efforts on your absurd plot, psycho characters and not-so-evil dumbass-genius bad-guy next-part-to-come-later thing.
- - -
Paul Anderson / 2012
http://indiebookclub.wordpress.com/
August 1, 2015
This was worse than stupid. Horrible writing, horrible plot, horrible world development, horrible character development, horrible characters, horrible, horrible, and did I mention horrible? This book offends the word horrible!!!!
This book:
I don't know what the author was trying to do. This book lacks all essentials of good quality. It was like the author grabbed a big bowl and poured the following:
End of the world theme
Apocalyptic genre
Cannibals
Hot guy
Secret guy
Family
Secret technology
Tyrant
Underground society
All of these were mixed together, thrown in the oven and came out deflated.
The author just tried too hard. Characters whined when there was no need. Crying out for your mom is not the kind of person you would want to follow.
I just cannot believe I pick this book up. I did, though, skim the last half of the book.
After reading this I just wanted to take a step back and laugh at how horribly horrible this book was. Am I using horrible to much? Well I have no other word to use at the moment for this book made me brain dead....
September 27, 2011
If I could I'd give this book no stars. There were so many grammatical and spelling errors it was difficult to slog through it. The main character was whiny, shallow, and seemed to have no common sense whatsoever. The plot made no sense and the science in the book (um what science) did not jive. If a large asteroid were to hit the earth you would not get HEAT you would get a COLD desert...come on...think about the dinosaurs for a moment and go back to the drawing board. I will not be buying anything by this author again. A truly terrible read. I don't really understand how it got so many high starred reviews.
August 10, 2013
I wanted to enjoy this book. I really did. I try to be objective when reading young adult because it is fiction written for a younger audience. However, I have read so many good young adult post-apocalyptic/dystopian novels and this one fell flat.
I don't want to give any spoilers so I'll keep this general. The editing really needed some work. Granted, I only paid $3.99 for this book, but there were places where I had to read the sentence several times because words were omitted and I had to piece together what should have been there.
There were gaping holes in some of the logic of the story. I have read several stories about society going underground, but they built an entire underground tunnel system in just two years and there was no mention of them working on it? Georgie's father just dug a six foot hole when the asteroid was about to hit in a few hours? And how did they run into the other families? Why did the ceiling not fall in on them? How did they get a table down there when the hole was just big enough to be hidden by a boulder?
I felt no connection to the love interests. There are no redeeming qualities to Colin - NONE.
Owen's background story doesn't seem believable.
When you get to a pivotal part of the story, ask yourself: "Electricity? There is no electricity. How is this possible?"
There are so many other holes and things that don't make sense but I don't want to spoil it
for anyone. You'll understand if you read it.
I don't want to give any spoilers so I'll keep this general. The editing really needed some work. Granted, I only paid $3.99 for this book, but there were places where I had to read the sentence several times because words were omitted and I had to piece together what should have been there.
There were gaping holes in some of the logic of the story. I have read several stories about society going underground, but they built an entire underground tunnel system in just two years and there was no mention of them working on it? Georgie's father just dug a six foot hole when the asteroid was about to hit in a few hours? And how did they run into the other families? Why did the ceiling not fall in on them? How did they get a table down there when the hole was just big enough to be hidden by a boulder?
I felt no connection to the love interests. There are no redeeming qualities to Colin - NONE.
Owen's background story doesn't seem believable.
When you get to a pivotal part of the story, ask yourself: "Electricity? There is no electricity. How is this possible?"
There are so many other holes and things that don't make sense but I don't want to spoil it
for anyone. You'll understand if you read it.
November 11, 2011
This book got me by the throat! I loved reading it and felt like it was something I could definitely see happening.
What I liked most about this book is the element of a society created after the world has fallen with a evil man bent out on control. I love how the society established rules but also a lottery. Yeah, that really grabbed me right there. I loved that there is excitement, action, and lots of drama.
The love that the plot follows the conspiracy of the society and what has happen to earth. The rules that plague on the community as well as what they believe in had me reading faster and faster. I really like that as I read this book I felt the urgency of the people to find other solutions fast.
The love interest of the this book is not one too develop but just starting. I like that while it is just starting, it gives the reader hope for the next book in what may progress in their relationship.
Famished is a great novel of humans yearning for survival. A community where elders chooses who goes out next. The plot keeps moving and diving into more secrets deeper and deeper. Famished will leave you hungry for more.
