Famished by Meghan O’Flynn
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I will admit I was hesitant going into reading this novel. I ADORE thriller novels. Love the gore and scares, and by all means give me all the twisted intrigue, mystery, with a twisty plot. I want to believe this could be real so I can be scared. See, we live in a pretty scary world already. One, where just watching the daily news is enough to make me want to put three locks on my door and cameras in my home with a fully loaded gun in my nightstand. So what really confused me was when I began to really get into this novel, was all those one star reviews that had me so hesitant to pick up a thriller novel from an author that I adore. I have several points I need to make because it has been really weighing on my mind here. First, Meghan O’Flynn is a clinical therapist and a mother. Can you imagine the horrors she hears and sees on a daily basis while having to go home and live a “normal” life and be a nurturing mother? I struggle as a mother with the guilt of knowing I brought a child into this world that is slowly, each day, becoming more and more depraved to a point where I fear to go to even the grocery store. She gets a backstage pass to this stuff. So yeah it isn’t so shocking to envision the phrase so often used to describe such shocking writing…

“Thomas grinned like a fifteen year old girl with a cock in her ass.”

Umm… you apparently don’t read, watch TV, or go to the mall, etc. I have heard phrases like this be slung around, all too much, sadly in one form or another. This is supposed to be from a depraved person and depicts a state of mind. It is crucial character development.

Second, gore and sex is definitely a major role is this book. Now I know this isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. It isn’t a necessary aspect for a thriller book, but for this storyline it was necessary to have the details in order to fulfill the plot. Given that nugget of information you can decide whether you’d like to give it a try or not, but don’t rule it out completely just because it is a part of the story until you consider that. It is not done in distaste or overwritten and everything has its place. I can think of many great horror movies that were amazing because they managed to be detailed with gore and violence to a realistic point. It made the movie realistic and feel as if it happened not was a written script. Those are the ones that get you. Famished does this, and that is a difficult feat!

With that said and out of the way, and if you have decided to keep going you are in for one hell of a thrilling ride. I picked this up about 8:45 at night, it was raining (again) and I just needed something to help me unwind to get to sleep. I had no idea that I would be reading well into the night and devouring this book in one sitting. In fact I am actually typing this review very sleepily at 4 am because I awoke with a start from a disturbing dream (those darn scary bedtime stories) and had to do something to distract myself for a bit. This book is still very much on my mind and I am sure it will be for quite some time. Luckily, Conviction, the second book is available now so I am off to dive right into it after this. I think I am going to skip out on those reviews this time! Happy reading, and scary dreams! Thank you so much Meghan O’Flynn for the bloody amazing thriller!

Review by @lizaileen
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