Note: I received a free unpublished proof of this book, for a limited time, in exchange for an honest review. All opinions here are my own.

I love horror books. I love food. If you’re new here, or haven’t read my 5 billion other reviews, I’ve already reviewed 12 horror books and a few I’d call “dark fantasy” in this space. I also have a cookbook review space because, well, food.

I personally found this book to be disappointing. Because this book would fall under “extreme horror,” I will explain up-front—I don’t have a problem with the contents of this book. I actually have no problem with people writing about, well, anything. When I have problems with subject matter, I tend to have issues with how people approach or present the topic, not the topic itself.

This review will contain some heavy spoilers.

My problem with this book is the general attitude of many of the authors to their subject matter. Obviously, horror is supposed to contain horrible things. I have no problem with any of the horrible things written about here simply being in the book. Horror essentially relies on reader discomfort and the presence of horrible things. However, great horror books are supposed to, on some level, be about something; to make some statement about society. Technically, every story makes a statement either implicitly or explicitly, but some statements are stronger than others.

A lot of the stories in this book seem to have a relatively disappointing ideological core, that being, “Wouldn’t it be, like, really messed-up if this happened? Look how messed-up it is!” These stories come across as mean-spirited, and usually make their statement by portraying some person or group of people in an insensitive and nihilistic light. Frankly, some of these authors’ views of human nature make Friedrich Nietzsche look like Lisa Frank.

[image of Lisa Frank dolphins here]

“Ee-e-e-e! Ee-e-e-e! Whoever battles monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster himself! And when you look long into the abyss, the abyss also looks into you!”

As per usual, I’m going story-by-story.

“Meat or Be Meaten” by Robert Bose and Sarah L. Johnson—Alright, I didn’t hate this one. I just thought it was dreadfully boring. Two animated meat creatures want their freedom from a dead guy’s house. The idea is vaguely interesting, but not much happens, and the end of the story doesn’t really open up any possibilities.

“Cherry Red” by Chad Lutzke—Pointlessly evil child is pointlessly evil. I won’t say there are no good evil child stories, but there are not many that I find to be particularly interesting.

“The Feeding” by Christopher Triana—I thought this one was alright, though very gross. Basically a parasitic creature spreads itself by feeding things to people in the form of sandwiches, which eventually kill them, but the creature resurrects their bodies as younger versions of them and keeps living. I guess they’re like…vampires? Sandwich vampires? That sounds way too cutesy for such a gruesome story, but that’s basically what they are.

“Hungry Ghosts” by Sylvia Anne Telfer—This work was probably my favorite story in the anthology. A woman who owns a Chinese restaurant gets revenge on a patron for being an entitled, racist, misogynistic dude who is also implied to be a major creep off-page.

“Seeds of Filth” by K. Trap Jones—I found this one pointless and overly gross. It was full of what I think of as 12-year-old boy-level gross-out humor. No thank you.

“Grandma’s Favorite Recipe” by Ronald Kelly—This wasn’t the worst story in the book, but it was one of the several stories that centred around horrible people being horrible to other horrible people. For the Redditors in the audience—an ESH in the AITA subreddit. Also, more silly evil child stuff.

“Magick Brew” by Nikki Noir—Another story where creepy dude protagonist gets his comeuppance; so I can’t fault it for that. I still felt somewhat bored and disinterested by it, but that’s mostly because I read a TON of stories about love spells and potions in 100 Wicked Witch Stories edited by Stefan Dziemianowicz, Robert Weinberg, and Martin H. Greenberg a few years ago and got sick of the trope.

“Mermaid Caviar” by Victorya Chase—This was one of the better stories in the anthology, in that it fully embraced the concept of “weird fiction” while also including some actual social commentary on things as diverse as the exploitation of women under capitalism, the objectification of disabled children, and the cost of moving upwards in a class-based society. There are some clear fairy-tale references, but it goes way beyond typical fairy-tale retelling and subversion, so it doesn’t feel like the ten billionth story that asks “what if fairy tales but edgy?”