What I liked most about this book is the element of a society created after the world has fallen with a evil man bent out on control. I love how the society established rules but also a lottery. Yeah, that really grabbed me right there. I loved that there is excitement, action, and lots of drama.
The love that the plot follows the conspiracy of the society and what has happen to earth. The rules that plague on the community as well as what they believe in had me reading faster and faster. I really like that as I read this book I felt the urgency of the people to find other solutions fast.
The love interest of the this book is not one too develop but just starting. I like that while it is just starting, it gives the reader hope for the next book in what may progress in their relationship.
Famished is a great novel of humans yearning for survival. A community where elders chooses who goes out next. The plot keeps moving and diving into more secrets deeper and deeper. Famished will leave you hungry for more.
January 26, 2018
I found this really boring with hardly any highlights in the storyline. Everything was very clishée and predictable.
I expected more from the story and the world but also the world-building was very lame.
I expected more from the story and the world but also the world-building was very lame.
August 2, 2012
Georgina Carver is one of the lucky few who have survived the Asteroid as well as The Great Famine. She lives relatively safely in an underground colony with her family and other survivors. When supplies supposedly dwindles underground, Georgina along with a boy named Colin must face the destruction above in order to help their colony. When a group of cannibals attack, Georgina thinks all hope is lost. Somehow, though, she lives through it. With her memory gone and no recollection of the events that took place, will Georgina be able to figure out what happened? And who is the boy with violet eyes that she saw before everything went black?
This book did not live up to my expectations. I think it could've been great. The idea of it is pretty awesome, but I couldn't get into the world of Georgina Carver. The situations were completely improbable and too coincidental. Nothing was believable. How does "the villain" run his room of computers? How did every single kid get a sensor in their head without a single person knowing? How did no one find out about Owen for two years? How on earth did Mr. Carver build that entire underground colony- supplies, power, food, and all- in six hours? blah.
Most of the characters were okay, but the two most important characters- Georgina and Owen- got on my nerves. A lot.
"I will come back for you, I promise.
Yours,
Owen"
WHAT?? You just met her, Owen. What are you talking about? You've spent not even a few hours together. Why would you come back, risking your life in a world of insanity and cannibals above, for the complete stranger girl? tsk, tsk, tsk.
Basically, the book was okay. I liked it at times; even got into it for a few pages, but it just kept getting ruined with unbelievable situations.
March 30, 2020
This book was a wonderful idea, and would have made a pretty good short story. For a full length book though, it was poorly executed. Georgina is a girl who has survived the end of the world by astroid with her family. They make it underground and eventually team up with other survivers. So that is all great. The problems: With only a few hours before impact her father was able to dig enough of a hole to preserve her family? She could see the pockmarks on the asteroid as it flew overhead, but she was okay? I was able to ignore that, but the idea that somehow a few families could join together underground? How did they dig toward each other? And how is it all the families are about the same age, with children the same age? All with useful skills? And how is it that she has to dig for batteries but the compound has electricity? And water? and an elevator...but really I could ignore all of that but the characters were pretty unbelievable. Show, don't tell. Don't tell me Georgina is a really tough girl and then have her never do anything to demonstrate that point. And since when is disobeying your parents cool when an entire community's survival is at stake? And first she likes one boy who all evidence suggests is a total tool. She only stops liking him when he leaves her do die. Really. That was your first clue of something seriously off with this guy? And the sight of one boys eyes are enough to make her fall for him? How did the corrupt official manage to get computer chips anyway? And if he's always known there was a place supposedly untouched by the asteroid, why didn't he head toward it already? The opening paragraph I was so excited. I should have stopped there.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 9, 2011
The world of FAMISHED is eerie and frightening. The thought of living underground, scared to breach outside dirt walls, creeps me out in so many ways. Georigie’s life in the colony is harsh, but it’s marginally better than living above her guarded city. At least she eats and has friends and family. Those that survived the apocalypse have been turned into desperate creatures seeking food. Cannibals driven mad by starvation. It paints a haunting picture of what our world might look like after a catastrophe of this magnitude.
