I enjoyed this so much more than I ever thought I would. I received this book for free from Netgalley (thank you) but was not expecting much. This well exceeded my expectations. It was fun, adventurous, monstrous, and full of heart. What an enjoyable ride and even more enjoyable characters.

"This Delicious Death" by Kayla Cottingham is a thrilling Queer YA horror featuring four hollow "zombie" girls at a desert music festival. As they face dosing incidents and an infected member, the girls must uncover the truth before more lives are lost. This gory and entertaining book offers diverse queer representation and a strong friendship bond. With unexpected twists and a satisfying ending, it's a must-read Queer YA thriller.

A YA story about 4 best friends who turned into ghouls after the melting of permafrost, count me in!

The beginning of this book hooked me from the start. The girls trying to decide if they packed enough synthetic organs for their music festival trip. They get to the hotel, meet some boys in a band, and then Val kills one of the boys. The mystery, horror, and fun begins.

The author does a great job explaining how the government has an app that tracks what they eat and a ghoul also must request to travel outside of where they typically live. I like the flashbacks and the diversity this book brings. I do feel like this book became sluggish and off point at times. I feel like the vibes of the concert venue was off.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC.

Get in losers, we’re going to the Desert Bloom Musical Festival!

Zoey, Celeste, Valeria and Jasmine attend the Desert Bloom music festival, a rite of passage prior to graduating, but this isn’t the core adolescent memory it should be. Several years prior, the Hollowing occurred where an illness swept across the world in which the afflicted could only survive by consuming human flesh and as it happens, these 4 friends are ghouls (the name given to those with the illness). But like Fyre Fest, while at Desert Bloom, things don’t go according to plan and they bite off more than they can chew (pun fully intended, and no, I am not ashamed to say this).

I loved how every chapter began either with a flashback from the perspective of the various main players to expand the readers understanding of how the Hollowing had affected them, or excerpts of work instant messages, text messages and excerpts from fictional books about the Hollowing to give context to the world the characters inhabit. However, this only emphasised the fact I would have liked to have seen greater world building as the social and political context which the story takes place in are thrown at the reader. Consequently, these ideas never felt fully explored and ultimately felt glossed over.

While it was absolutely fantastic to see so much positive LGBTQ+ representation and a romantic subplot that felt realistic, I felt the pacing throughout was inconsistent which meant that I didn’t feel fully invested in the characters or storyline until the final few chapters when all hell broke loose. This was a surprise given the book was under 300 pages, but I acknowledge my qualms are likely due to the brevity of the novel.

I could easily see This Delicious Death becoming a book series or being adapted for television which would allow further opportunities to flesh out (this time, the pun is intended) the world Cottingham has created.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

When four best friends with a hunger for human flesh pack a cooler and attend a music festival in the desert, they discover a murderous plot to expose and vilify the girls and everyone like them.   
   
A gory horror book filled with cannibalistic queer ghouls? Yes please. This book was fun! It was a perfect mix of humor and horror with four best friends who I simply adored. This book was a wild ride filled with flashbacks and plot twists. I definitely recommend adding to your TBR if you’re looking for a fun horror book!

*4.5 Stars*

After the Hollowing some years ago, some people have been turned into Hollows, as if they now have to eat human flesh but apart from that, they all good. Except not everyone accepts them...
Zoey, Jasmine, Celeste and Valeria are Hollows but they're also 18 years old going to their first music festival ever. And they're very excited. Until things get weird... Really weird.

This was very fun. I'm usually not into horror but I'm getting into it when it has queer girls in it. This was the perfect mix of gory and fun? I really liked the friend group dynamics and the characters themselves. I also enjoyed the little flashbacks and the other points of view at the beginning of every chapter. I had a great time reading the friends to lovers romance, I honestly just liked all of it. The mystery plot really kept me hooked just as much as the romance did. Truly a hit for me. I will without a doubt be looking into more books by Kayla Cottingham.

This was an okay title, but I wouldn’t say that it’s amazing. The concept was interesting and I like that it was a pandemic issue, but not Covid. There was a bit of mystery and I didn’t fully expect the guilty party to be the guilty party.

I can't believe I didn't read this sooner - this story was an absolute joy, considering it stars flesh-eating ghouls. The writing, characterization, and swift moving plot kept me hooked the whole time, I read it in a single sitting.

Enjoyable, great pacing, exciting settings kept me hooked. Campy horror novel that will be the perfect summer read. Thank you Net Galley for ARC in exchange for my honest opinion

Jennifer's Body but even more sapphic? Hit me up.
This is a fun, somewhat gory story following four best friends going to a festival only to end up involved in a murder mystery.
I had such a good time with this book - from the sapphic, pining vibes of falling in love with your best friend but fearing their reaction if you tell her to the munching on bad boys, this somehow felt like the perfect spooky summer read. If you like best-friends-to-lovers, female friendships and sapphic horror all mixed together with an epic road trip, then this one is for you!

I love everything about this story !!! Check out my links for my thoughts ❤️ thank you again for the arc

This Delicious Death by Kayla Cottingham

I have been telling everyone about this book so more it’s y’alls turn!

Every once in a while I pick up a YA book and this one was great. It’s got a world altering virus, zombies, high school graduation, music festival in the desert, and chaos.

A super fun summer read and enough drama to make you feel good about your own high school days (maybe).

Thanks @netgalley and @sourcebooksfire for this advanced reader!

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Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this free eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This story got me talking with other book loving friends. One minute you feel like you are following four friends through the summer after senior year in any coming of age book. Where they are discussing next steps for the future, relationships budding, and emotional tensions at an all time high with a hint of mystery about this mysterious sickness they have suffered in the "Hallowing". The next minute you are reading on and you are in the middle of a zombie-esque novel full of cannibalism and the question of who is eating who and why?

This novel surely kept me on my toes, though I did have to putt it down here and there when it just became "too much".

I got very excited when I saw I was approved for an arc and from the moment I read the very first line I knew I was in for a great time.

YA horror books can be very hit or miss for me but the plot worked great, it was wild and gory from the moment it started and it was definitely my favorite part of the book.

Another thing I really loved was that even though the book was told from one perspective, I loved the little throwback stories from all the characters at the beginning of each chapter. That way you really got to know all 4 main characters and the side characters.

I enjoyed the main 4 cast and I loved their dynamic, I was definitely rooting for them.
The romance was very cute too, especially if you love the friends to lovers trope. I loved how the romance wasn’t the focus of the story but we still did get to see a lot of development which I liked.

Although I was having a great time while reading the book, I often found myself forgetting I was even reading it and I wasn’t that motivated to pick it up at times.

Overall a fun story that doesn’t take itself too serious. I would highly recommend it if you love horror/zombies books!

Gory at its finest, definitely quirky but was a fun read. Was hoping for more horror and thriller, maybe because it was intended for YA there wasn't much.

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.