“Consumption” by S. C. Mendes—This story surrounds a food blogger who gets invited to a legendary secret event rumored to have rare foods…only to find that she is being led into a trap by an Amish-esque death cult that doesn’t approve of eating and aims to purify people by killing them and burying them under trees. There were a lot of questions left unanswered that didn’t make sense—were all the food experts leading her to the event secretly working for the cult? If so why were they running restaurants? Why is this cult that seems to be vaguely inspired by Amish and Mennonite groups also killing people and burying them under trees? The whole thing seemed a bit thrown-together.

“A Woman’s Work” by Tonia Brown—Another tale of “hey, wouldn’t that be messed up?” without much actual commentary, or any reasoning behind it. Why does this woman think her child is a turkey? When she thinks her husband is showing her the baby, why doesn’t she mention something is off? If she knows that she sometimes sees and hears things that aren’t there, why doesn’t she think it might be one of those incidents happening again? Why does she think she needs to eat the baby just because her husband says so? I feel like the author is trying to say something about women and relationship dynamics here, but it just seems like more shock value.

“Made to Order” by Mark C. Scioneaux—More cannibalism for cannibalism’s sake. Murder, cannibalism, self-cannibalism, mean-spirited views of people as a whole, the idea that everybody would actually really like human meat…what’s with this assumption that everybody would be cannibals if they didn’t know what it was? I could see some people eating it, but why do people think that everybody would think human meat tastes great and/or superior to other animals? Even if somebody read about other people’s experiences eating human meat, I’m pretty sure the sample size of cannibals is so small that I don’t think any anecdotal statistics gleaned from them are terribly reliable.

“Roly-Poly” by Vivian Kasley—This story was gross, but refreshingly different in that there was actually some commentary on how an ongoing obsession with losing weight isn’t really healthy. The writing was also at least somewhat sympathetic to the main character, a fat woman who is insecure about her weight and pushed into trying a strange weight loss method by a friend, and we genuinely feel bad for her when she suffers as a result.

“Pork Roll, Egg & Charnel” by Armand Rosamilia—Probably one of my least favorite stories. Horrible things happen to a guy, leading to him and a disabled kid being pointlessly evil, and there’s nothing about the society that actually caused any of this to happen.

“With A Little Salt and Vinegar” by John McNee—Again, what’s with these authors assuming that a) everybody likes the taste of human meat and b) Slavs will eat anything? Citations needed on both counts…

“The Insomniac Gods of Blackberry Court” by Chad Stroup—Yet another story about how Drugs are Bad and Evil and how People Using Drugs are Bad and Evil, rather than, you know, any of the myriad things that push people into doing drugs to begin with.

“Barrel Aged” by Shenoa Carroll-Bradd—Ok, I can kind of forgive yet another instance of the “everybody wants to be a cannibal” thing given that there are actual underlying themes about how people are forced to sell their health and well-being in order to survive. I wasn’t a huge fan of it, but I thought it was well-done and a good closer for the anthology.

Overall, I thought this anthology was depressing and overly-pessimistic, even within the boundaries of the horror genre, but I suppose if you are really into extreme horror with graphic cannibalism you might enjoy it, and there are a few really good stories here and there.

CHEW ON THIS! by Robert Essig, is a wild ride that you won't want to miss. It's a blend of grotesque and entertaining tales that pack a serious punch. Featuring a collection of short stories from various authors, each narrative centers around food in the most unexpected and stomach-churning ways. The dark humor woven throughout adds an intriguing twist, making it a compelling read that will keep you turning the pages. If you're looking for something that pushes boundaries and keeps you on the edge of your seat, this is the book for you.

Chew On This! Is a compilation of short horror stories written by various authors in the genre. The common thread running through each story is food. Each story revolves around some sort of culinary topic, such as how will a vegetarian cat escape a house when all of the doors are closed and his owner has died? With the help of a love-seeking meat golem in the basement of course!

This book was a lot of fun, and gross, and interesting, and just a little bit scary at times. After now reading two books of short stories centered around a central theme (Ronald Malfi’s Ghostwritten focuses on Books), I think I would prefer more variety in my short stories. This one kind of felt like spaghetti every night, though I do like spaghetti.


