WTF did I just read?! There’s no denying that this author has writing talent, but WTF is this?! I was lost for the first half of it. Eventually I did start figuring it out, but there are so many different POVs, that it took a while to piece the puzzle together. Not only do we jump between the characters, but we also have sentient entities living inside the main characters, which adds an additional layer of POVs. I’m honestly surprised I kept up as well as I did, and that I was able to finish it so quickly. I read the whole thing over the course of five days. I give it a solid 3.5-4 stars. It was well written, imo. Just a lot going on. It’s also very messed up. At least a dozen trigger warnings if not more.

To briefly summarize the plot: A dimensional god gets bored, shreds her own universe, invades ours, and becomes the “God of love” as portrayed in the scriptures. Just one thing, SHE is having a mental break and she’s psychotic. She wants to eat everybody, digest them and make them “better,” because she “loves” them so much. The only person capable of stopping her is a barely functional drug addict.

This book is so twisted. Lots of body horror and gore. There’s SA, violence, death, monsters, and drug abuse. The entire thing has icky religious undertones, where religion is twisted and is not a healthy thing at all. I felt a knot of disgust in my stomach while reading. Especially the SA scenes. I recommend proceeding with caution if you are sensitive to triggers. It certainly is unforgettable. Kind of wish I could forget it, but it is what it is. I do think the writing style is unique and well-done considering what the author was trying to pull off - POV wise.

I was satisfied by how the book ended. Won’t read it again. Probably won’t read more by this author because the style is a bit too graphic and gory for my taste.

PS. I didn't see the average rating on goodreads until after I finished reviewing it. Amused that my score ended up falling in line with most other reviewers, at this time.

All the stars!!! Such a fun ride. I loved the banter and the body horror. Very imaginative and I will absolutely read more from this author.

A pretty good entry to the niche "weird things happening in a small town" subgrenre of science fiction/horror. The story lost me a bit at the end, both thematically and on the surface level, but the journey to get there was, for the most part, satisfactory, and even occasionally excellent. This book contains a lot of visceral body horror that was somehow done really well, at least from the pov of someone who doesn't typically read body horror stuff, and the way the story combines that with the more scifi cosmic horror stuff is brilliant.

I am so thankful to Dark Matter INK, Drew Huff, and Netgalley for granting me advanced access to this book before it hits shelves on March 4, 2025. This book was crazy and I could NOT put it down at all. I was simply hooked from the start.

A parasitic god??? This was a fever dream or an acid trip of a novel about gods and the creators. I really dug the body horror, and the cover artwork. This book gave so much weird girl energy that I think it fell a little flat.

*I received a free ARC from NetGalley*

Happy Pub Day to The Divine Flesh!

The Divine Flesh is staggeringly unique. Delightfully disgusting—and not just its titular character.

Huff's greatest strength is in her character writing. DF and Jennifer have incredibly distinct voices in both their dialogue and narration, but even the minor characters shine. Huff is uniquely adept at establishing a point of view character's driving force, idiosyncrasies, and making them sympathetic with a skill and speed I've never seen before. And she often does this right before that character's end.

While I had issues with the worldbuilding to start (why are DF and the Mirror People the only unearthly creatures here? Where are the other supernaturals?), Huff's overarching plot and its incredibly satisfying resolution settled them.

Spoilers ahead:

Unfortunately, The Divine Flesh often bites off more than it can chew. There are too many plots working within this book that leave the middle overwrought. While the minor characters' storylines add texture to what is going on with the Divine Flesh and Rosetown, many of them take up too much time for too little payoff—especially Trojan, who was given so much screentime that could have been pared down to just his impact on Rosetown and hand in character deaths, rather than dedicating several scenes to torture porn that honestly had no real bearing on the plot but did have the desired impact of making me miserable. This is particularly egregious with Susan, considering how quickly and unsatisfactorily that ended.

The thing that made this book take so long to read, though, was the formatting. For some reason, the entire thing is written in bold except for what is italicized, which made it weirdly burdensome and eye-straining to read. Hopefully this is a defect of the ARC only.

The Divine Flesh (the book) is worth the read if only for the Divine Flesh (the character) and her bubbly body horror, and the complex twist of the relationship She and Jennifer share with Darryl.

I DNF around halfway. I couldn’t connect with any of the characters, and the story was a repetitive loop of itself. Repeating the same information over and over again with no new additions. Not for me.

