I received an early copy of this book for review through NetGalley for an honest review. Thanks guys!

Oh boy, so this book was a mess. Despite the slam-dunk premise this book managed to stumble and slam head first into the ground.

This book was so frustrating because I was so down for a teen Hannibal coming for the awful rich people in her life. But for a book whose main draw was cannibalism and revenge... There was a distinct lack of it, almost like the authors were afraid to dive into it. Maybe this was intention since it was YA and a lot of authors tend to play the age bracket safe, but it was certainly to the detriment of the story.

We are told immediately that Brielle is a zombi and treated to a scene of her craving cow brains. We are also told pretty clearly that she is not an American zombie, but that’s about the extent of the discussion on what she is. She craves brains, blood, and flesh but not in a mindless way. It’s stressed that she is a Haitian zombi, but that aspect is never really explained well. Haitian zombis are tied to the land and toiling away into eternity versus being the mindless undead chasing down their next victims.

Brielle is a Haitian American, the daughter of a Haitian woman and her US military lover. As a result she suffers from a common feeling of not fitting in. She’s too American for her Haitian sisters, but she doesn’t fit into her hometown of Miami either. This is supposedly exemplified by her zombi/zombie pull... But we just don’t see it. She isn’t mindlessly hunting for brains and trying to infect other people like an American zombie, nor is she mindlessly working to the bone line a Haitian zombi. She was not some confused amalgamation of these cultures, she was nothing in particular.

Brielle being a zombi was such a small plot point it could had been left out. There wasn’t much conflict that came from it outside of a couple of lines of her mother not liking her and a scene where she gets a little too excited over a bloody wound. These aspects seemed more like after thoughts when the authors remembered that they were supposed to have a zombie character.

Brielle is eventually freed from her curse of being a zombie. She does this by traveling to Haiti, confronting her mother’s first husband.... and thinking really, really, really hard until she pulls an uno reverse and makes her former captor her zombi. Yeah, the ending was clunky, uninspired, and frankly didn’t make much sense.

Well, how does The Summer I Ate The Rich work as a social commentary? It works okay.

Nothing said was especially poignant. If you already know and care about issues related to wealth and class differences then nothing here is going to blow your mind. The billionaire elites are cheap, out of touch, selfish, and generally bad people. The poor struggle to survive while they make pennies to serve the rich.

Brielle’s mother suffers from chronic pain and cannot afford the $10,000 refill she needs for pain relief. We are told this was a workplace injury while working for the wealthy Banks family, but we don’t get details on what happened. The Banks family is so stingy that in 16 years Brielle’s mother, Valentine, was only allowed one set of vacation days to mourn her dead husband with a subsequent request being denied years later. Despite that Valentine gets injured so badly she needed surgery to have a direct IV for pain medication installed and that was just.... Okay???? She didn’t need any time off for recovery from the accident or the surgery? Surely she didn’t have any or it would have been mentioned by her rich boss as another reason to deny her request.

There’s a lot of time that I feel like I needed to suspend disbelief to roll with the story. Another example is when the Banks employer (who again is very stingy and cheap) suddenly decides to put Brielle and Valentine on his phone plan to stop Valentine from needing a new number every couple of months. I could maybe understand Banks paying for his actual employee’s phone plan, but for her child doesn’t make sense. It had to happen for the story even though it goes against the character’s nature.

After receiving new phones Brielle somehow gets messages meant for Silas Banks, the son of her mom’s boss and your factory default douche billionaire, Brielle decides to approve massive donations to charities via text... Because that’s something that can happen? And instead of facing any legal troubles she is offered a job working for Banks Corp. There she meets more rich people, because apparently everyone working at a big company in corporate America is also a rich asshole worthy of distain. It’s also heavily implied that Brielle led to an overdose death of one of her coworkers, but of course she’s not the problem and the people criticizing the deceased’s drug use were the callous ones.

For some reason, there was a romance between the youngest Banks heir, Preston, and Brielle. Preston takes a shine to her immediately for donating his father’s money... And that’s about it. Daddy issues. There’s a forced marriage for some grand “plan”, but what that is I still don’t know.

Okay – let’s tackle the cannibalism. The eating of the rich. Well, that didn’t happen. For ease of the plot, Brielle has access to a morgue of rich people. Before a dinner party she somehow manages to rip off fingers and toes and pop out an eye and some teeth. How is this not missing or noticed when preparing bodies? I don’t know. It doesn’t have to make sense as long as Brielle gets her “revenge”.

