Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Let me tell you, reading this book at the same time I was watching season 2 of Yellowjackets was quite a trip. Just… a whole lot cannibalism and queer people. I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

This book is like… a queer Monster High (so…. basically Monster High?), if you aged it up and made it gorier. In case you’re confused, yes, that’s a good thing. Now, was it a tad predictable? Yeaaahh, but there are times when I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing. I take comfort in being able to spot the villains and plot twists. It makes me feel smart, ok?

My one big issue with the story: No love story for the other two ghouls?

This was an interesting departure from my typical picks. This is an alternate world, post pandemic of sorts, where the afflicted end up needing to eat human flesh and are fed by synthetic flesh. These ghouls are poisoned and turning feral at a large Coachella like concert in the desert causing disappearances and other strange happenings. Zoey and her three friends are impacted and attempting to figure out what is going on after their friend Val turns feral and needs help disposing a body.
This is definitely one of the gorier books I’ve read and the whole Hollowing and post pandemic tracking and ostracism of the afflicted were interesting and I would have liked to see more insight into that. I liked the flashbacks to the pandemic days and am kind of hoping for a book about that in the future as well.
I didn’t really like Zoey’s waffling between the two potential love interests, I didn’t feel like it added anything to the story and made her seem insincere at the end. It also seemed like there were some plot holes where injuries like gunshot wounds and broken ribs magically went away from one scene to the next. There was a potential explanation for them but it wasn’t explicitly said and I’m not sure if it was just meant to be implied or if it was a miss. The group seems to run out of the synthetic flesh towards the end while they are sort of stuck in the desert still which should be a big deal but doesn’t seem to be for them.
The book did keep me invested in reading to the end though and I did enjoy it despite the inconsistencies/holes. If you’re into gory horror novels with a sapphic angle then this might be the book for you.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.
This Delicious Death is Kayla Cottingham’s second book, and once again it leans into the fun sapphic horror vibes. It’s delightfully campy and gory in equal measure, with a dark twist on the music festival setting (obligatory Fyre Fest jabs included). And while it is first and foremost a fun story, I love that it also touches on deeper themes, like living day-to-day during a pandemic and the fight for acceptance for LGBTQ+ people, with queer and trand youth being particularly vulnerable in the face of bigotry.
I liked the approach of having flashbacks and media excerpts that help flesh (hehe) out the backstory and what happened during the Hollowing itself, while the bulk of the main narrative takes place in the aftermath. It makes for an engaging read, and I like how the two complement and inform each other. It particularly gives insight into prior lives of the main characters, prior to becoming ghouls, which is quite moving.
Each of the girls is a distinct character, and I really liked each of them. Zoey is the main POV character for the present day, and I really liked getting insight into the dynamics between her and the other three, and how they’ve maintained their friendship even amidst such catastrophic change, and continue to do so amid further challenges. And while not primarily a romance, there’ a romantic relationship that grows throughout that is rather sweet.
This is a (literally) bloody good book, and I’d recommend it to anyone who enjoys YA sapphic horror.
CWs: alcohol consumption by minors, anxiety disorders (mentioned), blood and gore, body horror, cannibalism, captivity and confinement, dead bodies and body parts, deadnaming (deadname not stated), death of a grandparent and sibling, drugging, drug use (mentioned), fire, grief and loss, gun violence, intrusive thoughts, murder, needles and syringes, nightmares, parental neglect, pandemic (fictional disease), scars, sexism, suicidal ideation (implied), transphobia (mentioned)

I LOVED this book! It was perfect in every way. 4 friends that are so very different yet are the best of friends, especially because being a ghoul brought them together. I loved the romance and representation. It was great that at the beginning of each chapter, you had insight into how each girl became the way they did and how the world came to what it is then. It was great storytelling and was a quick read. I am looking forward to purchasing a physical copy when this comes out and I am ready to read more by Kayla Cottingham.

“This Delicious Death” is a YA horror novel featuring a group of friends, a cooler filled with synthetic human organs they need to survive and a sapphic romance. Set at a music festival, the book explores a brutal murder mystery. I loved the easy and fast paced writing style, the lovely execution of the friends to lovers trope and the bi and trans rep!

Thank you Sourcebooksfire for the e-ARC!

This book is not for me. I loved the cover and the description. But this book is extremely YA and very modern. I love horror and thrillers but this one is more like cannibal modern teens with all the Coachella problems. I’m sure this book would be loved by many others which is fantastic but it’s just definitely not for me.

Thank you to the publisher for letting me read this on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book just wasn’t my type of book, I was hoping the title went a whole different way but it didn’t I was disappointed.

