Hungry Hearts: 13 Tales of Food & Love

Hmm...I wanted to like this more than I did. There are some great authors in here and I love the basic concept–interlinked short stories set in the same neighborhood, Hungry Hearts Row, known for its excellent (and magical?) ethnic food from a variety of cultures. But reading it felt kind of like a casserole where everyone threw in like whatEVER without a sense of what flavors would go together? Like clearly the authors sort of collaborated because there were recurring characters/places throughout the stories but the mix of genres really threw me. Like is Hungry Hearts Row a fairly realistic setting or is it a setting for a graphic mafia drama or is a place where superheroes live???

Also like...I fully get that for nonwhite kids, getting teased about what foods they bring to school lunch is shitty and traumatic and it makes sense that multiple authors who grew up with that might want to process that trauma in their food-themed short story. But like why are there still food bullies in this magical food paradise?? IDK I guess white people will ruin everything but it seemed weird that that element kept popping up in stories given this particular setting. (If it were set in like a non-magic food paradise I'd have no ish!)

Anyway...I dunno....not for me. And I think short story anthologies are a hard sell for most teens anyway. Could be a good read for kids who are into cooking, or kids who seek this out for stories from fav authors (for example I really liked Sara Farizan, Anna-Marie McLemore, Sandya Menon, and Jay Coles' stories–which also seemed like some of the stories most grounded in some sort of real world?) Overall the reading experience was a bit jarring for me. I just think ultimately it would have been a better reading experience to either have A) an anthology where authors can write whatever food-related story they want in whatever setting they want OR B) an anthology where different authors all write short stories in the same food paradise setting, but then if that's the case all the authors should have maybe come to more of a consensus on what that same setting is like and what the tone is there?