There are some off page intentions that happen where the toes and fingers become “special soup stock”, and a part where a tooth “reverts” back so her intentions to control the rich starts failing after she stops being a zombi.

Now, if this review sounds like a mess, imagining reading it. This isn’t even everything, but I am so tired of writing and I feel like I’m punching down on the book even after making my point.

This book didn’t work. It was boring, confusing, and underwhelming. I listened as an audiobook and enjoyed the voice actors and delivery, although it was not enough to save the book.

If I hadn't read the back cover and was therefore expecting some sort of teenage Luigi on a rampage with an added dose of cannibalism, I would have given this book five stars, but as it was, only one billionaire died, and just tiny bits were possibly eaten although that remained vague.

The great things this book does have going for it are Haitian zombie lore mixed with American zombie lore, a good starting point for discussions about wealth and the ruling class, and a teen protagonist with a healthy dose of pride and passion who wasn't lacking in self-awareness.

I listened to the audiobook of this story and thought it was well done. I liked how different the "muse" sections were so that they could easily be distinguished from the main storyline.

This was such an interesting book with underlying themes of Haitian culture, Haitian Zombie stories, and modern day America with billionaires controlling the outcomes of people's lives. Brielle is a Haitian American whose mom works for the family of billionaires who have made money off of the pharmaceutical industry. In a not rare twist her mother is in constant pain and needs medicine that her employer makes but she is unable to afford. Brielle's passion lies in cooking and she has dreams of becoming a chef much to her mother's dismay. She is also a Zombie - and she uses this to her advantage cooking for the ultra rich. I listened to this book on audio and thought it was SO well done. I loved the narration. I also loved the creole and French pronunciations and just appreciated how well the authors narrated it. I enjoyed the Haitian Zombie lore, but would say it was very light on "Zombie-ness" so if you are wary about that type of book I would say to dive in because it's really not about Zombies at all. I loved this story about revenge and also doing whatever you can to make your dreams come true. I highly recommend this audiobook! Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this audio ARC.

Thanks to Macmillan Audio and Netgally for this ARC. 3 stars.

I wanted to love this book but I barely liked it. It was an interesting story but it didn't feel completely flushes out, the bones were there but no flesh. The sister chapters sprinkled in kind of confused me. The title of the book seems to be an over reaction of the events that actually took place. I wanted more horror. Maybe the physical book reads better.

I'm not sure why this was labeled as horror...?
There are horror elements, but I felt it landed more on the side of magical realism.

The Summer I Ate The Rich is about a poor Haitian immigrant family, specifically Brielle and her ailing mother. Brielle is a zombie, but not in the American sense. Certain events lead to Brielle both getting an internship at a billionaire's company and running a supper club for the uber-wealthy. To go into any more detail than that may give away too much of the story.

This was an alright story, but I felt like it was trying to go in a few too many directions. It pushed very hard to show off the social injustice faced by poor immigrants, but also brought in elements that seemed to fight against the importance placed on the divide between rich and poor. While these things are definitely nuanced in real life, I don't feel like the nuance was reflected in the story, so it just came across as contradictory.

The narration was high quality, though I do not believe a full cast was necessary for this story. I'm not sure I even noticed the narrator changes most of the time.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for providing me with the ALC in exchange for an honest review.

3.75/5. Thank you to the Ms. Moulite and Ms. Moulite, the publisher, and Netgalley for the early listening copy/ALC!

I have to agree with what other reviewers have said so far: this really isn't a horror novel. There is a certain sort of creepiness with the "eat the rich" vibe and the traditional idea of Zombi, but the story is much more of a teenager's chance at revenge against a system that is set up against her. Brielle's using of her power to fight that system - in some very creative ways - is much more of a "cheering for the underdog" situation than being scared by what she does, in my opinion.

The Haitian-American culture that was introduced really interested me! I appreciated how the authors brought in influence from their own lived experiences (as described in the Authors' Note), giving it that much more of a taste of reality in this magical realism story. Though I felt some things near the middle cleaned up a little too nicely, there was enough mystery to still listen on and figure out just what the ending was going to show.

Speaking purely of the narration, I think it was done excellently. I will say, some of the narration being in Creole is something I loved, but may be difficult for some listeners if they don't know the language. I think that the context gives enough for a rudimentary translation, for the most part, but if you're like me and want to know exactly what was said, it may be a challenge. There were also different POV Parts that may be difficult to catch on to at first, but the narration changes so it's an audible change.

Overall, very fun story. I'm glad I read it and I think it would be, strangely, a fun summer read!