Zoey, Jasmine, Valeria, and Celeste become ghouls after the Hollowing. They can live a fairly normal life as long as they eat synthetic flesh. The girls are ecstatic to attend their first music festival as ghouls. At the music festival, something weird happens to Val and she ends up eating someone. What made Val so hungry that she would eat a human? Something weird is taking place behind the scenes. The girls are determined to find out what is going on and stop it before more ghouls eat humans.

Kayla Cottingham does a fantastic job developing the characters. I enjoyed each of them. The LGBTQ+ representation is an amazing feature of the book as well. I really enjoyed the plot of the story and the details in each scene. I especially enjoyed the flashback scenes describing how the Hollowing affected each character. There was a perfect balance between horror, mystery, and adventure. I highly recommend it! 4/5 stars.

The short and sweet? I flipping LOVED this book. I devoured it in a single sitting. I loved the characters, I loved the creepy concept, I love how grotesque and macabre it was while somehow also being incredibly wholesome. 10/10 would recommend.

Warm Bodies based in Coachella with LGBTQ+ main characters all in a YA read, this book has it all. This was such a fun read and I enjoyed every bit of it and didn’t want to put it down. I loved Zoey and her friends and their friendship with being Hollows. I liked the mini back stories and excepts you got before each chapter that helped you learn more about each character and the story. This was quick read and I also found myself laughing out loud at parts. Overall, I highly enjoyed this YA zombie ish horror and recommend to anyone who wants a fun read. It is gory at parts so just know that going into it.

I LOVE this book. Not a surprise since I loved her first book as well. A fun queer thriller with characters you want to root for. I like that it spins the traditional zombie story, where the ghouls are a part of normal life, until someone wants to make them monsters again.

I received a copy from NetGalley for review.

This book is delectable (lol yes I'm starting off with a pun). This book is like if you took iZombie and mixed it with Warm Bodies and threw them at a music festival. It's fun and queer and easy to digest. I ended up starting it at like 7 PM and was up until 11 PM and got about 78% of the way into the book before I had to FORCE myself to put it down and go to sleep. It was that good. In the story, we follow Zoey, Celeste, Jasmine, and Valeria as they get to go to a smaller version of Coachella. While there Valeria goes feral and it's up to Zoey, Celeste, and Jasmine to figure out why before something bad happens to Val for real. ON TOP of that, people have been going missing throughout the whole festival and the girls lowkey stumble into a conspiracy with how to revamp up the Hollowing (basically this timeline's COVID).

I really enjoyed the way the girls all worked together throughout the series. There was no fighting over boys (puke) or cattiness outside of very real situations on what to do next. I do wish that it wasn't a single POV. It would have been nice to get more of the current thoughts of the other main girls in the series and not just their POVs when we got flashbacks to when they first turned. Especially Celeste and Jasmine. They played a much bigger role in the story and getting their POVs, I think, would have added to it.

Overall, a thoroughly enjoyable read and I'll probably be purchasing this for myself.

Zoey and her friends, ghouls who eat synthetic versions of human flesh, have a music festival to go to as their last celebration before graduation, but on the first night, one of them goes feral; killing and eating one of the band members. Someone is drugging ghouls like them to go feral, and if the culprit isn't stopped soon, neither ghouls nor humans will be safe.

--

‘I remember once seeing a piece of art that said the people you love become ghosts inside of you. What I realised now was that it was true of the people you killed, too.’

I’ve been seeing this book a lot recently, so of course I was excited to have been able to get an ARC. It seemed like a well rated sapphic horror book and was surprisingly pretty short.

And thankfully, I enjoyed this a lot! The characters were fun; Zoey’s inner monologue at times was hilariously amusing, her and Celeste’s romance was adorable, the friendships between the four girls were wholesome and it was lovely to see how supportive they all were of each other. The book gave me similar vibes to Squad by Maggie Tokuda-Hall and Lisa Sterle, except if the main friend group had actually healthy friendships!

It was fast-paced and kept me hooked throughout, with flashback snippets of the Hollowing - the climate event that caused a small percentage of humans to turn into ‘ghouls’, creatures that can only eat human flesh to survive - and other fun tidbits here and there, like chat logs between background characters and social media posts that tied in to the main story. It didn’t feel info-dumpy about the Hollowing, whilst also didn’t make me want for more. Despite some parts of the plot being predictable and the horror aspect didn’t affect me enough to really be scared or creeped out, it didn’t take away from my enjoyment (but keeping in mind, it takes a lot for horror to get to me).

Overall, a great short and snappy sapphic horror book!

