This is a fresh take on a typical zombie story with great diverse characters and an interesting story line as well. I was hooked from the beginning!

This Delicious Death by Kayla Cottingham is a sapphic horror about a pathogen that causes people to be unable to eat normal food, but to require human flesh. Once scientists were able to create a synthetic version, these "ghouls" were able to return to society and everything went back to normal again. But people were still very distrustful of those affected by the pathogen. When four friends who were all infected with the pathogen went to the desert for a music festival, some very strange stuff started happening. Were they being targeted? What was going on? This book was fun, scary, and heartwarming all at the same time, and I really enjoyed it. Thanks to NetGalley for the free digital review copy. All opinions are my own.

This book was WILD. Truthfully, I was pre-approved for this book and so I didn’t actually read the summary & went in blind. And let me just say that that was a *great* decision on my end & made my reading experience so much more enjoyable (despite me also not being a super big horror fan 😅). Marketed as being within the same family as the cult classic film “Jennifer’s Body,” this book was queer, cannibalistic, just straight up an absolute godd*mn massacre…. And I enjoyed every second of it. AND there’s festival vibes even mixed in?? Lol sign me up, I’m there! This was my first time reading this author & I definitely can’t wait to see what she comes out with next!

This is the perfect YA horror book for summer!! The music festival setting is so fun and it’s just the right amount of gore! I also loved that it was sapphic!! Fun read for the summer season!

I feel like I'm going against the grain with my review on this one but it wasn't the zombie story I was hoping for. The premise sounded fun and I couldn't wait to jump in. The cover? A blood covered cooler - it was killer. Once I started reading I found it hard to keep going. It just did not hold my interest. The characters felt a little cliché and the MC needed to get out of their own head.

This booooook.

Zombies + people eaters + love + evil boy bands. Amazing.

I read Kayla’s previous book as well, but I think I like this one better. There are low input stakes, with crazy high outcomes. 10/10

ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

This book had some unexpected shockers that really caught me off guard. I’ll start by saying that I loved all the human and how realistic of a situation this could be, especially in light of the pandemic. The setting of the weekend music festival in the California dessert was the perfect backdrop for this story to play out but I also really appreciated the small glimpses into the four girls pasts. I did not see the twists at the end coming but it all completely made sense and ended exactly as it should have. If you’re into mysteries with some suspense and horror thrown in for good measure, check this book out!

This is perfect summer horror! A dash of zombie, YA, friends-to-lovers, and LGBTQIA representation! This book is hilarious and will resonate with so many.

My first YA horror! I went into this knowing nothing except that it is a YA Sapphic horror novel. As someone who hadn't read any horror before I didn't really have any expectations. This book was fun, easy to follow and I appreciated its length. I can imagine that stories such as this one can quickly become too long and drag. The first page was a great hook.
3/5

I really enjoyed this novel, though I don't usually read YA, I loved the premise and the representation. I've ordered it into our store and I can't wait to display it for Pride in June.

Thank you netgalley and Sourcebooks Fire for the copy of This Delicious Death. When four best friends with a hunger for human flesh attend a music festival in the desert they discover a murderous plot to expose and vilify the girls and everyone like them. This summer is going to get gory.

I’m finding it tough to review this one as it was fine. It starts off a bit slow and while generally I love books that have mixed media elements to them, it didn’t feel like it fit well in this. There needed to be more or taken out completely.

However, I really enjoyed the pining and the queer best friends to lovers storyline. Plus, it was great to see how different a friend group can be in terms of personality and yet so supportive of each other. Overall, I would give this ⭐️⭐️⭐️. It’s a decent read, just not the horror, music fest thrill ride I was hoping for.

I accessed a digital review copy of this book from the publisher.
The book ends up being a buddy horror novel with a romance thrown in at the end. The main characters are ghouls/zombies that are trying to live a normal life and go to a music festival. While there they encounter extreme ghouls and try to find out who is causing it.
At times it felt like there was a lot going on, with plot points added because of how they would look and not how they affect the plot.