Georgie’s a smart girl, but like so many of us when we’re young, she falls for a real jerk. Collin, oh man, there’s so many things I want to say about this guy, but I don’t want to give anything away. I wanted her to smack him on so many occasions, and I’m glad she did stand up for herself. He’s cruel and more than that, abusive. So when another character—who’s part of a big twist—comes along, I was relieved. I definitely want to know more about him.
The whole book I read in two hours. It’s average length, I just couldn’t stop reading. It’s one of those books I didn’t realize I was taking down so quickly, the action had my flipping pages and inhaling it. The end wraps up the questions of the story, but it also leaves it open for book two. I have to know what’s going to happen to these characters now. With Collin and Owen both working with Georgie, it should be interesting. A great, action-packed read with intense scenes and characters, FAMISHED is a must for Dystopian lovers.
Georgie’s a smart girl, but like so many of us when we’re young, she falls for a real jerk. Collin, oh man, there’s so many things I want to say about this guy, but I don’t want to give anything away. I wanted her to smack him on so many occasions, and I’m glad she did stand up for herself. He’s cruel and more than that, abusive. So when another character—who’s part of a big twist—comes along, I was relieved. I definitely want to know more about him.
The whole book I read in two hours. It’s average length, I just couldn’t stop reading. It’s one of those books I didn’t realize I was taking down so quickly, the action had my flipping pages and inhaling it. The end wraps up the questions of the story, but it also leaves it open for book two. I have to know what’s going to happen to these characters now. With Collin and Owen both working with Georgie, it should be interesting. A great, action-packed read with intense scenes and characters, FAMISHED is a must for Dystopian lovers.
July 20, 2014
The premise of this novel looked inviting: an asteroid smashes into the earth. What it turned out to be was AWFUL! My complaints:
1. The heroine was named Georgina.
2. As the asteroid screeches overhead, Georgie's dad takes a shovel and starts to dig a shelter which saves 15 families.
3. Spelling errors.
4. Lack of punctuation.
5. Homonym problems - The rope was taught. How well did it learn, I wonder?
6. I lied in bed. Did she lie anywhere else or was she truthful in other locales?
7. The head of the council put a censor in her head? It didn't stop her from using words beginning with F.
8. Word choice - as she is moving across the room, someone backhands her across the face. That sounds pretty violent but she just moves by.
9. Her sister is 14 to her 16 or 17 yet she takes her by the hand to lead her to safety. Frankie behaves more like a 7 year old.
10. Unbelievable events - the head of the council puts computer chips in the heads of all the kids without anyone knowing. Georgie comes back to the colony with a head wound and is paralyzed but the doctor never mentions or checks her paralysis. The head of the council has a computer room monitoring the colony and no one knows. The head of the council wants to get rid of Georgie because of a food shortage. Georgie's dad sits and cries during dinner because his wife yelled at him.
I have many more complaints because this seemed like a rough draft of a middle school attempt at writing a narrative.
1. The heroine was named Georgina.
2. As the asteroid screeches overhead, Georgie's dad takes a shovel and starts to dig a shelter which saves 15 families.
3. Spelling errors.
4. Lack of punctuation.
5. Homonym problems - The rope was taught. How well did it learn, I wonder?
6. I lied in bed. Did she lie anywhere else or was she truthful in other locales?
7. The head of the council put a censor in her head? It didn't stop her from using words beginning with F.
8. Word choice - as she is moving across the room, someone backhands her across the face. That sounds pretty violent but she just moves by.
9. Her sister is 14 to her 16 or 17 yet she takes her by the hand to lead her to safety. Frankie behaves more like a 7 year old.
10. Unbelievable events - the head of the council puts computer chips in the heads of all the kids without anyone knowing. Georgie comes back to the colony with a head wound and is paralyzed but the doctor never mentions or checks her paralysis. The head of the council has a computer room monitoring the colony and no one knows. The head of the council wants to get rid of Georgie because of a food shortage. Georgie's dad sits and cries during dinner because his wife yelled at him.
I have many more complaints because this seemed like a rough draft of a middle school attempt at writing a narrative.