I was really drawn in by the premise (and the cover, what a work of art) and the book seemed to be pretty much up my alley. Weird cosmic horror where a woman has an Eldritch God (called The Divine Flesh nonetheless) inside her body! I was sold!

Unfortunately, it ended up not being for me and I had to DNF it. I would have loved this to be a novella focused a lot more on The Divine Flesh and Jennifer. I felt like a lot of subplots were being introduced at once, very important subplots at that, and at the same time as we were presented with the world building. It felt confusing and it made me wonder if I had missed some part of the lore while reading it.

The body horror was very well written and will definitely work for readers who enjoy it. The Divine Flesh was also a very interesting character. Also, while the characters are extremely unlikable, it works really well for the narrative.

What eventually made me decide to DNF this one was the pace and the structure. It truly wasn't working for me.
I'm giving it a 3 star rating because even if it was a DNF for me, in no way does this book deserve a low rating. I understand I wasn't the targeted audience.

Happy pub day to The Divine Flesh by Drew Huff! Unfortunately... I kinda hated this.

It started off good enough, with a promising premise (young woman grappling with an all-powerful space goddess possessing her body, chaos ensues) and a super unique voice. But that voice quickly became grating and confusing. The book is bloated and maximalist to a fault. I found there were too many characters, too many plotlines (like the intergalactic drug trade of mirror people larva... huh?), it's way too long, and the graphic body horror that started as a plus became too much... there's only so much bone smashing/flesh reforming/organ disintegrating I can take, and body horror is my favourite subgenre so make of that what you will! For all of the shit being thrown at the wall here, like eggs, goddesses, religious psychosis, phagocytosis, etc., very little of it meshed together and stuck for me.

2 stars for the goopiness and a unique idea.

Thanks to Netgalley and Dark Matter INK for the e-ARC.

I enjoyed this, although I struggled to follow it at times and found the main characters getting confusing, however fully aware that is what would happen in a possession!
The imagery was wonderful and in depth, and the twists were enjoyable and became easier to follow once I got to know the characters better

This book is an absolute fever dream! I spent the first part of it desperately trying to understand what the hell was going on, but at some point I just let go of that and went whichever way this rollercoaster of a book was taking me. And boy was it a rollercoaster. I honestly don't even know how to write this review because I think this is just one of those books that you have to experience for yourself.

I still don't really know how I feel about this book. I was drawn to it because of the gorgeous cover art and I definitely did enjoy some parts of it. However, I gave it three stars because some of the gore, violence and abuse in this book was just too heavy for me. I would definitely recommend reading the trigger warnings before deciding whether or not you want to read this book!

Thank you to Dark Matter INK and Netgalley for an advanced copy of The Divine Flesh. For full disclosure, I DNFed this book at 40%, as I don't believe I was the right audience for it.

Jennifer's got too many problems to count; she's addicted to so many substances, she's trafficking intergalactic goodies, and her ex doesn't love her anymore... oh, and she's sharing her scarred, battered body with a cosmic entity called the Divine Flesh, that is constantly trying to break out of Jennifer's control (and is also in a relationship with her aforementioned ex).

This book throws you into the action right away - there are no dull moments, there is no time to gird your loins for what's coming ahead. If you're someone who needs a linear, logical timeline, I would skip this one. Huff throws us into the middle of Jennifer's woes, and pieces of the past and Jennifer's life flow organically to us. I personally loved this style, as it kept the action rapid-fire and on edge.

Where this book failed (for me, not in general) was that it was too much of everything. I think Huff took on a lot, and there's too many characters and a lot of cosmic backstory that I wasn't getting, and some of the plot was revealed through exposition (characters explaining their motivation) instead of occurring naturally. However, there is some GNARLY (positive) body horror and some of those scenes are gonna replay in my head for a while (again, positive).

This is not a bad book, not by a long shot. It's just not for me, and not at this time. I'll probably go back and try to read it again sometime in the future.

Make sure you check trigger/content warnings before you start reading! This book covers a lot of ground and much of the content could be triggering for readers.

This story follows a drug addict named Jennifer who shares her body with a being called The Divine Flesh. It was gory, violent, and everything you could want from a horror book. Unfortunately I'm not really into cosmic horror and this was too fever dreamy/trippy for me at times. I found it slow paced and didn't always have a sense of what was going on. I still recommend, just not for me.

