Right To The Point

My honest review of Maria De Blassie’s “Hungry Business”

I feel a bit lost because there is a chance this post is going to be longer than the book it’s meant to review.

If I’m being honest, one of the factors that convinced me to read and review “Hungry Business” was the fact that it’s a short story: maybe it’s just Autumn progressing steadily or the end of Daylight Saving Time, but my days seem to become shorter and shorter.

Way too many ideas, plans and projects (I’ll talk about them, I promise), a bit of anxiety in seeing another year passing by. You know, the usual final three months of the year (ok, two).

“Hungry Business” presented itself as a horror short story about zombies, and well, it was even better than it sounded. The horror setting is used only as a clever metaphor for an everyday struggle any single woman has faced at least once in her life: finding someone worth spending time with that doesn’t only see you as a piece of meat. Dating, in short.

And if you don’t think that the concept itself of dating can be turned into a horror short story, well, you’re wrong.

The protagonist is so relatable in how she describes her life in the world she finds herself in. And yes, I know: I’m a lesbian and this pretty much makes sure that I don’t have to endure the kind of experience she’s describing, but I can still feel her pain. Getting high hopes about a stranger only to realize that he’s no different from the others. And as if it wasn’t enough, knowing that being alone with him you can soon enough find yourself in danger.

There’s not much else I can say without giving away the entire story, and I’d hate to do so. Especially when it’s about a book that not only tells an excellent story and can be read in an evening. Yes, before your eyelids get so heavy after a day spent cramming as many thing as you can into 24 hours.

But as horrific the picture painted by “Hungry Business” might seem, there’s still room for getting back up and trying. Because it doesn’t matter how desperate the situation might seem, the only way out often involves keeping on moving. Hope can be found even in the most unexpected place.