January 29, 2013
I am on page 32. Never in my life have I ever hated a book so much after the first two chapters. The characters are terribly unrealistic, Georgina narrates the story like a ten year old girl would, and the adults talk like their talking to babies. Aside from the terrible characters, the grammar and spelling is terrible. There are areas where words are missing, words are clumped together, or just plain spelled wrong. There are commas in places they shouldn't be and no commas in places a comma belongs. There are spacing issues: too many spaces/no space after a period, and a lack of quotation marks in some places. I doubt the plot is going to be anything more than mediocre, but as I'm 32 pages in, I don't know for sure. This is by far one of the worst starts to a book that I have ever read. I see why Lauren Hammond had to get this published through a small, unknown publishing company (heck, it may be her OWN publishing company because it says in her bio that she's a publisher), because no major publishing company in their right mind would accept this. I'm normally VERY lenient when it comes to rating books, I normally give four or five stars, but this is really terrible. The writing is exactly how I wrote in elementary school; I'm in High School now and could definitely write better than Lauren Hammond.
February 9, 2012
I really tried to give this book a chance, but I had to abandon it about 1/3 of the way through. I seriously don't know how this book has the rating that it does. I don't know if it's because I got it dirt cheap from the Kindle store, but as others have mentioned, it was riddled with grammatical errors. Was this edited by a freaking chimpanzee?
Maybe it's just my personal preference, but I really disliked the author's style of writing. While the premise seemed like something I'd enjoy, I just couldn't get into it. Besides the grammatical errors and the overly contrived word structure, the characters themselves just bugged me. It was impossible for me to empathize with the main character, whom I thought was much too shallow. Add these things up, and they just detracted too much from the book. It's a shame because these sorts of post-apocalyptic/dystopians are usually right up my alley, but this one just didn't cut it for me.
Maybe it's just my personal preference, but I really disliked the author's style of writing. While the premise seemed like something I'd enjoy, I just couldn't get into it. Besides the grammatical errors and the overly contrived word structure, the characters themselves just bugged me. It was impossible for me to empathize with the main character, whom I thought was much too shallow. Add these things up, and they just detracted too much from the book. It's a shame because these sorts of post-apocalyptic/dystopians are usually right up my alley, but this one just didn't cut it for me.
April 17, 2012
Umm one of the worst YA dystopias I've read! The concept of the story (asteroid demolished earth, people live underground) was put forth but no world building behind it at all. The characters were flat and one dimensional. Umm the "lottery" made absolutely no sense either. What is this, a wanna-be Hunger Games?
Like really, why not ask for volunteers first? And why throw the kids out with NO GUIDANCE at all? It'd be logical to have an adult expedition trip and have the kids tag along to learn. It was all these irrational plotlines that drove me nuts because it went against complete common sense.
It's not until the end that we discover the true reasoning of all these random shenanigans that no one (except for Georgina's Mom) opposed. Major fail!
Like really, why not ask for volunteers first? And why throw the kids out with NO GUIDANCE at all? It'd be logical to have an adult expedition trip and have the kids tag along to learn. It was all these irrational plotlines that drove me nuts because it went against complete common sense.
It's not until the end that we discover the true reasoning of all these random shenanigans that no one (except for Georgina's Mom) opposed. Major fail!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 17, 2012
Famished?
Why, yes I am!
I tore through this book with a ravenous intensity.
Although many other reviewers who came before me had no appetite for the book I loved it!
Maybe a few were a little to full of themselves?
Haha! It's a joke!
Seriously!
Please use caution when reading this book and be advised that it is extremely flawed.
Don't expect perfection.
The author meant well and it was a wonderful idea.
Regardless this book is a beautiful disaster and I'm already hungry for more.
Seconds, please!
Why, yes I am!
I tore through this book with a ravenous intensity.
Although many other reviewers who came before me had no appetite for the book I loved it!
Maybe a few were a little to full of themselves?
Haha! It's a joke!
Seriously!
Please use caution when reading this book and be advised that it is extremely flawed.
Don't expect perfection.
The author meant well and it was a wonderful idea.
Regardless this book is a beautiful disaster and I'm already hungry for more.
Seconds, please!
September 6, 2016
The premise of the book was great and I was really looking forward to it... But as time went on... I was highly disappointed. There was practically no world building and the characters were all one dimensional. Not to mention the consistent grammatical errors. I expected much, much more from this storyline. .. And now I'm running on empty. One star ⭐
October 13, 2011
The outside world of Famished was completely creepy, where Cannibals and decayed ones roam. I like creepy, especially with post-apocalyptic novels. The author provided a lot of twists and turns that kept me reading, and now... I can't wait to see what happens in the next.
September 20, 2011
A creeptastic cocktail of originality and suspense!
