This was just a lot of fun! A different spin on the usual "brain-eating zombies' tale. Is it high-art? No, not at all. Is it an entertaining way to spend an afternoon at the beach? Most definitely.

Four best friends, who all also happen to be ghouls, take a road trip to a music festival in the desert. After surviving a catastrophic disease (The Hollowing) all four ended up only being able to eat fresh/bloody meat. Other than that little fact, they can live pretty normal lives among the normal folks. The author packs in one of each of everything: a white girl who is a popular/gorgeous blogger with a myriad of followers and is trans; a white girl who is average-looking, wants to be a journalist and is bi-sexual; a Latino girl who is a gorgeous head-cheerleader and straight; an African-American girl who is gorgeous, athletic and lesbian. Did we miss anything? The men/boys in the story are all hateful schemers, for the most part. Things go badly at the festival, then things get worse, then the girls save the day and each other. Pretty standard formula.

Again, not great literature by any means, but if you are over 15 (due to mentions of cannibalism, suicide and a few other things) and have a few hours to kill, this is an amusing diversion.

This cover sold me on the book synopsis unseen. A bloody hand holding a blood-stained cooler? Oh yeah, sign me up. Kayla Cottingham did not disappoint.

This Delicious Death is a young adult diverse horror story with laughs, zombies, music, and first love. I don’t think I have a favorite character and that includes the voice of the story Zoey. Zoey may tell the main part of the story, but each of the girls play a central part of the whole. It wouldn’t be delicious without them.

The Hollow affected all of them differently. They all live within their own truths and the consequences impact everyone.

I love zombie stories. Hooked on them actually. This new trend of cli-fi, I’m not sure I am a fan of and this is not to say that zombie fiction hasn’t been a result of climate change before. I’m just not a fan of the “preachie” overtone. I am done with this part of cli-fi especially since I have always been a tree hugger.

Cottingham gives us a decent mystery. I kinda didn’t guess the culprit. Well…now sugar, I don’t want to give anything away. Let’s just say, there was one surprise in the mix I didn’t see. This doesn’t mean the mystery along the way isn’t fun. Nor is the bonding the girls go through or the trips down memory lane as to how we got where we are. The romance isn’t bad either.

This Delicious Death is a quick read. I actually want a sequel. I think this crew of ladies can do more and I would love to see it and them.

So did I judge a book by its cover? Yep! I found this cover completely lovely and didn’t even read the description. Now was this technically my kind of book, maybe. After starting it and having to read and reread the concept it took me a while to grasp what I was reading. It was fast paced and while I wasn’t completely on board I did enjoy it. For fans of a more post apocalyptic book, this is for you.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing a free e-book advanced reading copy for me. This review is my honest opinion.

What’s with all the books about cannibalism coming out recently? It’s a fascinating trend with interesting psychological and metaphorical considerations. Also, there’s a long list for the content warning at the beginning of this book, with much more than just the cannibalism; I would advise readers to carefully consider any potential triggers/concerns and take the list seriously before delving into the rest of the pages.

I recommend this book to fans of young adult horror with queer/lesbian representation. The writing is great, the characters are interesting, the plot is intriguing, and it doesn’t fail to deliver horrific moments. My personal preference would be to rely less on flashbacks, but it’s not really a minus for the book; I know plenty of readers that love how flashbacks reveal more about the past and the characters. Sometimes I just fear writers, especially YA authors, may rely on flashbacks a little too much.

I got an email when this book came available and the cover alone sold me on it. I decided to go in blind which was hilarious because the opening of the book had me going wait a minute… what’s in the cooler? Is that code? It made it that much better. I enjoyed the dynamic of the four friends, they were all so different but their friendship made sense.

There was one bit that made me laugh out loud and immediately messaged my bestie because we enjoy dark humor. I’m like this should be sad but I’m laughing.

The overall premise of the story is interesting because I personally always feel like we are on the brink of something like this happening since people can’t leave well enough alone. Makes more sense how it all came to be.

I do feel like the turn around by the scientists was rather fast though, almost like it was something they had already been working on.

The book jumps back and forth from the past and present, which sometimes I get annoyed with because I’ll be all into s we hats happening right then and there and then it’s like haha you have to wait let me tell you what happened when the hollowing took to Val!

Overall I enjoyed the read, I can very easily see this being adapted into a limited series on Netflix.

