Reviews with content warning for Forced institutionalization - This Delicious Death

Reviews tagging 'Forced institutionalization'

This Delicious Death by Kayla Cottingham

19 reviews

abicaro17's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I adored the storyline of this book! Four best friends, Zoey, Celsete, Valeria, and Jasmine, are what are know as Hollow. The Hollowing was a viral ghoul contagion that turned part of the population into flesh eating monsters. As a solution, scientists developed SynFlesh, synthetic human flesh. As the girls head to a Southern California music festival for the weekend, weird things begin to happen, starting with Val attacking and eating one of the performers. I love that this focused on all four girls and their journeys from normal, to hungry flesh eating ghoul, to reformed and relatively normal Hollow person. I think the fun girls trip turned murder mystery zombie adventure is hilarious and hugely engaging. My issues stem from the chronology. This book would flash forward and backward between each girl pretty frequently. The issue is the different times were not explicitly stated so it became a tad confusing. Also Zoey was the main character but shared the stage (she should either been telling this in first person or had a more equally divided story).

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jessyhere's review

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adventurous dark

Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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mfrisk's review

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dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

This book reminded me a lot of the show iZombie but make it more queer. The book follows zombie characters who similarly to that show still feel human and have human interests and desires to fit in and make a life for themselves. The book touches on queer identity through this metaphor and I think relates to the way queerness is othered and made to be something to be feared.

I think the concept and world building was really well done I just wished I felt more finality with all of our characters and not just Celeste and Zoe. I’d recommend the read but the pacing and details like this that didn’t feel fleshed out to me are what dinged it a bit.

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9brightshiners's review

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Mostly enjoyed this one! The everyday horror of transforming into and living as a 'monster' felt realistic and well thought out. Many elements of the plot and resolution depended upon privileged characters in a way that prevented me from feeling truly immersed or connected with characters at times. There is some aspect of found family in this story, but to me it felt disjointed and ultimately acted as a springboard for romantic relationships. Overall this was a queer teen coming of age story with a solid plot, emotional depth, and a mix of existential horror and gore that kept me engaged and rooting for the main characters. I appreciated the chapters from other characters' POVs and the media quotes and clippings from the fictional pandemic. They added a lot to the world building and helped build empathy and establish motivation for characters that wouldn't be possible if everything was from main character Zoe's perspective.

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