ARC Review: Kids of Appetite by David Arnold

Kids of Appetite by David Arnold
Series: n/a

Genre: YA Contemporary

Publication: September 20th 2016 by Viking Books for Young Readers
Length: 352 pages

Format: eARC

Goodreads

The bestselling author of Mosquitoland brings us another batch of unforgettable characters in this tragicomedy about first love and devastating loss.

Victor Benucci and Madeline Falco have a story to tell.
It begins with the death of Vic’s father.
It ends with the murder of Mad’s uncle.
The Hackensack Police Department would very much like to hear it.
But in order to tell their story, Vic and Mad must focus on all the chapters in between.

This is a story about:

1. A coded mission to scatter ashes across New Jersey.
2. The momentous nature of the Palisades in winter.
3. One dormant submarine.
4. Two songs about flowers.
5. Being cool in the traditional sense.
6. Sunsets & ice cream & orchards & graveyards.
7. Simultaneous extreme opposites.
8. A narrow escape from a war-torn country.
9. A story collector.
10. How to listen to someone who does not talk.
11. Falling in love with a painting.
12. Falling in love with a song.
13. Falling in love.

 

I hadn’t read David Arnold’s first book, MOSQUITOLAND, but lots of people loved this book, so I was excited to read this one nonetheless! After reading this, I suppose I just have… mixed feelings about this. Don’t get me wrong, this book was poignant and beautiful, but there were just some times throughout the novel where I was just plain confused.

KIDS OF APPETITE follows a few teens in a non-linear pattern of events leading up to an incident. I don’t want to give too much away about the plot, but I totally dug this concept and I’m always a sucker for books that are formatted differently. KOA starts off with an interrogation scene at the beginning of each chapter, which I thought was incredibly interesting and fun to read.

 

All in all, the characters were complex yet genuine, traits of characters that I always adore. There was a little bit of romance, and it was sweet and written well; for those who aren’t huge fans of romance—don’t worry; the romance doesn’t take up a lot of the novel. The only reservation that I have for this book was that it was pretty hard for me to get into this novel at first. I was confused in the beginning, so everything I read up to basically the half-way point was a bit of a muddle (lots of things got clearer by then).

Overall, I did enjoy this book, just not enough to give it a more than a three star rating. I definitely recommend checking out this book if you enjoyed gems like I’LL GIVE YOU THE SUN and WE ARE THE ANTS. Perhaps if I reread this book, I’ll love and connect with it a little bit more.

Have you read this book? What did you think? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

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