This book was amazing! I have never read/listened anything quite like this. Brielle loves cooking, but her mother wants more for her. Her mother is chronically ill and ends up losing her job. Brielle will do whatever she has to do to make sure her mother receives her medication and isn’t in pain. She ends up cooking for a lot of wealthy people and everyone has the question - what is in the food that makes it so good.
I loved the Haitian influence in this book and the Haitian zombie lore. I also loved that this book highlighted problems we have in society, such as racial and socioeconomic inequality. There really was never a dull moment in this book. I highly recommend it!

2.5/5 rounded up because maybe I am just not the right age demographic for this book (although I don't think that should matter necessarily, I think adults can still read YA and should still be able to get something from it but whatever).

This is supposed to be a story about a teen zombie chef who works for a very rich family, so I was expecting this to be action-packed and full of zombie moments (that could've been so funny too, her resisting or maybe not resisting, eating her employers). But no, this really didn't have much about eating people. Like, at all. It is mentioned once in the beginning and that's it.

I really wish she did eat the rich. The rich were the only ones that even really had that kind of mentality. It was weird and I left this book confused. And I do not think I was supposed to feel that way.

This had so much potential, I wanted young, female, BIPOC Hannibal. I did not get that. I think the advertising/marketing of this book is the biggest problem. If I knew what was to be expected, my expectations would have been in a better place and I wouldn't have been so disappointed.

Thanks to NetGalley for the e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review! My Goodreads review is up and my TikTok (Zoe_Lipman) review will be up at the end of the month with my monthly reading wrap-up.

I was so curious to see how this book would blend zombism (?) with Haitian folklore while tackling racial and socioeconomic inequality. I enjoyed that this story addressed serious themes in a way that was witty and had just the right amount of Gen Z self-righteousness that it didn't come across as cringe.

There’s a lot to unpack with the if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em vibe of the ending but a part of me is happy Birelle gets her way.

Would def reccommend if you're into family drama, dark humor and revenge.

I loved the premise of this book. It had a lot going for it, and in current times a book title 'The Summer I Ate the Rich' immediately drew me in to want to read. I liked the idea of the story and watching Brielle navigate quite a predicament that she got herself into. I liked her as an FMC, but that is kind of where my enjoyment ended.

I'm not sure if this genre just wasn't for me, but overall I felt like it wasn't really 'scary' or 'horror' in any way. Yes, she was a zombie. Yes it took the meaning of eat the Rich very literally, but I didn't have the sitting on the edge of my seat to see what was going to happen next at all.

I wanted more about the Haitian folklore too. I feel like that was a missed opportunity to really dive deep there and give the reader information to learn and grow. Overall, I think the story had a good premise. I did enjoy it during the read, but I don't think it'll stay with me for long. There was a lot going on at the end that made me, as a reader, loose interest and want to find out what was happening to the characters.

Overall, definitely would recommend reading but I don't see it being good or bad. It was just fine.

I really enjoyed the narration. It was what kept me in the story. Definitely would recommend consuming via audiobook!

I…almost left <i>The Summer I Ate the Rich</i> feeling deeply confused. Despite what was a rather excellent character introduction, the plot was so convoluted and superfluous, as though somehow not a single editor advised the authors to trim down everything they were trying to overstuff into the story. But honestly? The author’s not cleared everything right up for me. When your story begins with such a personal beat, incorporating a vast array of commentary that the authors are deeply passionate about, it stands to reason that the plot gets lost along the way.

<i>The Summer I Ate the Rich</i> had all the makings of a unique and compelling horror novel, but instead of fully embracing its darker elements, it ultimately struggled to balance too many ideas, leaving much of the story underdeveloped. What should have been a simple and straightforward tale critiquing the greed of the rich via excellent characterization of zombie-fueled revenge ultimately couldn't find its footing amongst an overabundance of plot threads that ultimately did not come together fully by the last page.

The authors clearly wanted to tell a story about a mother-daughter relationship that highlights the injustices of the healthcare system and the mistreatment of poor in America. Their personal connection to the subject matter—rooted in their own mother’s struggles with the healthcare system—is meant to add emotional weight to the novel and Brielle's motivations. I respect the effort to weave these real-world issues into a speculative horror setting; I was excited for it, even. However, as Maika and Maritza Moulite try to tackle too many different types of social commentary while also weaving in Haitian zonbi mythology, the result is a story that feels scattered and hesitant. Rather than a thoughtful blend of horror and societal critique, the book struggles to commit fully to any one of its themes, leading to an underwhelming execution on all fronts.

