Delicious Foods by James Hannaham

I heard about Delicious Foods from an ad on Goodreads. The title caught my eye but I noticed that it wasn't a book about food but it still sounded interesting. I put it on hold at the library and was surprised how quickly I got it. Delicious Foods was a difficult book to read at times but was very captivating and heartbreaking.

The story alternates between Eddie who's about 12 at the start of the story and his mother, Darlene. After Eddie's father dies, Darlene struggles to remain stable and provide for Eddie. One day, she gets an offer to work at Delicious Foods where she'll be paid well and be able to provide for her son. Sadly, that's not what happens and Darlene becomes an indentured servant for Delicious Foods, leaving Eddie without a mother or father.

The book was hard to read for two different reasons. First, some very terrible and painful things happen to the characters in the book. Hannaham doesn't flinch in showing the violence that people can inflict on one another. Second,  most of Darlene's chapters are actually narrated by her drug of choice, crack cocaine, which she calls Scotty. Sometimes these chapters are incoherent and difficult to follow. I got used to it. Hannaham does an excellent job though of making you care for these characters. After the first chapter, I had to know how these characters got to were they were when I met them and where they were going to go.

Overall, I liked Delicious Foods. If you do read it, you have to be prepared for some brutal scenes and a lot of heartache. It might not be something you can read all at once, Hannaham does such a good job of making these characters real that I needed breaks from them. Others who shared their thoughts on Delicious Foods:Kathy Reads Fiction.River City Reading,and Alison Mccarty.