This was a super fun and engaging thriller. That I also found to be quite funny. I would recommend it as a fun summer read

I don't like gore. I love horror . . . and the creepy and eerie and strange and paranormal and odd / eccentric, etc., but I don't like gore. With that being said, I still liked this book. This Delicious Death is on the Goodreads list of 2023's best horror, and since I gave myself the goal of reading the entire list, I dove in knowing it is not within my list of overall liked themes and topics. I also tend to avoid any type of pandemic related book because ... well, that hits a bit close to home, considering. I went into this read with an open mind, and I am glad that I did because I was able to enjoy it based on the writing alone. It's not one I would ever re-read, but I only re-read a handful of books anyways. This is definitely one I will be recommending via reddit reading and book related subreddits - A LOT of people post seeking a good gore horror, and this may tickle their fancies!

As a lover of horror, zombies, and YA fiction, This Delicious Death by Kayla Cottingham was a must read for me. The book is about a group of friends that underwent a transformation during the Hollowing that made them only able to eat human flesh. Since the Hollowing, the world has learned how coexist with hollow people. However, when the friends attend a summer music festival, a series of mysterious events begin to unfold making everyone wonder if life has actually returned to “normal” after all.

I really enjoyed the way this book was written. There’s a good blend of action, horror, suspense, and the elements of drama that make YA books engaging. Although the characters are hollow people and feared by some, the author did a great job of also making them into fun and relatable characters. I love the way the author included flashbacks, correspondence, and other fun tidbits at the beginning of each chapter. These tidbits provide a great deal of backstory without launching into a separate, lengthy story. I enjoyed so much about this book and will eagerly recommend it to other lovers of YA horror.

Thank you to NetGalley and SourceBooks Fire for the opportunity to review an eARC of this title.

Let me start with saying I like this story, but I do need to say the warnings listed at the beginning almost made me turn away before even starting.

I really like the friendship the girls have. They were characters I'd like to see more of. Their lives and tribulations could be a series as they move through life as "hollows."

I definitely recommend this story if you like good writing and a story you can get into.

This is by far the weirdest book I’ve read in a while. It usually takes a lot to get to me, but this one actually got me. I wasn’t so much as scared, I was more so disgusted. And that made me think twice about reading it. (I do most of my reading at night when my kid is asleep at night.) But I had to know what happened. So I read it all.

First off I have to say I REALLY need to start reading the synopsis of books. I always read it once to decide if I want to add it to my TBR and then forget about it when it’s time to read it. And this is one time I should have read it lol I probably wouldn’t have read it. I don’t necessarily like zombie books. They’re not actually my jam. But this one snuck in and I just let it happen. And once I started it I couldn’t stop reading it. It was weirdly addicting and I just couldn’t stop reading it.

For the important stuff, if the pandemic is a trigger for you, please be mindful when you read this. It all starts with some permafrost melting and releasing some weird stuff into the air. It made everyone sick. But some of those people got really sick. Sick enough to make them start eating people. I’m not exaggerating this at all. All of this is re-told in the story. There’s like these little flashbacks that tell each character and what their (origin?) story was. It was sad, but also creepy. I hated what they went through, but I also was happy they even survived.

The plot for this was cool but Idk if it was done effectively. They’re at something like Cochaella but then they see that ghouls like them are going crazy when one of their own friends gets drugged with something that makes ghouls erratic and turn into something else. Normally I don’t like drugs in books, but this one was one for zombies, so I think it’s safe to say I won’t have to worry about my teens getting their hands on it lol When they get erratic like that they from a ghoul level 3 to a ghoul level 20. And quickly. But in between each of those things were the little flashbacks that told about how they got there and all that. That usually threw me out of the story. I think I would have liked it more if this was a sequel. It wasn’t bad, but I do wish it had been it’s own separate thing.

The characters were also good. They were all different and they all had their own thing. One of them is in love with another, and that same love interest in trans, another one of them is very much into the terrible type of guys, and on and on. They all had their own personality but somehow their group just worked. I loved getting to know them. Did I agree with all the things they did? No. But they were also ghouls, so yeah. I wasn’t expecting it.

The plot twist was one I didn’t see coming though. I thought it was the other person. But when things started pointing towards the culprit, I was so annoyed that they got me too. And of course that made me like the book more lol Anything that can fool me is definitely one that I enjoyed. And for that reason I’m going to recommend this to my teens. I just wanna know if they get got like I did lol

This was so different than what I usually read, but it was also really, really good. I was disgusted/scared and thought it was so weird. But the weird is what made it good. This was such an interesting world and I really wish more people read this horror sapphic love story.

There were so many things I love about this book. First off, right in the beginning of the book there is a content warning. I appreciate that the author was mindful of what might be triggering for some of their readers.

This book checked off some Zombies (kind of), a diverse cast of characters (pocs, trans character, bisexual characters, and non binary characters), romance, horror, and a book I could not put down.

The story takes place 3 years after a pathogen caused a small percentage of the population to become infected with the Hollowing. For friends, Zoe, Celeste, Jasmine, and Val. Lydia are on a trip to go to a Coachella lake concert festival in the desert, but something goes awry because someone of the. People at the festival started going feral… Including one of their friends. This resulted in deaths, and the government or an entity, starting to silence tweets that were going out about unusual things going at the festival.

