I really enjoyed reading this book I loved it Thank you so much NetGalley for letting me read this book

Aftertaste
By: Daria Lavelle

5 Stars

Kostya is different. When just a young boy, he begins tasting things. Things he has never eaten. His mother thinks he is crazy, while others just don't believe him. Until, he gets a job in a restaurant and begins cooking what he calls his Aftertastes. Then, belief is in the pudding, some would say. Soon, he finds himself caught up in a deadly game. With the dead.

Wow. This story was amazing in its complexity. Every word had a reason. This is such a unique book. It brings a ghost story together with the real world in an awesome way. I loved the language and how it was set up. Some chapters long, some short. It had an eclectic bunch of characters that bleed together to make an amazing story. It was lyrical and appetizing. Start to finish. I mean, I can't count how many times this book made me hungry. Haha.

Overall, this was an all-around mysterious and well written book. It had me from the start. It was a beautiful book, especially that ending. I'm glad to have been able to fall in love with this story.

*I want to thank Netgalley and the author for this book in return for my honest review*

Stormi Ellis
Boundless Book Reviews

Thank you @simon.audio @netgalley @simonbooks @simonandschuster #partner for the gifted copies of this book!

This book was an absolute snack! I went into it thinking it’d be a light foodie read, but what I got was a full-course meal of quirky humor, kitchen drama, ghostly surprises, and so much heart. Fair warning though...don’t read this one on an empty stomach. The way Daria Lavelle describes food will make you raid your refrigerator more than once. I was drooling, craving things I didn’t even know existed, and low-key considering quitting my job to learn how to cook just to recreate some of these dishes.

Aftertaste is like if Hell’s Kitchen and Ratatouille had a weird, hilarious, and heartwarming ghost baby. The story has themes of grief, healing, love, all seasoned with humor and topped with a generous drizzle of giggles. HA! This book certainly reminded me of how food isn’t just food — it’s memories, feelings, and smells which can bring you to a very specific moment in time.

The characters were so fun and full of flavor too (see what I did there, I crack myself up). They felt relatable and a little messy. I laughed, I got misty-eyed, and yes… I got hungry.

If you’re craving a read that’s fresh, funny, a little spooky, and packed with heart — Aftertaste totally delivers. Daria Lavelle, you’ve officially made it onto my must-read list. Can’t wait to see what’s on the menu next!

I am a meat and potatoes girl, and this eclectic food didn’t make my mouth water. The story was so different from anything I have ever read. it held my interest and I found it delicious until the disappointing and boring ending.

Five-star read! I absolutely devoured this book and am so thankful for Daria Lavelle's imagination, empathy, creativity, and grit in writing this masterpiece. The premise of this book (tasting memories, afterlife, culinary themes, and grieving those who have past) seemed to me like a herculean feat - how to write a book about ghosts and kitchens to appeal to adults without a fantasy or horror tilt? But somehow the author managed to do so with such greatness that Aftertaste will forever be a favorite book of mine. The characters were so loveable that one had to root for them. The love stories were so real that romance writers will be taking notes. The drama equal to "The Bear" TV show. The grief and lost palatable and requiring tissues. Well done, and please write more!

Aftertaste is an intriguing approach to memory and the departed. Would you want to have a last meal with your dead?

In Aftertaste, a chef has discovered he can help people communicate with their dead by fixing a meal that that ghost leaves an aftertaste of in his mouth. As he rises to fame, he has to deal with the consequences of his actions. Is he helping or hindering these spirits?

This is one of those stories that sits with you. I absolutely devoured this tale like I was starving for the answers. It is a painful and breathtaking look at life, death, joy, and grief, and the hunger for a meaning to our lives. This was a love story worth waitng for, and I was left sobbing by the conclusion.
I highly recommend this read for the suspense and otherworldly drama. This truly is the most beautiful and poignant love story filled with high stakes, world shattering grief, and the persistence to find meaning in the madness that is life and what it means to be an immigrant from one world to the next.