Rating: 3/5 stars.

I want to thank NetGalley and Blood Bound Books for sending me a free advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review

Thanks to NetGalley and the author for granting me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest rating.

I would like to express my genuine appreciation for this collection of short stories. Anthologies are always a mixed bag. I found that I enjoyed some stories more than others.

Fifteen short stories that will surely delight and probably trigger a gag reflex or two! Each one has me on the end of my seat, but also left me with trepidation moving to the next story with the gross factor. Each story was fantastic, offering many different themes to ‘chew on’.

Grandma’s Secret Recipe by Ronald Kelly was my favorite of the collection. Following grandma who is a beacon of her community and an excellent baker who has a gift of baking and uses it to provide comfort, express, friendship, and make amends with other members of her community. However, grandma has a secret ingredient that she only uses occasionally, and her grandson suspicions about strange happenings in the town center around grandma.

An honorable mention goes to A Woman’s Work by Tonia Brown. This. One. Had. My. Jaw. On. The. Floor. I still find myself ruminating on this one!

The magic of the short story is they are just short enough to leave you with questions and add your own interpretation and conclusions. I hope to see more short story compilations from these authors and Blood Bound Books in the future!

Chew on This was a fantastic compilation of short horror story’s all centered around food. Each left me with my mouth hanging open in shock. Warning, these are not for the faint of heart! Thank you to NetGalley, Robert Essig, all of the authors involved, and Blood Bound Books for the advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

All of these stories are a hit for me. Each one is unique and stand out from the others. I also found some new to me authors. I will be diving into those authors other works.

#NetGalley #ChewOnThis

This was a fun read with bite-size tales perfect for before bed reading— if you don’t mind the weird dreams. I can’t lie, Meat or Be Meaten was my favorite 🤩 so weird, different, funny and bizarro. A couple of the stories were not for me but was a great way to learn a few new horror authors to follow..

Chew On This is an anthology of short stories revolving around food. The stories all have different flavours, ranging from comedy horror to the downright disturbing.
I have to say that I really enjoyed this collection of short stories. Some of them have a good frisson of black humour in them (think League of Gentlemen kind of humour) and some of the stories are just out and out gross.
The first story, Meat or be Meaten introduces us to the anthology and tells the tale from a cat’s perspective as we learn of the shenanigans he gets up to after his owner dies, leaving two meat golems in the house unsupervised. The story is bizarre, with a generous shake of comedic seasoning.
There are a couple of other stories in this collection that are definitely going to stay with me. A Woman’s Work is one of those stories. This one started off quite shocking and just kept getting worse from there, leaving the me with a jaw dropping ending that made give the book a double take when the realisation of what had happened hit me in the face
As you progress through the stories, the more disturbing some of the tales become.
Throughout the book there are tales of ghosts, cannibalism, meat golems, sweeny toddish corn dog vendors and a whole host of other monsters, both human and monster.
If you like your horror stories with a little bite, then this anthology could well be to your taste. But be warned, some of these stories will probably gross you out. Chew on this is not for those of you with a delicate disposition and you will definitely not look at food the same way again

‘Chew on This!’ Is a horrific short story collection that focuses on food, not for the faint of heart or the easily disgusted, this book is a foodies worst nightmare.

As others have said, short story anthologies always come with a mixed bag. I found I enjoyed certain stories more than others. Regardless every story was well written and achieved the desired effect.

Stories that stood out to me were ‘Grandma’s Favourite Recipe’, ‘Made to Order’, ‘A Woman’s Work’, ‘Cherry Red’ and ‘Barrel Aged’. All the type of horror that leaves you reeling.

The most stomach turning (and the one I low-key hated) was ‘Seeds of Filth,’ a very grotesque read that will have you thinking twice about how you treat people in the service industry.

I’m not big on extreme horror but for a little dip in to the genre this series was an interesting experience.

I am a huge lover of anthology books and this one was no different, it was so good!

To me, the stories in this book felt a bit more like an elevated horror, more psychological and not reliant on big jump scares or gore to give the fright and gross factor. It relied a lot on infering and interpretation - which I thought was really well done.

