A review by emilypoche
The Summer I Ate the Rich by Maritza Moulite, Maika Moulite

slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

Thank you to MacMillan’s Children Publishing Group for providing this ARC for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own. 

The Summer I Ate the Rich by Maika Moulite and Maritza Moulite is billed as a YA horror story. The book follows a 17-year old zonbi, Brielle, whose mother toils at the feet of the ultra wealthy. When a series of events thrusts Brielle into the midst of billionaires and the Miami elite, she takes the opportunity to level the score. 

In concept the story has such promise; revenge, marginalized groups taking their power back, suspected cannibalism, and the toppling of the privileged structures. As a horror fan, I also don’t really think I’m aware of any other stories that center around the Hatian zonbi, and that was also very promising. 

This story, however, fell very flat. The fact that there were zonbi characters was the most realistic fact about the story—from there it seemed to be a TikTok social justice fantasy penned by a teenage girl. By chapter 76 my patience was already wearing thin, but following that I could barely tolerate the insane turn of events that dipped its toes into WattPad territory. I will not spoil what happens but I audibly went “OH, COME ON.” 

The problems in this story are many, and rather than go into them in detail, I’m just going to list the more egregious issues. 

  1. There is very little horror in this story. While the opening chapter is a somewhat icky description of eating calf brain, but it ends there. The cannibalism is mostly implied and somewhat mild. She’s not slaying people or consuming. Instead she’s sprinkling purloined corpse toe powder into some rice. Hardly the horror I’m expecting from a book billed as such. 
  2. Brielle does not suffer a single consequence. No matter what she says or does, no matter how criminal or impactful or expensive. She either fails up, miraculously is given no consequence or sneaks by with nobody reacting at all. At a certain point this means that there are no stakes. Everything is fine, and any tension is past tense or stated. 
  3. We don’t really ever get a very good explanation of what the full extent of her zonbi powers mean. The story does, through the muses, explain the curse on her father and the general concept. But what does it actually mean? The readers are told her mother is afraid of her powers, or that they’re growing, but they’re never really fleshed out. Roughly 3/4 of the way through we learn she can sort of control people, but this is never really stated. We just kind of know she is interested in raw meat, likes the smell of blood, and has flaky skin. I don’t expect the author to totally explain the whole concept but frankly the book would read pretty similar even without the who supernatural elements. 
  4. The characters are so one dimensional it’s laughable. Marcello has no discernable characteristics besides being a young gay man. He basically spouts social media catch phrases. The rich people are effectively moustache-twirlingly evil. Each character is one thing, and one thing only. They are caricatures written through a deeply immature lens. 

This book is about as subtle as a sledgehammer. I do think that there is probably appeal for a certain population of the teenaged reader market that may enjoy this book. I think that this book deserves to be so much more. The pain pill subplot, the use of a supernatural cultural story that isn’t seen much in books at the time, and the desire to overturn the status quo are all great building blocks for a story. Unfortunately, this selection missed the mark for me. 

(1/5 with the reservation that I am almost certainly not the target demographic for this book.)