I think about this book once a week, at least. It’s narrative was incredibly catching, the imagery so lush and clear, and the way the author approached the subject (inverting how we talk about and treat food vs sex in Western society) was so so so unique. Will definitely be reading more from this author!!

TW: Please check the trigger warnings surrounding food, eating disorders, organized religion (cults), etc for this book.

DNF @ 34%

I don’t know what it is about dystopian stories, but I just can’t seem to wrap my brain around the genre - that is totally a ”me” thing, so the decision to DNF this book is purely due to internal factors and not the story itself.

That being said, this book does have an interesting premise, whereby sex is a completely natural thing, everyone does it (in public or private settings), and parents don’t care if their children are active. The taboo part revolves around food; no one is allowed to eat actual food, but they take a supplement to give them their nutrients and stay slim. This is a dual POV book, and I didn’t even get to the part where the two characters overlap (if they ever do). I might re-visit this book, but I just can’t right now.

This ARC was provided by the publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest opinion.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This was a particuliar read and I was unfortunately not able to fully imerse myself. I think some people might enjoy this one but it won't be for everyone.

I had really enjoyed Chana Porter's The Seep, so I was also really looking forward to The Thick and the Lean. The premise is really what drew me to this book. Overall, though, I found I was disappointed? The writing was gorgeous and atmospheric, but I thought the plot and characters were lacking. I couldn't get invested in either. I didn't care what was happening, and found the overall plot to be all over the place. I wasn't immersed, so reading this less-than-three-hundred-pages book felt like it took forever.

I was really looking forward to a diet-culture satire, maybe along the lines of Dietland, but TTATL just... didn't. I thought it would from the summary, but all the themes and messages felt tired and repeated.

All of this made for a very meh reading experience. Maybe I'm simply not in the right mood, or I'd need to reread to really "get it," but nothing that happened in this book makes me interested enough to go back to it. Sadly, I think this one just isn't for me!

Having read Chana Porter’s novella The Seep and been delighted by its weird atmosphere and the way it lingered comfortably in the bizarre, I hoped The Thick and the Lean would deliver some of those same elements. This novel did all that and more, engaging with relevant real-world issues we face today in its social satire through a fictional dystopia.

The Thick and the Lean alternates point of view between its two protagonists: Beatrice Bolano, a woman raised in a religious cult that prizes starvation above all and reviles the consumption of food, and Reiko Rimando, a woman who seeks social elevation through education only to have her path to upward mobility yanked out from under her. Interspersed throughout the novel are excerpts from a fictional fable titled The Kitchen Maid, an outlawed text both women value.

I will say out of the gate that I suspect this novel will make a lot of people uncomfortable. Regardless of how much we acknowledge it on an individual level, food and sex are both heavily policed in our society, particularly when it comes to women. Both require bodily autonomy, both are often seen as hedonistic or offensive to display voracious appetites for, and both can evoke strong reactions because of their visceral, often eroticized nature. Porter capitalizes on this for the premise of the novel: a world in which sex is both casual and holy and where eating is immoral and taboo. Clear parallels are drawn between this world and Western, Christianity-influenced cultures.

To that end, the novel leans into vivid descriptions of food and sex while tackling the thorny ideological underpinnings that might—and probably should, in certain cases—make readers uncomfortable, especially when juxtaposed with the capitalist exploitation, desirability politics, purity culture, and ongoing attacks on bodily autonomy of the present day. The Thick and the Lean makes its points clearly while also providing an engaging story with protagonists who make flawed, believable decisions with their agency.

A brief content note that The Thick and The Lean heavily centers on disordered eating, fatphobia, and religious shame for readers sensitive to these issues.

Overall, The Thick and the Lean was a sometimes horrifying, sometimes hopeful read that captivated me from start to finish. The novel handles its intense themes both deftly and unapologetically with imaginative concepts and engaging prose. Chana Porter is a unique voice whose work I will be eagerly following for the foreseeable future. For anyone looking for dystopian science fiction that cuts to the heart of several relevant issues of our time through its satire, The Thick and the Lean is a worthy pickup.

Thank you to Gallery / Saga Press and NetGalley for an advance review copy. All opinions are my own.