The biggest issue for me is the novel never truly embraces the horror elements promised by its premise. The title suggests a bold, morally complex story where Brielle consumes the rich partially as a result of her bloodlust but primarily as revenge for their greed and crimes. To my dismay, the novel hesitates to go all the way with this idea. It feels as though the authors were afraid of making Brielle too morally ambiguous, softening the horror elements in an attempt to keep her sympathetic. And I cannot stress this enough: <b>we did not need this</b>.

Honestly, I would go as far as to say that we needed the exact opposite.

This cautious approach ultimately weakens the narrative, as Brielle’s ailment (or curse?) never carries the weight it should. I was incredibly excited for the incorporation of Haitian zonbi lore, so much so that I did a little further reading on the subject as I got further along in this novel. While I’m no expert (so, please feel free to correct me on this if I am misunderstanding), from what I understand of <a href="https://vodouinhaiti.wordpress.com/zonbi/">this article</a>, traditional zonbi mythology is rooted in the fear of enslavement and control rather than the Westernized version of zombies as flesh-eating monsters. This new information genuinely enhanced my excitement to see how all of this would be incorporated, only the problem came with the idea that Brielle’s zonbi status gives her a form of mind control when people eat the ground up human she's included in her cooking. I'm gonna be honest, it sort of felt like a misapplication of the themes behind the lore rather than a meaningful expansion, leaving me completely confused.

This, combined with the fact that Brielle’s mother calls her a monster for her “curse” further muddles the themes. If the book had leaned into the traditional zonbi lore as a metaphor for systemic oppression and the loss of agency, it could have been a powerful statement. Instead, the mythology is altered in ways that don’t seem to serve the story’s core message.

But, most disappointing of all the themes presented in the book comes from the overall main premise. The concept of “eating the rich” should have been a visceral, unsettling, and thematically rich horror element, but instead the book pulls back, resulting in a frustratingly half-formed execution. Readers should have left this book feeling pumped and vindicated, that karmic justice is finally being brought to those who have enriched themselves off the suffering of the poor. I spent so much of the novel waiting for the worst of the rich to be murdered and eaten and fed to the others and it <i>never happened</i>. In fact, <spoiler>the biggest death of the whole novel was an accidental hit and run. What's worse is that the reveal of the driver held so little emotional weight in the end, feeling more like a useless side plot than anything else.</spoiler>

The romance and <spoiler>marriage</spoiler> aspects felt unnecessary, detracting from the novel’s main themes as well. In a book that should have been about Brielle’s dark reaction to injustice, moral struggle, and the tension between her and her mother having a romance subplot felt like a pointless distraction. Preston's entire existence—outside of perhaps being murdered and eaten, which would have been cool—irritated me every step of the way, serving to detract from any promise the story had. Rather than deepening the narrative, it took valuable time away from developing the themes and horror elements that should have been at the forefront.

Again, I'm left feeling as though the authors were truly afraid to take risks in regard to Brielle's characterization. It's like if you condemn your dark, justice-seeking character to lackluster behavior, holding them back for the sake of keeping them likable. What is the point of Brielle craving human flesh, then? What is the point of her cooking people into her menus? It never felt like they fully committed to the zombie aspects, which ultimately took away from the immeasurably exciting aspects of the premise we were presented with. And thus the most important, bone-chilling aspects we were promised become a rather pitiful side plot.

And it's so disappointing because I can't help feeling that, if Brielle had just been given the freedom to be dark and not only give into her cravings enough to a) engage in murder, b) actually eat the rich, and c) do so in a specific targeted fashion this book would have been <i>so</i> much better. I mean, just think how amazing it would have been if the plot had involved Brielle hunting specific targets to cook into her meals? Imagine if she fed those specific targets to other specific targets? Think about the emotional impact that we could have had if monstrously greedy Silas had been forced to eat his own father? Or his son? Think about how satisfying it might have been to have Brielle reveal such a truth to him before murdering him for the next dish!

We all loved when Arya Stark took these risks. We wouldn't have hated Brielle had she done so as well. And yet it truly feels like that held the authors back so much.

Ultimately, <i>The Summer I Ate the Rich</i> had a fantastic premise but it never fully delivered on its potential. A bolder, more focused approach—one willing to embrace the horror and explore the deeper implications of its themes—would most certainly have made for a much more compelling read. Instead, the book feels like a collection of intriguing but underdeveloped ideas, held back by a reluctance to commit fully to its darker and more unsettling possibilities.

I don't have much to say about the narrator in the end. She did an excellent job, I think, and I enjoyed the experience of listening to her. Unfortunately, it's difficult to see any of this as standout when I was so disappointed with the main character and the overall story.

