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A review by emkral22
This Delicious Death by Kayla Cottingham
4.0
This book was so entertaining! I really enjoyed the author’s first book, My Dearest Darkest, and this was a great second standalone. Thanks to NetGalley for the e-ARC provided for a review!
Here’s the premise: in the last couple years, much like Covid, a deadly disease swept the globe, called the Hollowing. The infected developed a taste for human flesh (like a zombie apocalypse but they didn’t turn mindless- unless they’re hungry) so the government developed synthetic human meat to keep the “ghouls” satisfied and non-violent. There’s also a registration and tracking system and a blanket amnesty for anyone who murdered anyone during the initial infection period- this could’ve been fleshed out (no pun intended) further, and you have to suspend your disbelief quite a bit with the premise to go along with the story, but I’m here for a good time, not to nitpick like this is CinemaSins. I do think this is the weakest part of the book, but I’m willing to overlook it.
The plot is thus: a group of four girls (ghouls, as they were all infected during the Hollowing and now they consume synthetic human meat) travel to a music festival the summer after they graduate high school and discover that someone has developed a drug to make ghouls go feral on purpose and is exposing people on purpose. One of the friends gets exposed and the girls have to come together to dispose of the evidence, find an antidote, and stop the persons responsible, while navigating normal teenage relationship drama.
The author writes in the acknowledgements that her first book took her a decade and this one was about nine months- I do think the world building and some of the characters could’ve been more developed, but overall I had a really good time reading this book.
Here’s the premise: in the last couple years, much like Covid, a deadly disease swept the globe, called the Hollowing. The infected developed a taste for human flesh (like a zombie apocalypse but they didn’t turn mindless- unless they’re hungry) so the government developed synthetic human meat to keep the “ghouls” satisfied and non-violent. There’s also a registration and tracking system and a blanket amnesty for anyone who murdered anyone during the initial infection period- this could’ve been fleshed out (no pun intended) further, and you have to suspend your disbelief quite a bit with the premise to go along with the story, but I’m here for a good time, not to nitpick like this is CinemaSins. I do think this is the weakest part of the book, but I’m willing to overlook it.
The plot is thus: a group of four girls (ghouls, as they were all infected during the Hollowing and now they consume synthetic human meat) travel to a music festival the summer after they graduate high school and discover that someone has developed a drug to make ghouls go feral on purpose and is exposing people on purpose. One of the friends gets exposed and the girls have to come together to dispose of the evidence, find an antidote, and stop the persons responsible, while navigating normal teenage relationship drama.
The author writes in the acknowledgements that her first book took her a decade and this one was about nine months- I do think the world building and some of the characters could’ve been more developed, but overall I had a really good time reading this book.