This was a really unique concept! However, for me, it didn’t land well. I think there’s a fine line when there’s a book centered around food, and this book unfortunately focused on it a bit too much to the point where it felt repetitive and tiring.

This book is a cookbook filled with every human emotion - the story and the characters will resonate with you long after you've read the very last sentence. Daria Lavelle has written a phenomenal and heartfelt story - this definitely has to be on your summer reading list! Kudos to Lavelle and thanks for the ARC!!!

I went into "Aftertaste" expecting a quirky little foodie ghost story. You know, something like “Pushing Daisies” meets “The Bear.” Ghosts, food feelings, a tortured chef brooding over a stock pot – “Yes, chef!” I was ready. What I got instead was a slow-cooked, memory-infused devastation that cracked open every quiet corner of grief I thought I’d already dealt with — and then asked me, “You good?” while ladling out another bowl of existential soup.

Here’s how it works: Kostya Duhovny, our emotionally pickled main character, has a gift. Or a curse. Let’s call it what it is, trauma-enhanced tastebuds. One day, at age eleven, he randomly tastes his dead father’s favorite liver dish while sitting alone by a pool, which is already bleak as hell. It’s not metaphorical. The food hits him — smell, texture, flavor, the whole thing — even though it’s not actually there. It’s like his body remembers something he never got to say, and it shows up as a mouthful of sorrow. That “aftertaste” is the first time his grief speaks — and his mother’s response? A grippy sock vacation.

Fast forward through a brutal coming-of-age montage (dish pits, fancy kitchens, barely surviving on shame and carbs), and Kostya discovers he can recreate those ghost meals for other people. If he gets the dish exactly right, the dead come back. Not forever. Just long enough to sit down and eat one final meal. And yes, the rules are intentionally vague and increasingly unhinged — that’s part of the point. Grief isn’t linear. There’s no user manual for summoning the dead through borscht. But the emotional clarity is spot on, closure comes at a cost, and the longer you chase it, the messier the price.

And that’s where Maura walks in — eyes like chocolate laced with gold flakes, the kind of gaze that sees right through the mess you’re pretending isn’t there. She has a complicated history with the dead, one she doesn’t flaunt and definitely hasn’t resolved, but it’s made her sharp. She knows Kostya’s tampering with something sacred and unstable, and she warns him. Not because she doesn’t care — she does — but because she understands the cost. She’s here to witness him, if he’ll let her.

Maura really sees Kostya, not as a chef, not as a freak, but as someone carrying the weight of a thousand unsaid apologies. She challenges him, calls him out, and gently pushes him to ask whether helping others find closure is just a distraction from getting his own. Their dynamic is occasionally tense and sometimes messy, but it’s also honest in the way that only two broken people fumbling toward something real can be.

And then there’s Frankie — Kostya’s roommate, best friend, and a James Beard–nominated chef who brings levity without ever undercutting the gravity. Frankie knows about the aftertastes. He doesn’t run from them, doesn’t try to fix them — he just gets it. Their friendship isn’t flowery or performative. It’s late-night leftovers, brutal honesty, and the kind of loyalty that doesn’t need to announce itself. He’s the one who keeps things moving when Kostya starts to spiral — the grounding presence in a world that keeps threatening to tip sideways. And even when he’s not on the page, you can feel his influence in every corner of Kostya’s life.

This book is steeped in hunger — not just for food, but for forgiveness, understanding, connection. Lavelle writes dishes like emotional landmines: fudge that conjures grandfathers, goulash that opens old wounds, liver that tastes like guilt and lost time. Every scene in that kitchen hits like a memory you weren’t ready for. And the food writing? Absolutely gorgeous. It's indulgent, but it's always in service of the ache.

