Hunger (19 page)

I'd forgotten about Autumn, but I'm sure the notion of an anorexic teen becoming Famine started right there, when I was reading comic books. So thank you, Marvel Comics, for the spark. And thanks also to my dad, who got me into reading comic books in the first place.

***

Eating disorders aren't glamorous. Yes, there are a boatload of thin (and too thin) celebrities out there, on magazine covers, on television, in movies. That doesn't change anything. Eating disorders ruin lives. And they sure aren't something people can just turn on and off. Eating disorders are a disease.

Eating disorders suck.

If you have an eating disorder—whether you starve yourself or you make yourself purge or you exercise until you can't walk or you eat and eat and eat—know this: you are not alone.

And you can get help.

The National Eating Disorders Association (
www.nationaleatingdisorders.org
) is a nonprofit organization. NEDA provides support, both to those suffering with eating disorders and their families. NEDA helps teach people about prevention and cures. And NEDA can help people find quality care. You can call NEDA toll free and confidentially at 1-800-931-2237.

A portion of the proceeds from
Hunger
will be donated to NEDA. So if you bought this book, thank you for helping others.

So many people had a hand in bringing
Hunger
to life, and I am grateful to all of them.

Many thanks to Julie Tibbott, my phenomenal editor, who believed in this book from the start, and to the entire Houghton Mifflin Harcourt team. A huge thanks to my amazing critique partner, Heather Brewer, who is just as wild about Death as I am (and I have the statue to prove it!), and to Renee Barr, who has read everything I've ever written (poor thing!). To the Mopey Teenage Bears and to the Deadline Dames—rock on! To my loving husband, Brett Kessler, for more than I could ever put into words. And to my astounding agent, Miriam Kriss, for telling me to get off my duff and write this book already—Miriam is the reason I finally got this book out of my head and onto paper, and I can never thank her enough.

During my famine research, I learned a lot about certain causes of world hunger, including rats swarming when bamboo flowers, flooded fields, and war. I learned about dirt cookies, and how some people are forced to eat the very rats that have infested their crops. I wish I could say I made all of that up.

But like eating disorders, world hunger is all too real.