3 years ago a virus was released from the permafrost. It randomly changed people so they could only live and tolerate human flesh. Now a few years later 4 friends who went through this change are now going to the first music festival after what is referred to as the Hollowing event has occurred. They end up meeting up with a band known as No Flash Photography. After one of the girls accidentally attacks and eats a boy the friends are trying to solve the mystery as why this happened.
IAll these characters are 18 years and older at the time of the events that are occurring. While we do get flashbacks of the events of the days that they turned, I found that this book did keep my attention. I was interested in the story and to learn more of why the events happening were happening. This is a YA Horror book that is heavy with the LGTBQIA+. I did really enjoy it but I did not find this scary whatsoever. It might be because it is YA. Maybe if this was a movie I would find it more frightening or scary because of the jumps but even adult horror half the time doesn’t get me as scared as movies do. Overall I did enjoy it and would recommend giving it a read. I will be reading more from Kayla Cottingham in the future!

The sophomore novel to Kayla Cottingham was as strong as ever. To think I almost passed up My Dearest Darkest. The story is under the bad b*tch genre. I'm a little concerned about the possibility of a flu causing us to become flesh eating monster but that's a phobia for a different day. All jokes aside it was fabulous and quick. Kayla is very creative.

I don't have much to say about this one but I had a fun time while reading. The characters were great, I appreciated the inclusivity. The horror was horrific (at least by my own personal tolerance scale. A lot of body horror which is not my thing) and the ending was satisfying. It's a YA novel so it didn't get as dark and gritty as I might usually prefer with my horror but I didn't mind it all that much this time. I can't wait to read Kayla's debut novel which is still staring at me on my TBR shelf. If you like the idea of a different twist on zombies, I'd recommend this read.

I loved it.

This is such a fun book, i loved the concept, big medical disaster worldwide suddenly people are ghouls, four girls going to a music festival chaos happens, it was so good.

The characters in this are what really make it, I loved everyone, Zoey Celeste, Jasmine & Valeria were so much fun and it was also such a good friend group, girls you would want to be friends with if you had to eat human flesh to survive.

There’s a mystery, people die and the girls have to save themselves and everyone else along the way and the way is so much fun. You mainly see the book from Zoey’s point of view but you also get to see what happens to a lot of the main characters during the events of the Hollowing that turned some people into ghouls. Also a super cute very sweet romance as a side plot that I was probably too invested in.

Flat out loved it, would read again, and kinda hoping it becomes a series.

After surviving a pandemic Zoey, Celeste, Valeria, and Jasmine are ready to go to a music festival, they have no idea someone is going to set them up. The group of best friends survived a pandemic (The Hollowing) that turned them into zombies! They're not alone though, because a good portion of the population is with them. Thanks to SynFlesh they are able to resume their activities as normal and that means they are going to a music festival.

This book was definitely good for a young adult story. I think this is mostly about friendships and surviving. It's weird to think about there being "others" so to speak, but Kayla Cottingham has definitely done a great job at doing that. I did think the beginning moved a bit slowly, but it did pick up.

Four friends contract a pathogen that turns them into ghouls during the Hallowing. Fortunately for them, the government has found a way for ghouls to coexist with humans using fake meat called Synflesh. The gang sets out to attend a music festival where they plan to get the entirety of their lives. Little do they know they are about to be in for the ride of their lives. The Delicious Death is a novel about unbreakable friendship and resiliency. The author gave us friendship, budding love, betrayal, boy bands, and a little spicy horror amazingly written all together. I love a good apocalyptic story and this one does not disappoint.

Thank you to Netgalley, SOURCEBOOKS fire and Kayla Cottingham for an eARC.


Honestly it was giving me Coachella meets Lollapalooza but zombie Apocalyse edition.

My brain was picturing the movie already. Somehow.
My brain was also like omg Covid it was Covid that turned them into the flesh eating monsters.

“What do you owe a friend When your heart is still beating And they’ve reached the end? Skin turned to dust, I’ll lay you to sleep Baby, I promise, I’ll bury you deep.”

great book and such great characters. I enjoyed the mystery and some romance. I also enjoyed the journey of the characters. I didn't know what to expect with this book but I enjoyed it .

Let me preface this by saying that I really enjoyed this book overall. However, I found the beginning to be a little too much of someone telling me and not showing me. It seemed more like the introduction to a middle grade book than YA for the first chapter or so. After that got out of the way, though, I really enjoyed my time reading the book. While the virus and symptoms that make people basically zombies makes absolutely no sense on any level, I am not one of those that have a problem with suspending my disbelief to enjoy myself and go along with the story. While I'm super glad to see more LGBTQ representation in literature and learn something new (I had never heard of deadnaming before), the way the gender identity, sexual preferences, and even race was announced (again, telling, not showing), made it feel a little like "how can I make this book as inclusive as possible and not leave any minority out?" rather than bringing me a believable cast of characters who all happen to be friends. Maybe times have changed a lot in the last 10 years, or maybe it's just because they are on the West Coast, but I would have found it hard to have found so many friends in high school who all happened to be ethnically diverse, gay, bi, trans, and also who just happen to also be part of what seems to be a minority of people who are zombies. The reason some but not all were affected by the virus leaves me wondering if only the LGBT community were susceptible to the virus, which I hope is an unintentional parallel to how people assumed AIDS was a "gay virus". Yes, I realize saying this makes it sound like I hated the book - I really didn't. I just think it would be a disservice to the author and those who worked to publish this book not to bring their attention to these observations. I also don't typically like anything zombie related, but I was entertained by the mystery and committed to seeing the resolution, which was wrapped up nicely at the end.