Thank you Dark Matter INK and NetGalley for the e-arc.

This was such a weird book. I couldn't put it down once I started because I honestly had no idea what was going to happen next. I think the only thing I didn't like was just how many perspectives there was. I could've done with a few less and maybe if the book was shorter as well. The Divine Flesh was fun and k will check out Huff's other works.

Why do things have to be that way? the Divine Flesh whispered.
Let Me out. Let Me out. Yud-hey-vav-hey, I am what I am.

Unhinged body horror and gory splatter-punk a la Venom meets Jennifer's Body with a smidge of Chuck Palahniuk, this book is utterly unique and easily one of my all time faves. The variation in perspective keeps readers eternally on their toes, reminiscent of Good Omens,
and I especially loved Her narration and Love for EVERYTHING and EVERYONE. If you enjoy symbiotic, quirky cosmic gods, stories of redemption & resolution from hardship and have a gut of iron, I offer you a ticket to one wild, wild ride!

Thank you to Netgalley and Dark Matter INK for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review :)

This is a feminist cosmic horror drug trip and you will LOVE the ride.

👉"I've got a flesh-bending cosmic goddess trapped in my skin, and both of us hate each other."👈

WTF did I just read? (positive).

Jennifer has a flesh god (Divine Flesh) trapped inside her body. They are constantly fighting for who has control of Jennifer's body. When Jennifer finds a way to release the Divine Flesh from her body, there are dire consequences for all of humanity.

I can't even compare this book to anything. It is so creative and horrific and beautiful and generous all at the same time. I have over 100 highlights because the prose and word choices are stunning and I know I'll be revisiting them.

This book explores trauma, addiction, body horror and our deepest fears on a backdrop of cosmic antihalation.

Read this if you want:
🌌 God is a woman
🌌 Happy eldritch abominations
🌌 Biblically accurate angels
🌌 Splatter gore
🌌 Women hunting rural bigots
🌌 Psychotic meat god from another dimension
🌌 Flamethrowers

👉"Hold still. I love you" I ripped his chest open in one fluid motion. 👈

Thank you to NetGalley and Dark Matter INK for the ARC.

This book is best read read wrapped in an existential security blanket, while shoving your intestine back inside your torso.

Going into this it definitely reminded me of The Substance at points and as someone who loves body horror I found it to be such a fun and crazy read.

"The Divine Flesh didn't have real feelings. Well, that wasn't true. She had three modes. Bored, psychotically happy, and oh-look-I-found-flesh."
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The Divine Flesh by Drew Huff is like if Oli's Bond (from The Bonds That Tie) somehow escaped from Oli's body and took over the world. Then turn up the "horrifying" dial to 10.

Jennifer and the Divine Flesh live together in Jennifer's body. They share time with Daryl, they traffic intergalactic embryos, they do drugs. That is, until the D.F. finds a way to free herself. Then she's out there just loving all of sentient life while Jennifer desperately tries to contain that love.

It's grotesque. It's horrifying. It's a lot. I loved it. As someone who is two months away from graduating medical school and has a degree in organismic biology, I am forced to believe that Drew Huff has autopsied many bodies. The anatomical descriptions are just way too accurate. Small town America meets religious trauma meets body horror. Read it.

Thank you to Dark Matter INK and @netgalley for the eARC. Super excited to add this to my shelf next week!

#thedivineflesh #drewhuff #arcreview

Some people have mommy issues, some have daddy issues, but everyone has God issues.

The Divine Flesh follows Jennifer, a drug addict who shares her body with an Eldritch God named "The Divine Flesh" or simply she/her. They get separated as entities and it's up to her and her ex-husband Daryl to stop her from breaking the world.

Simply put, this reads like a bad acid trip.

The premise of this book is what drew me to it, it's unique and intriguing. The execution is choppy and disappointing. The writing is all over the place and the plot is practically impossible to follow without rereading massive chunks of it over and over again. The pace felt incredibly slow and too fast at the same time, which I'll give credit to the author, that's the first time I've ever said that.

This was just a repetitive, confusing mess. Maybe this would be for you if you enjoy wacky books with little substance.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dark Matter INK for providing an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own

Great book! It had all the fears of growing up. Make a choice. Turn the page or close the book. Enter the darkness if you wish!