Is Kostya likable? That’s the wrong question. He’s real. He’s judgmental, guarded, and slow to trust, a boy growing into a man while dragging around a suitcase full of loss he was never taught to unpack. Of course he’s messy. He was abandoned, othered, institutionalized, and still came back swinging with a ladle in his hand. His choices aren’t always wise, but they make sense. He’s trying. He’s evolving. And yes, he self-sabotages, but he also begins, quietly, painfully, to open. He starts this story as a haunted kid in a chef’s coat and ends it as someone finally willing to leave the shadows of the kitchen and let himself be seen. Watching that arc unfold? It’s unforgettable.

This was a 4.5-star experience for me. Not because it was perfect — but because it hit something true. It’s that rare kind of story that blends the surreal with the sincere. I didn’t just read this book. I sat in it. I mourned with it. And anyone who’s ever worked in a kitchen knows: the most emotional moments don’t happen at the table. They happen in the walk-in, or the deep freeze — where it’s quiet, and cold, and no one’s watching when you finally fall apart. This book lets you fall apart — and then come back. Hope is what stays on your tongue, long after the grief’s tempered down.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the ARC — this book wrecked me, healed me, and somehow still left me hungry.

It's a foodie book with a splash of magical realism! Imagine if you could taste the flavors of memories and people that are no longer with us? Konstantin's father died when he was young and anytime he feels his presence nearby, he can taste some of his dad's favorite dishes. So why not make this capability available to everyone and reunite them with their deceased loved ones? What could go wrong?

What a great, unique concept for a story. The food scenes are beautifully written and the descriptions of the food are so detailed you feel like you are tasting them yourselves. The characters were very well developed and the author really captured how the smell of a particular dish can take you back in time, perhaps to your mother's or grandmother's kitchen. The power that food has over memories is vividly described and many of us today continue to cook these dishes to keep these memories alive.

An amazing multi course debut!

First things first - This book has a brilliant premise. It and the comparison to Under The Whispering Door is almost the entire reason I picked it up, expecting a highly emotional book about closure and the afterlife.

Ever since he lost his dad, ghosts have been giving Kostya a phantom aftertaste of a food that was special to their life some how
Years later, he recreates one. A ghost materializes in front of the person he made it for and they’re able to get a final goodbye that lasts until the end of the drink/food.

To begin, the pacing is a little slow, and there was a little more ‘how to move up in the restaurant business’ play by play and too little emotional ghost reunions.
I also found it strange that the kid that begged his father to play a palate testing game took that long to try and recreate the tastes?? Where was his curiosity?

Still, I was interested enough in the idea, I was sticking with it.
Even when things started to get…weird

Just past the halfway point, there’s a twist that definitely turned things darker, unsettling.
I don’t want to say what exactly happens, because that spoils a major plot point. But from this point on the book wasn’t at all what I had thought at the beginning, which was a disappointment for me

Also - warnings for suicidal ideation/attempts

Thanks to Simon and Schuster for the arc

Many thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the free e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Aa young man can taste important meals from departed souls (aftertastes). Not only can he taste them, he can tell exactly how to recreate those meals, and thus bring back the dead. He figures out (accidentally) how to connect the living with their departed loved ones, and opens a restaurant to do just that.

The above should be all that you need to know prior to reading this story so I won't spoil the tale for you. I found myself so hooked by this well written story. I really liked this book a lot. The kitchen scenes felt authentic. The characters are well developed. I really liked Frankie. But Kostya was harder to like. I could see he was a really damaged person, just trying to do good but not knowing what that was or how to go about it. I did not like Maura.

Definitely worth the read!

Reading Aftertaste by Daria Lavelle was an experience that stayed with me long after I turned the final page. I found it to be a captivating exploration of the complex relationship between pain and pleasure, and how deeply food connects to our emotions, memories, and identity.

As I made my way through the story, I was struck by how beautifully Lavelle captured the emotional weight that food can carry. Every meal and every bite in the book reflected something deeper—grief, love, desire, or healing. It made me reflect on my own life and how certain tastes or smells can instantly bring back vivid memories.