Review date: March 18, 2023
Release date: April, 25, 2023

This is a cute, YA horror. You get a little bit of everything - horror (a little gore at times), friendship, mystery and romance. It was easy to read and all four characters are likeable and easy to relate to.
The beginning was a little slow but if you can get through that the rest of the story is fast paced and engaging. I liked the flashbacks to the past for each character as you get a little bit of insight of what happened before the “pandemic”.
Overall great YA horror.

Thank you NetGalley, Sourcebooks Fire and the author for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

It’s a godforsaken bloodbath!

“This delicious death” is the second book by Kayla Cottingham and it’s a ghoulish ride. It stars four ghouls…… Or characters who were affected by The Hollowing three years ago. A event that caused a small portion of folks to be transformed to flesh eating ghouls. Weird, isn’t that just how kids really are these days? Anyway, rather then just have ghouls running around killing everyone a synthetic flesh food for them to eat was invented for them to eat and life returned to normal. Kinda.

Zoey, Celeste, Valeria, and Jasmine are the four ghouls living in Southern California. They are also good friends and are travelling with each other to a music festival (Coachella it seems like) They are having a great time listening to music and not killing anyone when someone tampers with the food and causes ghouls to go feral. Next thing you know Valeria turns up missing and they find her killing a boy and eating him.

My kind of book!

This book is very well written and has a lot of meat on the bones. No pun intended! It’s written in the form of flashbacks by the main characters and we get inside their lives, how they turned into ghouls, and living in a LGBT world. You really felt for them…. Even when they go on flesh eating killing sprees. It’s a great bloody and violent book! Definitely YA but lots of gore.

Highly recommended!

I really appreciate SOURCEBOOKS Fire for giving me the opportunity to read this book in advance for a fair review and it has a publication date of April 25, 2023.

<i>The ARC of this book was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.</i>

Four best friends with a hunger for human flash attend a musical festival, what was supposed to be a fun thing in the desert became a gory plot against them.
I saw this book in a list of upcoming horror novels for 2023 and when I read the sinopse I just thot that this was something new to me. The hole plot of they being ghouls and some starting to becoming something else in a place full of humans and other ghouls with music involved sounds cool.
Honestly when I finished the book I though this was a enjoyable 3,5 stars reading, with a good friends to lovers but the ending plot was underwhelming and could be better to me.

I liked the writing and felt that the pacing was fluid and worked with the whole scenario of a festival in the desert.
Something that I found frustrating was how fast the important things where.

The main characters are Zoey, Celeste, Valeria and Jasmine are ghouls (or hallow girls) that are living in Southern California and go to the festival together.
The friends for lovers romance was chefs kiss and I loved it.

The flashback to the past of what happened in the hollow and what the girls in the moments that they where transforming was interesting but the whole thing of the timeline of “acceptance” was too fast to me.

For a horror novel I found this book to be cute. I don't usually read YA, so maybe that's why. I did enjoy the "monsters" as well as the romance. The main character is bisexual, which I appreciate. This is a nice read if you're taking a break from heavier horror or if you like lighter stuff in general.

Quote:
"You do not have time for this right now," I reminded myself. "You can go back to being a bisexual disaster when people aren't being drugged and turned into monsters."

Relatable

This has me hooked from the very beginning. Absolutely loved this story! Will definitely be purchasing.

This was a fun and quick read! The core four girls were written with care and their dynamic as a group and separately worked well with the story. It was a nice touch of social commentary about being “other” in a crowd and having to hide it from even those who say they love you no matter what.

The horror imagery was okay for a YA novel. The gore elements were not tempered at all, so that was fun reading! It had some nicely plotted moments of mystery and suspense while the girls investigated the festival trying to save their friend from impending doom. I was not expecting to have queer romance and many forms of LGBT+ representation in a story like this, but it was incorporated beautifully!

Overall, it was a fun read! It's nothing groundbreaking in the horror genre, but it succeeds in telling the story it set out to tell. I enjoyed the author's voice in the moments with the flashbacks of the girls during the Hollowing, and the dynamic between their friendship.

I would also say beware of trigger warnings going into this book! There’s a lot!

Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this ARC in exchange for my honest review!