December 10, 2017
The author rating her own book with 5 stars should have been my first clue..
I love YA apocalyptic/post apocalyptic books, so I had high hopes for this one, but it was so, so bad. The horrible spelling and grammar alone were enough to put me off (*SENSOR!!), but sadly it didn't stop there. The gaps in the story, the unexplained jumps, the clumsily written passages just made this entire book cringe-worthy.
I love YA apocalyptic/post apocalyptic books, so I had high hopes for this one, but it was so, so bad. The horrible spelling and grammar alone were enough to put me off (*SENSOR!!), but sadly it didn't stop there. The gaps in the story, the unexplained jumps, the clumsily written passages just made this entire book cringe-worthy.
July 31, 2019
It starts slowly. A little bit too slowly for my taste. But, just when I am about to give up on this book, something happened that captured my interest. Then something else. Before I knew it, I was fascinated and could not put it down.
July 27, 2018
Wtf kind of ending was that?!
June 20, 2019
A very quick read. Ending was a cliff hanger leaving options for more books, but enjoyed it a lot.
May 14, 2022
This was meh, it had so much potential but fell real flat. Just had some elements that didn't make sense for the setting. Just meh
January 1, 2016
Honestly, I don't even know where to begin with the problems in this book. Maybe the fact that all the characters were shallow idiots that had the maturity of high schoolers, maybe it was awful predictable plot, maybe it was the lack of imagination that went into the names, or maybe it was how similar the idea was to The Hunger Games. The list goes on and on.
The book begins with the introduction to Georgie who has a flashback about the astroid that caused them to live underground. They only had a few hours before it hit, and apparently her father made a full blown shelter that fit a bunch of families in it within a few hours stocked with food, supplies, and apartments for each family. How did this happen? Not a clue. This is just one of the many issues weighing this book.
I couldn't stand Georgie or any of her family for a that matter. She was just a brat that felt that everything should be handed to her and that life should never be hard. She was shallow and painful to read about. Whenever she's facing death, she just gives up thinking, "Oh well, I guess this is how it ends." She gets pinned down by a cannibal (another crazy idea that made no sense) and just gives up without even thinking about fighting. She's supposed to be someone who's a strong female lead, but all she does is whine and complain about how life isn't fair and how she wants some boy who's an absolute tool. The author even has the character thinking about how she's so much smarter and cunning than the guy she likes, and later she thinks he's dead when he's pretending. He was holding his breath and she didn't think to check for a pulse? That's REAL SMART.
Then there's Collin who flirts with everything with a heartbeat like he's the quarterback of a football team. He can't take anything seriously. Except of course for the fact that he was apart of a conspiracy that led to the murder of a girl which he was okay with. He fills Georgie's head with empty promises and of course, she believes him. So when he says he'll protect her from the cannibals, she feels oh so betrayed when she's pinned down and he's sprinting to the shelter. Then the next day, he flirting with another girl.
There's also Mr. Baker who's an idiotic dictator that thinks killing off two people will make such a difference in the food supplies. Then while he's rigging the lottery, he thinks that standing in the middle of a hallway with his conspirators in the middle of the night talking about it quite openly is the best idea. I don't know what's worse, the character or the author for not thinking that if he's that stupid, how stupid are the rest of the people in the shelter?
Other than the characters, there were also major plot issues. The reason that the shelter had a lottery was so that two people could go out and get supplies for the shelter because there weren't any gatherers. It was one male and one female teen. (Sounds like THG?) Of course, anybody could predict that the two that were "randomly" drawn were... SURPRISE! Georgie and Collin. What I honestly don't understand is that if there were no gatherers, why weren't any brave men or women there willing to volunteer? Was everybody really that cowardly?
The dialogue wasn't any better. It was shallow and the author felt the need to spell everything out like this,
“So it’s done, then,” Mr. Martin stated. “Do you want me to handle rigging the names or do you want to do it this time?”
Mr. Baker straightened himself out. “I’ll do it this time. There is a secret doorway in my room. It’s covered by an old rug. Place the box in there and I’ll configure everything sometime tomorrow.”
Seriously? You have to stand in the middle of a hallway and just lay out the plans like nobody will hear? There was so much telling an not enough showing through details, surroundings, and mood. In the end, it was just a badly executed idea. I think with the right author and editor, this idea might've gone somewhere.