What I appreciated most was how the narrative embraced the complexities of life. It didn’t shy away from emotional depth or discomfort but instead leaned into it, creating a story that felt both honest and intimate.

If you enjoy emotionally rich stories that explore the human experience through the lens of food and memory, I highly recommend Aftertaste. It's the kind of book that leaves a lasting impression.

'Aftertaste' was a beautiful, bittersweet novel. Our memories are one of the things that make us alive. Food is also a memory. Certain tastes and times stick with you, making you who are. Lavelle incorporated love and loss through his aftertastes so well that it was quite the feat. I loved the characters and the imagery throughout. I will live in my memory for awhile. 5 stars.

I knew I was going to love this book within the first few pages. The author pulls you into this world through beautiful prose and an interesting premise, which is both unique and executed well. I especially love the dark humor.

I am now a fan of Daria Lavelle's work, and will eagerly be awaiting her next novel.

Such beautiful writing about grief and how hard it is to let go of those that we love. Also about all the ways in which we hunger. Amazing and mouthwatering descriptions of food . So creative the way the author named the chapters and the parts of the book. I will say I thought the storyline about Kostya’s restaurant being a front for the Russian mob was a little weak and unnecessary; I loved the first ghost he brings back, the wife he brings back with the cocktail. The writing almost made me weep at parts: I really enjoyed this debut and recommend this book highly:

The main reason I gave this debut novel four stars was that it was totally unlike anything I've read, and believe me, I've read a lot over the years! It has fantasy, horror, romance, food, immigration and fitting in, mobsters, the restaurant business, grief, you name it. Kostya (short for Konstantin), who immigrated as a young boy with his parents to New York City from Ukraine, found it hard to make friends and be accepted by his peers. He held in a lot of anger toward his parents, especially his father, for dragging him across the ocean to what he felt was an unwelcoming place. After his father dies unexpectedly, Kostya has terrible guilt, but strangely discovers he can literally taste his father's favorite meal. This "gift" continues over the years, as he randomly tastes dishes with complex and detailed ingredients that have no connection to him or his family, plus how to prepare these dishes. He finally discovers he can summon a dead person's ghost for a loved one, as long as he provides the special dish that links the ghost to his or her friend or relative. The caveat is that the ghost only is available while the loved one is consuming that special dish. Weird, right?

Kostya eventually uses his impressive palate to secure work in the New York City restaurant industry. And while he is afraid to summon his father's ghost (after a short failed reunion while he was working at famous restaurant), he decides to put his "gift" to work by helping others reunite with their deceased loved ones from beyond the grave. Only that is not as smart or as safe as it seems.

So, yes, this is crazy on so many levels, but Ms. Lavelle does an impressive job making the reader care about the characters and keeping the plot moving -- despite how unbelievable it gets.

I don't want to give away anything, but I will say, reading this book really made me crave a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. I enjoyed reading it, and I especially enjoyed the author's descriptions of the cutthroat world of the restaurant business, and her amazing descriptions of all kinds of meals.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and Simon & Schuster for the eARC and the opportunity to read and review this book.

This is a great debut novel, and I love how the author incorporates broken English from the characters in their Russian accents. I felt like it added character and depth but also a touch of culture to the novel.

Absolutely devoured this book! Aftertaste is a wildly original blend of food, grief, love, New York, the Afterlife—and yes, hungry ghosts. It’s emotional, funny, mysterious, and full of heart.

Lavelle’s sensory writing will make you crave every dish, and her reflections on how food connects us to memory and love hit hard. The characters are big, bold, and unforgettable, and the unique take on life after death really made me think.

Highly recommend, just don’t read it on an empty stomach!

#Aftertaste #MeredithLavelle #BookReview #AmReading #FoodieFiction #GriefAndHealing #HungryGhosts #BookRecommendations

Aftertaste is the first book I have read from Daria Lavelle. The story is centered around the culinary world and fantasy. It's a love story that brings grief and and danger with it.