I loved this! Obviously, I liked some stories more than others, but can we talk about how this was a great showcase of horror that involved a wonderful array of authors that are from around the world. The main theme is consumption/eating/food, and I know that might put a few people off. Knowing what I was getting into, it was much easier to enjoy it all. Great anthology.

Tried this author for the first time and was not disappointed. I really enjoyed the stories that were presented. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the arc of this book in return for my honest review. Receiving this book in this manner has no bearing on this review.

This collection of short stories is pretty creepy and spooky, and I love it! I like when women are shown as powerful beings in the stories and this book is packed with them. This is a feminist must-read!!!

The theme for this horror anthology was food and consumption, and some stories really ran with the theme in creative directions.

An example is the lead story, "Candy Girl" by Chikodili Emelumadu, which uses chocolate to tell the story of a love spell gone wrong.

But a good portion of the 22 stories had potential that was wasted by the need to shock rather than scare. Some even felt meandering with no point other than to fulfill the theme.

There are enough good stories that this book is worth checking out, but not enough for me to fully recommend.

Full review at Zengrrl.com soon.

Thank you to Octavia Cade (editor), A. R. Henle, Alyssa Wong, Amelia Gorman, Anahita Eftekhari, Betsy Aoki, Caroline M. Yoachim, Catherynne M. Valente, Chikodili Emelumadu, Crystal Lynn Hilbert, D. A. Xiaolin Spires, Damien Angelica Walters, Erin Horáková, H. Pueyo, Jasmyne J. Harris, Joyce Chng, Katharine Duckett, Kathleen Alcalá, Kathryn McMahon, Penny Stirling, Rachael Sterling, Rem Wigmore, Sabrina Vourvoulias, Upper Rubber Boot Books, and NetGalley for allowing me the extreme pleasure of access to an advanced reader copy of “Sharp & Sugar Tooth: Women Up To No Good” for an honest review.

I was so excited to hear about this anthology when I stumbled over it seeking new, upcoming releases by Cat Valente. There's such a wonderful way that one came play on the idea of appetites in a people and how that can relate to food, sex, death, and truly almost any part of what someone puts their focus on/passion into. That this was a book on women's appetited, and it was going to be the sweet ones and sharp ones, I was over the moon and had to have it immediately.

Sadly, I feel this whole book came off as trying too hard, as being an amazing concept but one lacking in execution.

Thanks to the publishers for sharing this one. It's quite an unusual collection, and I suspect it won't be to a lot of people's taste., but I really enjoyed it. My full review appears on Weekend Notes.

The author knows really how to capture an audience. I look forward to reading more what the author has to offer. Quick read finished in 2 days. Cover is interesting as well.

This is an interesting collection of culturally-diverse short stories. It immediately reminded me o the final story in the film The Theatre Bizarre. The editor chose a great transition from one story to the next and each story is beautifully written; but, as with most anthologies, some stories are more remarkable than others. I probably disliked more than I liked, but my favorites were 'What the Bees Know of Discarded Girlish Organs', 'Strong Meat', and 'Who Watches'.

I received this book for free and have reviewed voluntarily.

Sharp & Sugar Tooth. Edited by Octavia Cate. Published 26 Mar 2019 by Upper Rubber Boot Books Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), Members' Titles

All 22 short stories collated for this ‘women up to no good series’ are well written works of fiction. The book is the winner of 13 awards and shortlisted for 3. I cannot fault the writing. Each author deserves to be followed up.

Octavia Cade, the editor, has pulled together a pack of writers whose brief was to write about the sweet and the sour, the mouth-watering, the edible, the dark and dirty side of the pleasures of eating, chopping, cooking, and consumption of anything and anyone. Some readers might care about these topics, or are daring readers of the dark and different.

Every story highlights the bite-able, chop-up-able, lick-able, poison-able and obsession-able. Knives and stakes are sharpened, people are tortured, sliced and consumed on a regular basis for the merest of reasons. Cannibalism, horror, sex and eating, sit side by side.

One story sums up the genre. Gimme Sugar by Katharine Duckett. A woman in a bar shares her confession of the unbearable loss of love. It all seems fairly normal until she tells a stranger of a possible cure. The cure takes her into a dark fantasy world of pastries and sweet things, her ex-lover is recreated into a life size gingerbread model, which she makes love to and then gorges herself out of her romantic delusion. The stranger begs to be taken to this place as a form of absolution for a wife who ditched him and he is still obsessed with.

Overall, I found the content of women and their obsessions with food, consumption, pleasure, fetish and addictions with people, fascinating.

However, these works took it too close to the dark edges of insanity, for me. I could imagine psychiatric wards containing people who think these thoughts and they are driven mad by it. I could imagine a commuter train filled with a batch of people who might consider cannibalism. Most stories are creepy and at times my stomach churned uncomfortably. I could not finish reading it.

I received this complimentary book via Net Galley and chose to review it due to its obsession with food and consumption. The following is my own, honest opinion.

To be completely honest, this book wasn't really for me.
I thought it sounded really great, and I love creepy stuff but the stories was weird and honestly just gross.
I really liked the idea behind the anthology, but I ended up giving up halfway through it. A for effort though.

I normally love horror anthologies, but this was not a great selection of stories. I found it difficult to get into.

I loved the introduction to this book!
I believed I'd find engaging stories about women/ people who are nonbinary or identify as women and their relationships around food and power struggles with their gender identity, but the majority of the stories missed the mark for me. They were too food-focused for me and read like food fetish porn.