The book begins with the introduction to Georgie who has a flashback about the astroid that caused them to live underground. They only had a few hours before it hit, and apparently her father made a full blown shelter that fit a bunch of families in it within a few hours stocked with food, supplies, and apartments for each family. How did this happen? Not a clue. This is just one of the many issues weighing this book.
I couldn't stand Georgie or any of her family for a that matter. She was just a brat that felt that everything should be handed to her and that life should never be hard. She was shallow and painful to read about. Whenever she's facing death, she just gives up thinking, "Oh well, I guess this is how it ends." She gets pinned down by a cannibal (another crazy idea that made no sense) and just gives up without even thinking about fighting. She's supposed to be someone who's a strong female lead, but all she does is whine and complain about how life isn't fair and how she wants some boy who's an absolute tool. The author even has the character thinking about how she's so much smarter and cunning than the guy she likes, and later she thinks he's dead when he's pretending. He was holding his breath and she didn't think to check for a pulse? That's REAL SMART.
Then there's Collin who flirts with everything with a heartbeat like he's the quarterback of a football team. He can't take anything seriously. Except of course for the fact that he was apart of a conspiracy that led to the murder of a girl which he was okay with. He fills Georgie's head with empty promises and of course, she believes him. So when he says he'll protect her from the cannibals, she feels oh so betrayed when she's pinned down and he's sprinting to the shelter. Then the next day, he flirting with another girl.
There's also Mr. Baker who's an idiotic dictator that thinks killing off two people will make such a difference in the food supplies. Then while he's rigging the lottery, he thinks that standing in the middle of a hallway with his conspirators in the middle of the night talking about it quite openly is the best idea. I don't know what's worse, the character or the author for not thinking that if he's that stupid, how stupid are the rest of the people in the shelter?
Other than the characters, there were also major plot issues. The reason that the shelter had a lottery was so that two people could go out and get supplies for the shelter because there weren't any gatherers. It was one male and one female teen. (Sounds like THG?) Of course, anybody could predict that the two that were "randomly" drawn were... SURPRISE! Georgie and Collin. What I honestly don't understand is that if there were no gatherers, why weren't any brave men or women there willing to volunteer? Was everybody really that cowardly?
The dialogue wasn't any better. It was shallow and the author felt the need to spell everything out like this,
“So it’s done, then,” Mr. Martin stated. “Do you want me to handle rigging the names or do you want to do it this time?”
Mr. Baker straightened himself out. “I’ll do it this time. There is a secret doorway in my room. It’s covered by an old rug. Place the box in there and I’ll configure everything sometime tomorrow.”
Seriously? You have to stand in the middle of a hallway and just lay out the plans like nobody will hear? There was so much telling an not enough showing through details, surroundings, and mood. In the end, it was just a badly executed idea. I think with the right author and editor, this idea might've gone somewhere.
January 9, 2012
amished is one of those books that I alternated between really liking and not being so sure about it. I had it read in one afternoon, and while I had some problems with it I'm still thinking about it hours later wondering about the fate of the heroine. :)
Famished was one of the more grittier YA Dystopian books I've read. The world that 17 year old Georgiana Carver knew is no more. An asteroid came and ruined everything. After the asteroid came and it was obvious that things were only going to get worse, Georgie's dad started building an underground shelter for them. Eventually 14 other families came to live with them and helped create an underground society. It is told in first person, and through Georgie's eyes we get to see the new world that was created. She is tired of being underground, but at the same time is frightened to go outside because of the tales she has heard about the cannibals that came to be after food starting running scarce. I loved her descriptions of the world and felt like I was there with her. I really liked that her parents were around and that she had a nosy little sister to deal with.
The world Georgie discovers isn't the world she was used to. She knew it would be different, but wasn't prepared for it. I have to admit, that while I really liked Georgie, she drove me a little nuts once she was outside. She just complained a lot about everything from being chosen to about being worried about not finding her way back home. She eventually toughens up though, and realizes that whether she likes it or not, she has to do what she was sent out to do-find the items on the list. After finally remembering where the hiding spot to her colony was, she gets into trouble & is chased by cannibals. For me, this is where the book really started getting good, but at the same time lost me a bit. The cannibals were just hard for me to get into. Even though their circumstances were described as to why they were such a formidable enemy, I had a hard time being afraid of them.