This book was simply fun. Yes, it was gory and descriptive when the girls' bloodlust takes over, but I was here for it. Think Queer Valley girls who just happen to ingest human blood instead of sushi lol Seriously though I was loving all the queer rep. Our main voice of the story is Zoey, whose bisexual, and she is deep in bi panic as she tries to avoid her crush on her bestie by redirecting her focus to a random boy who shows her attention. Next her childhood best friend and crush Celeste is transfemale and bisexual. Then ex-cheerleader Valeria is also bi and last but not least Jasmine is a lesbian, who was totally crushing on Val but that unfortunately never blossomed to more.

The present day story arc is told through the eyes of Zoey sprinkled with a few incident reports and flashbacks. The flashbacks were one of my favorite aspects of the story because it gave us the other three girls of the group's prospectives. We saw what each one went through during the original outbreak as they become Hollows. I wish we had hear POVs more than that, but with 4 of them it might have become a bit too much. The romance portion of the story was slightly weaker than I wanted it to be, but it was overall sweet. The friendship bond between Celeste and Zoey made my heart happy.

This Delicious Death was a great Queer YA thriller that was extremely entertaining. Four ride or die best friends, a road trip, a cooler full of synthetic blood, music festival shenanigans, no name bands, sharing a bed with your crush, accidentally killing and eating of a boy, karma for the bad guys, and a satisfying ending for our group of besties!

Thank you to the publisher & Netgalley for an advance copy of this title! This fresh take on the zombie trope was enjoyable but not overly impressive. Definitely will promote to my YA & Horror crowds.

Publisher Description:
Three years ago, the melting of arctic permafrost released a pathogen of unknown origin into the atmosphere, causing a small percentage of people to undergo a transformation that became known as the Hollowing. Those impacted slowly became intolerant to normal food and were only able to gain sustenance by consuming the flesh of other human beings. Those who went without flesh quickly became feral, turning on their friends and family. However, scientists were able to create a synthetic version of human meat that would satisfy the hunger of those impacted by the Hollowing. As a result, humanity slowly began to return to normal, albeit with lasting fear and distrust for the people they'd pejoratively dubbed ghouls.

Zoey, Celeste, Valeria, and Jasmine are all ghouls living in Southern California. As a last hurrah before their graduation they decided to attend a musical festival in the desert. They have a cooler filled with hard seltzers and SynFlesh and are ready to party.

But on the first night of the festival Val goes feral, and ends up killing and eating a boy. As other festival guests start disappearing around them the girls soon discover someone is drugging ghouls and making them feral. And if they can't figure out how to stop it, and soon, no one at the festival is safe.

This book was so good! I loved how addicting the writing style was and how fun the story was. It was one of those books that immediately hooks you and doesn’t let go until it ends.

I thought this was a pretty solid YA. I honestly liked the ridiculous plot, and I thought the characters were fun. It was a bit too gory for my tastes, but that's to be expected from a zombie book. I did think the romance was wholly unnecessary, but it was still cute. Overall a good time.

Lets just start off by saying that I loved this book so much that I will be buying a physical copy and then buying one for my best friend to read. I will be for sure doing a reread of this amazing book this Fall during Spooky Season.

This fun thriller is a great summer read. I love the new look at zombies and the fun twists. This is one that you can't put down,

This book was weird and creepy and made my skin crawl in the best way. not for those with weak stomachs but if you like gross factor, it's perfect.

Zoey, Celeste, Valeria, and Jasmine Are four hollow girls-only able to survive by eating flesh-or synthetic flesh. When one of them eats a band member during their graduation trip to a music festival, bad things start happening. They hav3 to find out how to get out of the festival alive.

I’m not a big horror person., but this was entertaining. It’s a sapphic , YA book that I think will be popular with the right crowd.