I really appreciate a collection put together featuring only female, non-binary, marginalized sex or gender identities though and really hope they continue doing this!

I typically love anthologies. I love that different authors have the ability create such diverse stories with just a premise to go on. Sharp & Sugar Tooth should have been one of those loves. A dark horror anthology revolving around food? Sounds like a lot of fun, right? The introduction of the book tells of "...we eat or we die. And that makes food ripe for exploitation and power." (Can't argue with that.) Food then becomes a "tool of empowerment within horror, and consumption is a two-way process". The many stories are set up as a look into the relationship between food and women, and how women are often consumed, with or without their consent, for the benefit of others. After such a thought-provoking introduction, I was excited to read this anthology.

Unfortunately, this one missed the mark for me. I didn't feel that the stories held up to the genius that the introduction led me to believe I'd find. Sure, there are some very interesting stories in this collection that seemed to get it right in reference to the introduction. The themes do vary considerably and a variety of cultures are represented, which is always nice. In the end though, I found myself wanting to skip ahead to the next story because most just really didn't keep my attention. I read this one in between other books, just to be able to get through it.

(in book order)

Chikodili Emelumadu, “Candy Girl” - 3🐾

Katharine Duckett, “Gimme Sugar” - 2.5 🐾

Jasmyne J. Harris, “What the Bees Know About Discarded Girlish Organs” - 4 🐾

Kathryn McMahon, “The Honey Witch” - 3 🐾

Alyssa Wong, “Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers” - 4🐾

D. A. Xiaolin Spires, “Bristling Skim” - 1🐾

Anahita Eftekhari, “The Fool’s Feast” - 3 🐾

Penny Stirling, “Red, From the Heartwood” - 2 🐾

Damien Angelica Walters, “A Lie You Give, And Thus I Take” - 3 🐾

Caroline M. Yoachim, “The Carnival Was Eaten, All Except the Clown”- 3 🐾

Sabrina Vourvoulias, “A Fish Tale” - 2 🐾

A. R. Henle, “Strong Meat”- 2 🐾

Rachael Sterling, “Alice Underground” - 3 🐾

Kathleen Alcalá, “The Doll’s Eye” - 2 🐾

Catherynne M. Valente, “The Lily and the Horn” - 2 🐾

Crystal Lynn Hilbert, “Soul of Soup Bones” - 1🐾
Joyce Chng, “Dear Son” - 2 🐾

Erin Horáková, “A Year Without the Taste of Meat” - 2 🐾

Amelia Gorman, “She Makes the Deep Boil”- 2 🐾

H. Pueyo, “I Eat” - 3 🐾

Rem Wigmore, “Who Watches”- 3 🐾

Betsy Aoki, “And When We Die They Will Consume Us” - 3 🐾

I don't typically review books unless I finish them and did this one, though just barely. While most of the stories weren't my cup of tea, I highly recommend that you try it yourself as everyone reads differently and what I love, you might hate and vice versa.

I read the first 3 stories then put it down. I enjoy reading "dark fiction" as well as strong female characters so I really thought I would enjoy this. The first story was a great into for the rest of the book. However I just couldn't keep reading after the 3rd story. Some of the actual writing left me confused. Some were just not my style or what I expected. Life is too short for books that don't hold your attention.

Definitely not my type of book.. found it difficult to get into the stories though to be fair I am generally not a huge fan of short stories. This book was graciously provided via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Wow, I just don't think this book was for me. I struggled with this book to finish it. I believe the stories just missed the mark.

I'll be honest, I couldn't finish this book.
It's basically an anthology, using food as social commentary about how women are treated - that's the rubbish it tried to justify itself with anyhow.
But instead of any form of social commentary, the only thing I really took away from this book was that it was compiled by someone/people with a food fetish, pure and simple.
You know the people who like to roll around in their food, throw it everywhere etc? I don't know the name for it.
This book is written for them.
Which is fine, but that is definitely NOT what the blurb described !
I mean. At one point at girl is reminiscing about eating her fake-sweet ex-girlfriends gummy nipples? I mean come on !
DNF, 1 star. Absolutely not for me.

I was grateful (I think?!) to receive this ARC in exchange for my honest review.
#sharpsugartooth #netgalley

Received via NetGalley for review.

The premise for this anthology is interesting, if not revolutionary: women through the lens of food and consumption. The introduction, written by Octavia Cade, brings up some wonderful points about how women are often the consumable in relationships of any type, offering themselves up for the enrichment of others in their lives.

Unfortunately, and as has been stated, the stories that follow don't really live up to the examining and thought-provoking introduction. Only a few of the stories collected has a strong connection to the theme (such as "Candy Girl," the first one, and whichever one features two lovers combining their boy parts into one), and the others didn't really hold my attention. The very last story was the best, so I'm glad it started and ended strong. But overall, a very uneven collection.

The premise of this one seemed exciting, but the actual book was disappointing. I was looking forward to some enjoyable short stories, but felt like I had to force myself to finish the book.

Loved the introduction to the book since it set me up for what was to follow. In this anthology, the stories fit in nicely with the theme and "Candy Girl" was a nice way to start off really using it to emphasize the darker appetite of a woman especially when a man tries to pull something over on her. Many of the authors were new to me and I will definitely be looking them up to see what else was written by them. I voluntarily reviewed an advanced reader copy of this book from NetGalley.