I really enjoyed this, but HATE that this is being marketed as YA horror, because it’s really not. This is a magical realism coming of age story that I think fans of Needy Little Things and A Good Girl’s Guide to murder would really enjoy!

Brielle is funny, she’s smart, and she’s ready to take down the 1%. I loved her voice and perspective, and found her to be a super compelling and interesting character! Her Haitian heritage is super important to her as a character, and I honestly thought it was incredibly well done. The zombie side of her is definitely played up in the marketing a lot more than it appears in the book—you could basically take that subplot out and it’d be almost the same story, which was a bummer.

Thematically it checks a lot of boxes and does so well—racism, micro aggressions, wealth inequality, immigration. It all ties together well and shows the importance of using an intersectional lens with talking about these things. And it does it in a very age appropriate way with the perfect amount of rage and frustration behind it.

I thought the narration on the audiobook was great too! The multi cast style worked for the way the story was told, particularly with the division of the “parts” and hearing the ancestors speak.

I was definitely expecting a different story based on the blurb and the marketing, but it was a really good book if you go into it thinking more YA thriller vs horror.

The synopsis, the cover and the title had me hooked from the very beginning and I thought I knew what sort of book I was getting into... but turns out I was incredibly wrong. While I was immediately captivated by the first few minutes of audio that described our FMC, Brielle, detailing how to prepare a cow's brain, chopping it to bits, seasoning it, cooking it--- I definitely thought it had a strong start and so much potential for this to develop into a very unique zombie story, with equal parts humor, horror and culinary flair. I loved and was intrigued at how the author weaved Haitian culture, cuisine and folklore into the story, sometimes wishing the book would delve more into those details. By not doing so, I was left with a lot of questions in regards to how zombie's were made, how certain people could gain the power to create zombies and what powers the zombie's themselves possessed.

To be honest I was expecting akin to iZombie meets 'Tender is the Flesh', but got something much milder.

3.5 stars rounded up.

This book was so interesting, and it did keep me engaged and excited the whole time! I loved the addition of Haitian chorus of sisters. Their interludes were a great way to break up the story and add needed information without it feeling like an info dump. I really enjoyed the glimpse into Haitian mythology.

I will say that this read as more of a magical realism coming of age story rather than a true horror like it is advertised as. Also I have read some dumb teenagers, but Bri might take the cake. Loved her, but goodness she made some poor decisions.

Overall, a super fun, quick read for the summer!

I received the audio narration of The Summer I Ate the rich. I liked the narrator voice , it brought the story to life. I did expect more horror. Overall it wasn't for me , but I'm sure the teens will like it .

This book was okay. It started off realllly strong. It was descriptive, gross, and I was set up for horror. I thought the cross of wealth inequality/racial issues is a perfect setup for some really good horror but it didn’t hit for me. Regardless, it was still interesting.

Thank you Macmillan Audio for a copy of this book.

This was so captivating - it opens with a girl describing herself cooking brains for breakfast and making an admission that she's a zombie. While this is very much not a brain eating zombie book, it is fascinating!

I adored following the story of this daughter of a Haitian immigrant with a passion for cooking and a whole lot of nerve navigating a number of complex and interwoven story lines.

I have no idea what creole accents should sound like, but it sounded great to me in the audiobook recording! I was engaged and interested from start to finish!

The Summer I Ate the Rich is a title with a synopsis that makes it sound like there would be a lot more eating the rich than there actually was.

Like other reviews have said, I was expecting something more along the lines of Hannibal, but at 60% in I made a note about how I expected a lot more cannibalism than we had gotten and that held true for the rest of the book. While the rich eating the rich would have been just as satisfying, it rarely went into detail and was barely mentioned as anything more than a means to an end.

I did really love getting to read about a zombi that was based on it's actual Haitian origins rather than the westernized version of zombies. I also enjoyed the alternating POV with Brielle and her sisters, the Muses.

In the end I think it just kind of...chickened out of committing to the horror aspect.

Thank you to NetGalley for making this available in exchange for an honest review!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the alc.

Unfortunately, this book was too disturbing for my taste. I was hoping given that the book was ya, it wouldn't be that dark. Unfortunately it was though. Despite this, I did enjoy the narrators voices.

Overall, this was a decent YA read. I enjoyed the themes of poverty the wealthy vs. the disadvantages, Haitian culture embedded. I was worried about this as labeled horror and how gruesome the cannibalism might be, but it was mild and more suspenseful and thriller.

I would read more from the author, but this one was just okay for me.

Thank you NetGalley for this ALC.