She’s Always Hungry
Short Stories You Can Consume: A Review of She’s Always Hungry by Eliza Clark (2024)
Recent horror fiction seems to be preoccupied with consumption. Lucy Rose’s The Lamb (2025) focuses on eating and depicts a mutually self-destructive relationship between mother and daughter. Ling Ling Huang’s Natural Beauty (2025) takes aim at the cosmetics industry and our desperation to achieve physical perfection. Today, we consume the world in various ways: social media, food, streaming services, shopping (clothes, necessities, beauty products, technology etc), the energy we use to power our homes and lifestyles, the competitive nature of employment, or even consuming ourselves in our emotions and thoughts. Similarly, Eliza Clark’s first collection of short stories offers modern horrors that tackle feelings of hunger in different and creative ways that are not always immediately related to food or eating. These stories are simultaneously horrifying, thought-provoking, and highly relevant to our current moment.
One of the key strengths of She’s Always Hungry is Clark’s ability to interact with a range of horror genres. Horror has been described by critics as a ‘many-headed beast’ with numerous sub-genres and forms (Bogutskaya 15). Firstly, Clark engages with body horror in ‘Build a Body like Mine’ and ‘Shake Well.’ In these stories, Clark is attuned to the demands placed on women and young girls to have perfect bodies, whether that be in terms of shape or appearance. Clark then blends body horror with science-fiction in ‘Hollow Bones’ which details how a scientist is attacked from the inside by an alien parasite (no surprise as to the potential influences on this story). There are further traces of science fiction in ‘Extinction Event,’ which also situates itself in the broader canon of what is termed ‘cli-fi’ or science fiction that deals with climate change. Additionally, Clark presents her own twisted version of dystopian fiction in ‘The King,’ a cross between Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend (1954) and Oana Aristide’s Under the Blue (2021), where an immortal is one of the few to survive nuclear devastation. Despite these intergalactic and post-apocalyptic narratives, Clark reminds readers of her versatility in her attention to more imminent horrors. In ‘The Problem Solver,’ ‘Nightstalkers’ and to an extent ‘Shake Well’ the monsters are not aliens or cannibalistic immortal beings, but humans themselves. It is worth noting that readers should be aware of the distressing themes of homophobia, workplace bullying, grooming, sexual assault, eating disorders, and addiction that Clark deals with. Whilst the attention to these themes makes She’s Always Hungry a sometimes difficult and disturbing read, Clark’s stories exemplify the versatility and broad nature of the genre, representing domestic terrors as well as supernatural or sci-fi horrors.
Additionally, Clark’s stories show not only a versatility of genre but also of place. This strengthens Clark’s ability to engage with domestic and personal horrors. Clark is a writer from Newcastle Upon Tyne, in the North East of England, and her northern roots are reflected in at least two of these stories. As someone who is also from the North East of England, it is exciting to read Clark’s stories in this context; it not only draws attention to North East creativity, but also the area’s role in recent horror. For example, 28 Years Later (2025) was primarily filmed in the North East, and Northern horror writers such as Caroline Hardaker and Lee Mountford have received critical acclaim. In ‘Shake Well,’ the Newcastle setting is most explicit and helps ground the narrative in the everyday, emphasising the social issues at hand. Meanwhile, although the location of the matriarchal village in ‘She’s Always Hungry’ is undisclosed, and its themes of gender repression are troubling, Clark’s simultaneous evocation of realism and the mythic depicts a setting that has resonance with the Northern coast. Furthermore, the Northern connections of these stories place readers outside of the narrative but ensure that they are familiar with the social issues that Clark represents.
Whilst Clark deals with difficult themes and presents some particularly grotesque images, they all circle back to issues of consumption. For example, ‘Hollow Bones’ centres around a scientific expedition to collect alien artefacts that is derailed by a mysterious accident. Clark seemingly transplants themes of colonialism to an outer space setting and emphasises the desires of empires and political powers to expand their knowledge. By comparison, ‘Nightstalkers’ could not be more different in terms of place, space, and theme. The story is set in 1970s America, a turbulent political time, and a boom period for horror. It focuses on friends Keith and Tommy, who share the same recreational drug habits, lack of plans, and need to chase girls. Firstly, Clark is quite subtle in unpacking Keith and Tommy’s feelings for one another, only making it clear to the reader when it is clear to the characters themselves. However, the threat of homophobia and rejection hangs over the pair, turning their recreational actions into a smokescreen to hide who they really desire. It becomes a reluctance to consume, where one form of consumption may have more terrifying implications than another. Moreover, these two stories typify Clark’s nuanced approach to examining themes of hunger.
Overall, Clark’s She’s Always Hungry is a disturbing but socially aware collection of short horror stories that tackle directly - not just themes of consumption, but also the negative impacts of our need for more. Our need for more power, control, beauty, physical perfection, immediate access to food and resources, to know what else is out there and how we can claim it. Clark’s stories convey how we are always hungry and sometimes that hunger can be harmful for us, others, and the world at large. She’s Always Hungry is therefore a great example of how horror can hold social messages and interact with feelings beyond fear.
Cited:
Bogutskaya, Anna. Feeding the Monster: Why Horror has a Hold on Us. Faber & Faber, 2024.