Aside from the cannibals though, I really enjoyed the mystery that Georgie unravels when she returns home from gathering. There is a plot underfoot, romance to be had, and bad guys to go after. The ending caught me by surprise because I wasn't ready for the book to be over with yet. I kept expecting there to be more..which leads me to believe that this might become a series.
Also found on my blog A Buckeye Girl Reads
Famished was one of the more grittier YA Dystopian books I've read. The world that 17 year old Georgiana Carver knew is no more. An asteroid came and ruined everything. After the asteroid came and it was obvious that things were only going to get worse, Georgie's dad started building an underground shelter for them. Eventually 14 other families came to live with them and helped create an underground society. It is told in first person, and through Georgie's eyes we get to see the new world that was created. She is tired of being underground, but at the same time is frightened to go outside because of the tales she has heard about the cannibals that came to be after food starting running scarce. I loved her descriptions of the world and felt like I was there with her. I really liked that her parents were around and that she had a nosy little sister to deal with.
The world Georgie discovers isn't the world she was used to. She knew it would be different, but wasn't prepared for it. I have to admit, that while I really liked Georgie, she drove me a little nuts once she was outside. She just complained a lot about everything from being chosen to about being worried about not finding her way back home. She eventually toughens up though, and realizes that whether she likes it or not, she has to do what she was sent out to do-find the items on the list. After finally remembering where the hiding spot to her colony was, she gets into trouble & is chased by cannibals. For me, this is where the book really started getting good, but at the same time lost me a bit. The cannibals were just hard for me to get into. Even though their circumstances were described as to why they were such a formidable enemy, I had a hard time being afraid of them.
Aside from the cannibals though, I really enjoyed the mystery that Georgie unravels when she returns home from gathering. There is a plot underfoot, romance to be had, and bad guys to go after. The ending caught me by surprise because I wasn't ready for the book to be over with yet. I kept expecting there to be more..which leads me to believe that this might become a series.
Also found on my blog A Buckeye Girl Reads
September 12, 2011
From my blog: (\__/)nymfaux
I want to mention that I’m still a little hesitant when it comes to dystopian/post-apocalyptic books, which is why Lauren Hammond’s new release Famished was such a pleasant surprise when I picked it up!
Famished begins on the brink of the world collapsing as an asteroid rushes toward Earth on a collision course. While most people are running around crazy, Georgina Carver’s parents are preparing to survive what is imminently looking more and more like the end of the world. And thanks to her parents’ quick thinking and level-mindedness, the Carvers do survive the asteroid’s devastation. The Carvers band together with a handful of other survivors to create an underground compound, protecting them from the wasteland above. But the colonies residents are not the only survivors, outside the compound cannibals and the decayed ones still linger. While rations dwindle within the colony, The Great Famine looms without. Soon there is no choice but to send gatherers into the devastation of the outside world in order to replenish the colony’s provisions. But when she is chosen as a gatherer, Georgina Carver can’t help but wonder if she survived the apocalypse only to be lost to the desolation outside.
All my hesitation vanished once I opened the first page, and was instantly replaced with intrigue and curiosity. As much as Lauren Hammond’s Famished was dystopian and post-apocalyptic, it was also a bit of detective novel. Georgina Carver soon realizes her safe, idyllic compound life may not be all it seems, and she sets out to discover the truth for herself, sleuthing and asking questions. Georgie was spunky, quick-witted, and determined—but she was also human. I loved Georgie for her flaws as much as her strengths—especially the way she has a crush on a bad-boy, Colin, but has enough sense to see through his ploy to win her affections. It’s so easy to like someone, not so easy to walk away from temptation…Georgina is conflicted, but when she senses something isn’t on the up-and-up, she goes with her gut.
Lauren Hammond really knows how to tell a great story! Famished was fresh and unique, keeping me on my toes until the very end—and hungry for more!!!
(ARC provided by author for fair and honest review. These are my own, unbiased opinions.)
I want to mention that I’m still a little hesitant when it comes to dystopian/post-apocalyptic books, which is why Lauren Hammond’s new release Famished was such a pleasant surprise when I picked it up!
