This was such a different kind of book! I wasn't sure what to expect and turned out to really like it. I had to get used to the writing style and pace, once I did though I was in 100%! Food, ghosts, romance, true love what more could you ask for? There is some tough subject matter so be warned. Well done Daria Lavelle! Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Aftertaste by Darla Lavelle is a deliciously original novel that blends food, memory, and the afterlife into a touching, whimsical, and at times bittersweet story. What first drew me to the book was its compelling premise that food can be a bridge between the living and the dead. For many of us, food is steeped in memory. Certain tastes bring us instantly back to moments with loved ones: for me, it's umeboshi and tuna sashimi that remind me of my grandmother and pork chops that bring back my grandfather. Lavelle takes that universal truth and weaves it into a beautiful narrative of loss, healing, and connection.

The heart of the novel lies with Konstantin who possesses a rare and deeply meaningful gift of experiencing an “aftertaste.” This aftertaste is a vivid and emotional taste of a dish that held great importance to someone who has passed away. These aren’t meals he’s ever eaten (except with his own loved one), yet the flavors come to him fully formed. Once he tastes them, he’s able to recreate the dish and, in doing so, make contact with the spirit connected to it.

Using this ability, Konstantin sets out to help spirits and their loved ones find closure. He offers them a final meal together, a last chance to say what was left unsaid. But as the story unfolds, questions arise on what is really happening.

The book primarily takes place in the culinary world, filled with rich descriptions of food that are both mouthwatering and emotionally resonant. Through Konstantin’s journey, Lavelle explores themes of regret, grief and the healing power of food. Watching Konstantin grow as a chef but and as a person wrestling with his own past makes the story all the more compelling.

Aftertaste is a poignant, heartwarming read for anyone who has ever found comfort in a family recipe or wished for just one more shared meal with someone they've lost. It’s a moving meditation on how the flavors we remember can carry the ones we love, even after they’re gone.

Highly recommended for fans of magical realism, culinary fiction, and stories with a lot of heart.


Thank you NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for this advanced digital copy.

Absolutely beautifully written. It did take me a while to get used to jumping back and forth between Kostya and Constantine but once I got it down the imagery and poetry of the way the scenes with the ghosts was written was so unbelievably moving.

This was an incredible debut of original storytelling resulting in a unique reading experience. The best I can put it into words makes for an unusual combination of genres: tragic romance and culinary ghost story. The author takes so many elements and blends them seamlessly into a tale of clairgustance (think clairvoyance but for taste). The themes of loss, grief, forgiveness, mental illness, friendship, remembrance, and the afterlife are blended together in the setting of the cutthroat world of NYC cuisine. I can't wait to read what she writes next!

I simply want to shout from the rooftops about how much I loved this book!! There is some absolutely gorgeous food writing in here, IMO. And the exploration of food and memory and grief in combination is quite moving. I am a sucker for a fun little narration mystery, which we get in spades here. I love to not know who is talking or when or where (not sarcasm)!!! Those sort of interstitial chapters were great. I really connected with and felt for both Kostya and Maura, and I hope you like this too when you read it ASAP.

Thank you to Simon and Schuster for my copy of AFTERTASTE.

Wow what a book. This one instantly sucked me in. It's got ghosts, food and love. What else could you ask for? I miss these characters so much and will be thinking about them for a long time.

This book was an interesting twist of grief, food and culture woven within. I thought the story was well written. I liked the aspect of sharing a meal with someone you knew that is special to you. She wrote super vividly on the food parts and made me more interested than I thought I could be in a book I had little in common with.
I didn’t always connect with the main character of this book but overall I enjoyed the journey through.

Aftertaste was a great story that had me reflecting on what would I do if I had the chance to talk to someone I recently lost one last time. We meet Kostya, who after losing his Dad at a young age starts tasting ‘the dead’ – or their favorite meals. He learns to reconnect loved ones with their deceased but sadly learns that the laws of nature should not be messed with. This was a touching book that had me reflecting on my own experiences and the importance of loving and letting go. Thank you NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the eARC.

If you’ve ever tasted something and instantly remembered a person, a place, a moment—Aftertaste is your kind of weird.

Daria Lavelle’s debut is one of those books that defies easy labels. It’s a ghost story, sure, but also a love story, a meditation on grief, and a deep dive into the chaotic poetry of restaurant kitchens. Oh, and it has killer food writing—no pun intended.