This is a delicious treat of a horror book! A full course meal that left me completely satisfied! I love new takes on the zombies and monsters of horror any day, but this is going down as a favorite.

Zoey and her friends are ghouls. They are a part of the Hollow People that make up a section of the world's population now. Ghouls become gaunt, a bit elongated, with claws and vicious fangs and require human meat to live on. That's why Zoey and the girls are taking a nice big cooler of Synflesh with them to a desert music festival. However, it's not a fun festival for long.

I loved this so much! It really made me laugh while being creepy and gory, which is a difficult task.

Content warnings for gore, violence, death, and mention of deadnaming.

Out April 25, 2023!

Smutty faeries are out, zombies are back in?

Two years ago, people began getting sick. While the majority eventually recovered, a small percentage underwent a transformation known as the Hollowing. The Hollow were only able to survive by consuming human flesh and their cravings soon turned feral. Over time, synthetic meat allowed humanity to return to something like normal.

In the present day, four girls are planning one last hurrah before graduation: Desert Bloom, a music festival. On the first night, however, one of the girls kills a band member. As the body count begins rising, it’s clear someone is targeting Hollows. And if the girls can’t figure out who’s behind it soon no one is getting through the weekend alive.

I typically love pandemic/outbreak novels but the parallels to Covid were hard to ignore here. I’m not sure if this was written using 2020 as inspiration or if I’m now seeing zombie outbreaks in a new light. Still, this was a shockingly fast read — when I looked down to see my progress I was surprised that I was halfway through the book!

I welcomed the quick pace and finished this one in no time. While it was enjoyable for the afternoon, I’m not sure it’ll be that memorable for me in the long run.

I absolutely loved this book! If was a page turner from the very beginning. I found the characters very endearing and interesting, and the story was very original. I will definitely be buying a hard copy when this comes out!

I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. And when I request the e copy I, of course, thought it seemed interesting. But it was even better than that. Queer, ghoulish teens just trying to have one last hurrah before graduating high school. And then chompy madness ensues. It was an easy and fun read. I found myself invested in the story and the characters. I wish this book had been around when I was a teenager. I'd have been all over it.

A wild (and bloody) ride! 🩸🎡

This is a YA thriller/horror/zombie book about four best friends who take a road trip a music festival the summer after high school. This takes place 3 years after “The Hollowing” which is a global event in which parts of the population started became cannibalistic “ghouls”, our main characters included.

What I loved!
-Cover hooked me from the start. I appreciate the author putting the trigger warnings at the beginning.
-The setting?!? Desert music festival?! Amazing.
-Most of the book is told from Zoey’s first person perspective, but some passages share flashbacks of the characters hollowing experience, emails about the incident, news articles and more. This added a lot of depth to the book and was super fun to see all the different perspectives!
-Diverse cast, full of back stories! Bi main character and trans main characters. LGBTQ+ romance!
-Best friends to lovers!


“I mean come on. We hid a literal body together. It doesn’t get much more ride-or-die than that.”

4 stars! Looking forward to seeing more from the author. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the e-ARC. 🖤

I received an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I do not have a lot of feelings about this book. Point blank. I consume a lot of horror, and it's a common critique of the genre that characters can often be extremely unlikable or feel one dimensional. Sometimes it's for the sake of the story, sometimes it's so that you were excited when they're killed off or whatever the reason. Often it's a detriment to the story. I feel like the characters in This Delicious Death feel a little one dimensional, but not necessarily in a way that feels detrimental to the story as there is plenty of plot to keep the reader involved.

I'd recommend this book for anyone who likes YA horror, specifically stories that play with the zombie archetype. It's not doing anything you haven't seen before, but it's still a fun read with enjoyable queer characters.

This Delicious Death was my first book by Kayla Cottingham, and I look forward to reading more! I don’t read many YA books, but if this is what I am missing, I suppose I have a whole new genre of book to read.

The Hollowing event is a virus that swept through the world, causing people to turn into ghouls, but could easily live a normal life while eating synthetic flesh. We read about Zoey and her friends, Celeste, Jasmine, and Valeria, who are ghouls themselves, as they attend their first music festival since the Hollowing. They didn’t expect one of them to kill and eat a boy! Also, things are quite right at the festival… others are turning up dead.

I enjoyed that we could get the girls' backstories as it was sprinkled within the story. I loved the queer representation! The writing was excellent, and the horror aspect delivered.

Thank you to SOURCEBOOKS Fire, Netgalley, and Kayla Cottingham for gifting me a digital eARC copy of This Delicious Death. I am leaving this review voluntarily. All thoughts and opinions are my own.