The book had moments where it would flashback to each of the girls conversion from human to suddenly being a person infected with the howling. That was incredibly interesting because he gave you some history on what happened in the beginning of the pandemic. The story itself really focused on their friendship, their support of each other, and their ability to figure out who was at the heart of people becoming feral. I definitely was surprised by one of the individuals infected by the hollowing. The dreams and flashbacks were used perfectly and added a deeper element to the story. If you are looking for YA horror with diverse characters and a fantastic storyline, this is the book for you!

Thank you NetGalley and to the publishers for giving me this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

I don’t think this book is bad necessarily, I just think I’m not the target audience.

I had to DNF.

I would highly recommend this for fans of the tv show iZombie. I loved every minute of it. A great teen zombie book.

Have I mentioned how much I enjoy the recent hard lean into feminism & horror for both adult and YA fiction? When I heard about this one and saw the cover, I knew I was going to love it - and I was absolutely right. This was so much fun, so sapphic, and perfect for summertime reading!

I was so here for this book! Sapphic zombies? Yes please! I really enjoyed this book. I feel like after living through a pandemic, everyone can kind of relate to these characters. I found the ghoulish part very interesting. I liked how the “zombies” were still pretty human and I liked the whole “what really makes someone a monster” undertones in this book.

Also this book gets an A plus for perfect and broad representation!

I just reviewed This Delicious Death by Kayla Cottingham. #NetGalley
Love music? Love concerts? Love zombies? Then grab this book! Well written with todays teens in mind, this is a quirky little comedy horror novel that was fun to read, and I can’t wait for more from this writer!

This Delicious Death is one of the best queer YA Horror books I have EVER read! It has such an adorable romance, it has some amazing lgbtq+ rep, zombie type happenings caused by a rare unknown pathogen, and Coachella/Riverdale vibes. This book literally has it all and was written so perfectly to incorporate it.

I laughed, I gasped, I got angry, I got scared, but I cheered at the end and felt all the happy vibes! This is absolutely my favorite book of June 2023, and will be a very strong contender in Top 5 of the year.

I picked up this queer, YA horror because I enjoyed My Dearest Darkest by Cottingham, and it didn’t disappoint. Be sure to check the content warnings at the beginning before diving in. Two years ago, some of those who survived The Hollowing can now survive only by eating human flesh. Now, four hollow girls living in California attend a music festival as a last hurrah before graduation. When one of them goes feral seemingly out of nowhere by killing and eating a boy in the band, the rest will have to discover who is targeting the hollow and why if they want to save their friend and keep from going feral themselves.

This is how I like my horror. Mysterious, queer, and bloody. I picked it up in print but my audiobook hold came up around the same time, and I ended up listening to the entire book in about twenty-four hours. One of the things that keeps me coming back to YA is queer stories that aren’t explicitly about being queer. The characters who are queer do their thing, and the book is about their thing. That said, I’m always her for a little queer romance thrown in, and somehow, in the middle of the mystery (and the blood, don’t forget the blood), this one manages a cute friends to sweethearts narrative.

Quite unique, interesting and so much fun to read! If you're into YA horror &/or Sci-fi you're gonna enjoy this gem.

This is a funny YA teen zombie read. There's quite a bit of drama in the story line. The writing style is nice and helps make it a smooth and quick read. Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for an ARC.

3.75 - 4 stars

Friends to lovers, diversity & lgbtq+ Rep AND cannibalistic zombie cured and back in society? OH, YOU KNOW I LOVED THAT!
Switching between the present day at a festival & a year previous, we see our four main characters & best friend group deal with threats that loom over them as half-human/half-ghoul. Seeing that life can resume like usual and/or be altered by their change after ingestion changed them years ago and how someone's threat of revenge and prejudice might cost them their reclaimed humanity.

I enjoyed the small comparison we saw in how one of the character's parents wouldn't accept their ghoul kid after everything was proven to be safe and comparing that to lgbtq+ kids being treated like they are sick.
I only think that I would have loved it if the overall plot/threat had been a little tighter.

Overall a great book!

So much fun!!! It read like an episode of Riverdale or the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. Such a fun new worldand a fun take on the zombie trope.

This book was everything, I loved it! Give me all the sapphic YA horror stories please! Huge huge thank you to Sourcebooks Fire for the ARC of this one!

This wasn’t what I expected, but very much filled my want for horror and gore. I loved how funny this book was and made me want to go watch Jennifer’s bossy or I zombie

This was a really well written YA horror novel. I enjoyed the personality of all four characters. We also had great diversity representation including a trans character and characters of different ethnic backgrounds. I especially appreciated that the trans character wasn’t put through more horrible circumstances vs the cis characters.

Zoey, Celeste, Jasmine and Val venture out for the Desert Bloom outdoor rock concert. It’s two years post a zombie pandemic. Humans that are now considered “ghouls” manage their hunger pangs with synthetic flesh that has been made by the U.S. Government.

The concert is in full force when a member of the four shows symptoms of becoming more violent with an altered appearance. Chaos ensues.

The book switched between two timeframes. The transitions were seamless and I didn’t find myself enjoying one timeframe over the other. The past timeframe focuses on the buildup to the zombie apocalypse and how it affected each character. The present is firmly centered at the rock concert.

The ending had a great resolution that was fast paced and satisfying. The novel was fun, fast paced and just enough gore.