The Hunger We Pass Down

By Jen Sookfong Lee

Book Overview

Jordan Peele's Us meets The School For Good Mothers in this horror-tinged intergenerational saga, as a single mother's doppelganger forces her to confront the legacy of violence that has shaped every woman in their family.

"Genuinely frightening story of rape, abuse, and neglect. A bold story of intergenerational trauma that creates spooky scares out of real-life atrocities." - Kirkus, STARRED Review

BREAK YOUR MOTHER'S CURSE . . . BEFORE IT CONSUMES YOU TOO.

Single mom Alice Chow is drowning. Between a booming small business, a resentful teenage daughter, a screen-obsessed son, and a secret boyfriend, Alice can never get everything done in a day. It's all she can do to just collapse on the couch with a bottle of wine every night.

One morning, Alice wakes up and everything has been done: the counters are clear, the kids' rooms are tidy, orders are neatly packed and labeled. As the pattern continues, she realizes that someone--or something--has been doing her chores for her.

Alice knows she should be uneasy, but she's too tired to care. The extra time lets her connect with her hard-edged mother, who has started to share their family history--a "curse" beginning with her great-grandmother, who was imprisoned as a comfort woman in Hong Kong during World War II.
Lurking in the corners of Alice's new normal, those family demons are as real as ever . . . and about to become impossible to ignore.

Following the relentless specter of generational trauma as it is handed down from mother to daughter, The Hunger We Pass Down asks what it might take to break the cycle: heroism, depravity, or both.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1645662810
• ISBN13: 9781645662815
• Release Date: August 2026
• Publisher: Erewhon Books
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.81 lbs.