Review: This Delicious Death

This Delicious Death

Written by: Kayle Cottingham

Sourcebooks Fire

2023

This Delicious Death is a brilliant sapphic horror novel that brings a new uniqueness to the zombie trope.

An impressive sophomore novel, This Delicious Death is all about girl power, friendship, and finding yourself amid impending danger.

Storytelling

I liked This Delicious Death more than her novel, My Dearest Darkest. It had a better flow. We’re given some backstory towards the zombie apocalypse they call the Hallowing. Four friends have been changed forever, needing synthetic human flesh to survive. But they are surviving; they and the world have adapted to the new changes.

So, these four girls decide on one last party before they go off to college. A music festival in the desert. What could go wrong, right?

Everything is excellent until Val becomes feral, and the girl discovers that someone is drugging “ghouls” to cause a mass panic.

It moved incredibly, going back and forth between memories and the present day to establish who these characters are and their relationship.

That was one of my biggest problems with Cottingham’s debut; I struggled with the character dynamics and relating to the character. But they were written much better, making for a stronger novel. It made the transitions from past to present fit into the story in a way that did not ruin the momentum of the rising tension.

Final Thoughts

This Delicious Death is a great horror novel with great queer representation. It has brilliant characterization and excellent pacing, giving the zombie trope some uniqueness.

Cynthia Ayala

Cynthia Ayala-Bujnicki majored in Writing and Publishing from Emerson College. Editor-in-chief of Cyn's Workshop, she loves to read and write while tending to her pepper plants. She currently lives in South Florida with her husband, two kids Dante and Selene and two furbabies Mr. J the Kitten who Thinks He's Batman (yes, that is his full name) and Nyx.