Konstantin “Kostya” Duhovny isn’t your average haunted soul. He doesn’t see ghosts. He tastes them. He’s plagued by sudden mouthfuls of meals he’s never eaten, the favorite foods of spirits lingering nearby. It’s bizarre, deeply original, and—somehow—it works. After a lifetime of silence, Kostya decides to act on the flavors that haunt him. He starts cooking. And from there, things spiral: grief therapy via five-course meals, spectral reunions over duck à l’orange, and a whole lot of emotional unraveling.

Lavelle is fearless with tone, shifting from tender to terrifying to laugh-out-loud funny, often within a single scene. One moment you’re swooning over a love interest with psychic baggage, the next you’re panicking about what happens when the afterlife gets hangry.

What’s wild is how much works. The characters are layered and strange and often kind of awful—in that compelling, “I don’t want to hang out with you, but I will absolutely read 400 pages about your existential spiral” way. Kostya in particular is a mess: charming, judgy, impulsive, and just self-aware enough to know he's in over his head. His friendship with Frankie, is one of the book’s most compelling threads, adding levity and pathos in equal measure.

And the food. Lavelle writes with a sensuality that borders on criminal. Even if you’ve never been near a Michelin star kitchen, you’ll feel the sizzle, the steam, the weight of memory in a sauce reduction. It’s less about appetite and more about soul hunger—a craving for connection, forgiveness, closure.

Bottom line? Aftertaste is completely unhinged in the best possible way. It’s about food and ghosts and love and grief and the terrifying idea that the only thing harder than letting go… is not knowing when to. Definitely one of my top reads this year.

If Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential, Stephanie Danler’s Sweetbitter, and the movie Ghost had a baby, it would be this funny, weird, heartfelt, unputdownable novel. Konstantin has been haunted by grief since the death of his father at age 10, and ghosts connect with him in a strange way: through his palette. When a spirit is nearby, he gets an ‘aftertaste’ of a meal the deceased enjoyed when they were alive.
Directionless and adrift, he earns money washing dishes at a cocktail bar in the financial district when something extraordinary happens: he makes the aftertaste cocktail for the widowed husband of a spirit present in the bar. Thus begins a hero’s journey of the absurd, the living, and the dead. I loved this strange, fast paced, novel of the uncanny; and is definitely one of my favorite new releases of 2025.
Many thanks to Simon + Schuster and NetGalley for the advanced copy!

I selected so many moods for Aftertaste because it broguht out so many different feelings in me. While these leaned more heavily into the food than I was anticipating, it moved me to tears and made me laugh so many times. As someone who has recently lost people very close to me, I hugged this at the end.

I DNF’d this one at 30% - it’s way too sad for me to get through right now. the writing is beautiful, though! Maybe I will pick it back up at some point. Thank you NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the eARC.

This book has such a unique and heartfelt premise. After the loss of his father, a man realizes that he has an unbelievable gift of bringing back to dead, in order to give their living relatives a chance to say goodbye. He does this by receiving a taste of a meaningful meal or drink from a ghost in the afterlife, and crafting it for the living person to consume, thus briefly bridging the two worlds.

The culinary descriptions are an absolute highlight. The author’s details were so vivid that they made me long to taste the dishes myself as I read. Had me thinking it would be so cool if they did a restaurant experience like in the book where you got to try all of the meals that were described. I would be up for that for sure!

What starts out as a very personal journey to reconnect with his late father, evolves into a love story when Konstantine crosses paths with a woman who is mourning the loss of her sister; a death she carries guilt over.

The back half of the book unfortunately fell a little flat for me. I wasn’t as interested in the storyline related to closing the portal between the living and the dead; felt a little Ghostbusters to me.

Still, the overarching idea of offering people one last, meaningful moment with someone they’ve lost, was relatable. I also loved the idea of someone giving so much of themselves, all for another person. It’s a unique read, and worth picking up for anyone who appreciates stories about grief, healing, and the power of food.

