The Starving Bride

In The Starving Bride, the not-seeing is directed at the future as well as at each other, but it is harnessed to an unsettlingly eloquent portrait of the grifting and profiteering that teaches so many people to hate themselves, and of the cruelty and vacuity of a society seduced by spectacle.

James Bradley, The Saturday Paper

The Starving Bride engages with larger conversations around dysmorphia, disordered eating and childhood trauma, Chidgey writes with irony and well-observed satire. Her writing is intelligent and descriptive, and the complex storyline of Hazel’s public abstinence makes for a captivating reading experience.

Abe Theobald, Books + Publishing

Chidgey suggests that while the mechanisms and platforms for spectatorship have evolved, the appetite for watching, judging and disciplining bodies remains consistent. What emerges is an often disturbing and occasionally bleakly funny portrait of a society attempting to distract itself from mounting disasters, determinedly holding to the delusion that obvious dangers can be safely caged or tamed.

Julian Novitz, The Conversation

Gorgeously written.

Beejay Silcox, The Guardian

Astonishingly good. Riveting and the narrative pacing is perfection. It's a deep and close and furious examination of expectations of the female body. Chidgey has fast become on of the most interesting writers i read.

Jaclyn Crupi

There are several moments in Catherine Chidgey's new novel that lodge themselves somewhere deep in the stomach, in the space where unease tends to settle.

Laura Hampson, Sunday Magazine

There are passages of the book that are so sublime, the reader will pause to read them again. The Starving Bride is a cautionary tale, no less alarming than those so beloved by Victorians, but a thousand times more entertaining.

Stephanie Johnson, The Listener