Famished begins on the brink of the world collapsing as an asteroid rushes toward Earth on a collision course. While most people are running around crazy, Georgina Carver’s parents are preparing to survive what is imminently looking more and more like the end of the world. And thanks to her parents’ quick thinking and level-mindedness, the Carvers do survive the asteroid’s devastation. The Carvers band together with a handful of other survivors to create an underground compound, protecting them from the wasteland above. But the colonies residents are not the only survivors, outside the compound cannibals and the decayed ones still linger. While rations dwindle within the colony, The Great Famine looms without. Soon there is no choice but to send gatherers into the devastation of the outside world in order to replenish the colony’s provisions. But when she is chosen as a gatherer, Georgina Carver can’t help but wonder if she survived the apocalypse only to be lost to the desolation outside.
All my hesitation vanished once I opened the first page, and was instantly replaced with intrigue and curiosity. As much as Lauren Hammond’s Famished was dystopian and post-apocalyptic, it was also a bit of detective novel. Georgina Carver soon realizes her safe, idyllic compound life may not be all it seems, and she sets out to discover the truth for herself, sleuthing and asking questions. Georgie was spunky, quick-witted, and determined—but she was also human. I loved Georgie for her flaws as much as her strengths—especially the way she has a crush on a bad-boy, Colin, but has enough sense to see through his ploy to win her affections. It’s so easy to like someone, not so easy to walk away from temptation…Georgina is conflicted, but when she senses something isn’t on the up-and-up, she goes with her gut.
Lauren Hammond really knows how to tell a great story! Famished was fresh and unique, keeping me on my toes until the very end—and hungry for more!!!
(ARC provided by author for fair and honest review. These are my own, unbiased opinions.)
January 13, 2012
A few spelling, punctuation and grammar mistakes, not too offensive however a tad of a detriment for the author as it often tore the focus away from the story, which I really enjoyed the pace, plot and twists.
I enjoyed reading this book and I'm still looking forward to the sequel. I think that Lauren Hammond has built a scary post-apocalyptic world that shows the extremes people take to assert control over others, when they have lost so much control over their own lives and the world they live in. It really highlights under extreme survival situations how people's true natures are revealed.
I found there were a few implausible scenarios in the book I struggled to understand: how quickly the shelter was built, why the children in the shelter were attending school. I think realistically had they been educated on survival skills or trades. This may have been more believable. I couldn't understand why they needed an academic education anymore.
I did however enjoy the characters Hammond created here. I liked Georgina's fierceness and bravery and strong-willed nature and her commitment to her family. I especially enjoyed how she wasn't winey and mopey and depressive about her life, how she found the will to fight and survive. I think Hammond has created quite a good read. I do enjoy reading dystopia books. I feel that this one just required a bit of polishing.
I enjoyed reading this book and I'm still looking forward to the sequel. I think that Lauren Hammond has built a scary post-apocalyptic world that shows the extremes people take to assert control over others, when they have lost so much control over their own lives and the world they live in. It really highlights under extreme survival situations how people's true natures are revealed.
I found there were a few implausible scenarios in the book I struggled to understand: how quickly the shelter was built, why the children in the shelter were attending school. I think realistically had they been educated on survival skills or trades. This may have been more believable. I couldn't understand why they needed an academic education anymore.
I did however enjoy the characters Hammond created here. I liked Georgina's fierceness and bravery and strong-willed nature and her commitment to her family. I especially enjoyed how she wasn't winey and mopey and depressive about her life, how she found the will to fight and survive. I think Hammond has created quite a good read. I do enjoy reading dystopia books. I feel that this one just required a bit of polishing.
August 15, 2011
Famished is the story of Georgina Carver, a girl who lives in an underground colony after the destruction of the earth. She considers herself fortunate because unlike the survivors on the earth's surface, she has food to eat each day. But when the colony decides to hold a lottery and send two teenagers to the surface to search for supplies, Georgina is selected to go. She sees firsthand just how bad things are up above. Hammond paints a clear picture in the mind of the reader, making you experience the world as Georgina comes to know it after the asteroid. I was horrified and scared right along with Georgina. And things get more intense as the story moves along. Georgina finds herself in a world that's even more dangerous than she imagined, and the danger has crept into her colony.
If you are looking for a book that will have you turning pages and your heart racing, then Famished won't disappoint. Lauren Hammond proves that you'd be surprised what people will do when they are famished.
If you are looking for a book that will have you turning pages and your heart racing, then Famished won't disappoint. Lauren Hammond proves that you'd be surprised what people will do when they are famished.
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