What a fantastic story! Aftertaste is unique and will stick with you long after you have finished turning the pages. I loved Kostya, he was such a good-hearted character that was easy to relate to. You want to see him succeed, you want to see him happy. While I liked Maura, her selfishness stood in the way of her becoming a standout character for me. Even at the end, I was like, dang, you are still going for yourself, not sharing the love. She says she is in love, but her actions speak otherwise. The premise is what makes this book so special. The ability to communicate with the dead through food. What an incredibly unique concept. I loved it. I look forward to reading more by this author.

I love books about grief, and I found Aftertaste to be one of the most creative takes on healing and closure after a loved one passes away.
I laughed, I cried, I wanted to eat all of the food, and reflect on my own ‘aftertastes’!
Aftertaste is solidly in one of my favorite books of all time—especially for books about grief.

the structure of the book was so interesting and creative, I didn’t see any of the twists coming, Lavelle does a brilliant job describing but also showing how people experience and process grief, and the description of the aftertastes are incredible!
As a lover of The Bear, I enjoyed the fast paced high end cuisine/restaurant dynamics Konstantin navigates. There are so many things I loved about this book!

As someone in the #deaddadsclub I was weepy reading Konstantin process the death of his father. I found Aftertaste to be heavy, yet light, and I can’t stop thinking about it! Swipe for some of my fav highlights and minor spoiler on slide 3

My aftertastes would be:
1. Frog eye salad, lefse, rhubarb crunch, and tang (the orange drink mix), peanut butter toast with a layer of butter first
2. Cornish Pasty (but made in Butte Montana 🫶)
3. Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream, sixlets, walleye, and Pecan Lodge Brisket

Thank you so much @netgalley , Simon and Schuster for an ARC. I loved this so much! @simonbooks

CWs:
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Grief
Moderate: Suicide attempt, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Drug use, Child death, Gun violence

Thanks to NetGalley & Simon & Schuster for the chance to read this book

Personally I loved everything about this book, I stalled on reading it because I thought I'd have the least enjoyment out of this one, but in fact i had the most of the group of books I was reading at the time. Couldn't eat this book up fast enough for my tastebuds. I loved the beautiful descriptions of everything esp the recipes. Loved the huge twist with the "tour guide" is all I will say! This book is def worth a read, I will be looking out for anything this author does in the future!

This was a quite different book than I am used to reading, but it was enjoyable. What made it feel that way was the characters, their stories, and the odd experience of the MCs life and how he’s able to taste the food that ghosts are craving. I loved the fact that his career took off because of his ability. But of course, every story has its downfalls. It’s wasn’t a happy ending to the story but it was ok I guess. The book is pretty well written but could’ve used a few improvements in my opinion.

This was a pretty great read overall…but I would not read again for several reasons:

1. I felt a little uneasy about 40% through because I was questioning what the plot truly was of this book. It was not predictable.

2. There was a lot of trauma that was unpacked throughout the book. I know it was mentioned in the warnings but it was a little intense.

3. I will admit I hated the ending, it was just left in limbo. Quite literally.

I was intrigued by Aftertaste, billed as a food story, a ghost story, and a love story. But 20% in, it just feels like a ghost story and a tale of arrested development of a 20-something whose dad died when he was ten.

Still, I persevered, assuming that the story will build. But then a plot point truly required I suspend disbelief - one not involving magic or ghosts! - and the book lost me.

I admit that I am *not* a frequent reader of paranormal fiction. Such readers likely will find a lot more to enjoy here.

I was mesmerized by this story of food and love and spirits. If you are a foodie, if you love watching The Bear or reading Sweetbitter, if you've ever worked in a high end restaurant, if you relish descriptive writing that can make your mouth water and paints pictures in your head, you must read this. For me, all of the above is true, and Aftertaste was an absolute triumph of a read! All the stars!

I love the concept of this story…Konstantin has the ability to connect with spirits through tasting the special meals they shared with their loved ones. He turns this into a business—connecting the living with their departed loved ones by making the meals that he tastes. Konstantin ends up getting way more than he bargained for.

This worked for me for a little bit, but the it just got too bizarre for my tastes. It went to a place I was not expecting and as much as I can see why the author did it, it didn’t really work for me. I love supernatural, magical realism elements. However, it was tough to connect to all of the clients trying to connect with loved ones because of the lack of background or depth of these characters. This story “dishes” a side of romance and grief that I enjoyed.

For a debut, this was well written and unique, but you certainly have to keep an open mind.

Thanks to Netgalley for a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review!