Each story had it's own high points, although there were 2 I skipped as I just wasn't enjoying them (hence the 4 star rating) but the one thing that linked them was the quality at which they were written.

An all round excellent collection of some intriguing and downright disturbing and quite frankly gross short stories.

4.25 stars

What a fantastic collection of stories from some of the best authors writing in the horror genre right now.
These were disgusting but fun. As with all collections some were better than others, but I feel this was one of the strongest ones I’ve read.
My favorite being Triana, that man can freekin write!

Such an incredibly disgusting book about food that I just couldn’t put down. I loved every single story and I definitely plan on reading more from each author.

A pretty fun and gross collection of tales. Some were creepy, most were gross, and some were fun. The perfect balance for a collection of short stories. Only one felt edgy just for edgy's sake, which brought down the overall rating for me. It just felt a much lower caliber than the other stories.

This was a strong fifteen stories in the horror genre, I was hooked from the first story and was invested in the concept and how it worked with the horror. Each author was able to tell the story and worked with the theming of this.

"Chew on This!", edited by Robert Essig, is a chilling exploration of the dark side of our appetites. This anthology of short horror stories, each tethered to the theme of food, offers a disturbing and delicious feast for the macabre.

From the unsettling transformation in Kristopher Triana's "The Feeding," where a lonely old man finds renewed vigor after consuming mysterious hoagies, to the chilling domesticity of Ronald Kelly's "Grandma's Favorite Recipe," where a seemingly benevolent elderly woman harbors a sinister secret, the collection delivers a potent blend of dread and disgust.

John McNee's "With a Little Salt and Vinegar" stands out as a particularly potent and unsettling tale. While the direction of the story might be somewhat predictable, its graphic and unflinching portrayal of human depravity is both shocking and unforgettable. The story serves as a stark reminder that even the most mundane of culinary experiences can conceal a horrifying reality.

"Chew on This!" is not for the faint of heart. It's a collection that revels in the grotesque, pushing the boundaries of the unsettling and leaving a lingering sense of unease long after the final page is turned. However, for those who appreciate the power of dark imagination, and relish a good shiver down the spine, this anthology offers a truly unforgettable and disturbing culinary experience.

Chew on This! is a collection of sixteen short horror stories all centered around one thing: food. All of the stories take on their own dark twists, leaving you wanting more after each read. A lot of the stories gave me Aron Beauregard vibes: gruesome with the added dark humor. A couple of the stories fell short, but overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this read.

A look into some of my personal favorites: 
- The Feeding by Kristopher Triana, a story about Walter, an elderly gentleman, who believes he has found the cure for aging in Dotties deli sandwiches.
- Grandma's Favorite Recipe by Ronald Kelly, saintly Ms.Sarah Plummers cookies had a secret ingredient, Dr. Augustus Leech's Patented Elixir. 
- Made to Order by Mark C. Scioneaux, Charlies new corn dog recipe is making him a killer at the fair.

If you are a fan of quirky, disturbing short horror reads, add this to your TBR! This read is sure to make even the iron stomach horror fans queasy.

CHEW ON THIS! by Robert Essig.
How can i describe this book? Well its disgusting, highly entertaining and has the shock factor.
Loads of short stories by different authors and they all revolve around food.
Stomach churning but some dark humour thrown in and makes you want to read it.

Most of the stories in this anthology were really good. There were maybe two titles i didn't care for. I really loved the rest of them though. If weird body horror and cannibalism than this is definitely for you.

This is a great anthology of horror stories all based, in one way or another, around food and eating.

I always love a themed anthology that brings so many creative writers to the table and this is one which does so spectacularly.. We have the disturbing, the creepy, the deliciously disgusting, and truly unsettling stories you would want from a horror anthology. There are even some which deliver horrific images with an underlying sense of humor.

From food obsessions, eating disorders, and even cannibalism, the stories are never dull nor repetitive. They rely on food as the carrier of the horrors but it's the characters which make them so fun to read.

I loved this one and highly recommend it.