ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Luke Dumas is the USA Today bestselling author of Nothing Tastes as Good, The Paleontologist, and A History of Fear.

He is the winner of a 2024 ITW Thriller Award for Best Paperback Original, was nominated for the Silver Falchion Award for Best Supernatural, and his work has been optioned for film and TV.

He received his master’s degree in creative writing from the University of Edinburgh, and has worked in nonprofit philanthropy for more than a decade with organizations including San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance and the American Red Cross.

Luke was born and raised in San Diego, California, where he lives with his husband and dogs and works for a biomedical research institute.

Publisher: Atria Books (March 31, 2026)  Page count: 352 Formats: audiobook, ebook, paperback Genre: Horror (ish)

I ended up liking Nothing Tastes as Good quite a bit. It’s easy to fly through it. I listened to the audiobook and kept telling myself "just one more chapter" most of the time. 

This leans much more toward thriller than straight horror for me, even with the body horror and cannibalism stuff lurking in the background. The story follows Emmett and how badly the world treats him because of his weight. That part felt believable. The book does a really good job showing how exhausting it is to constantly feel judged, dismissed, or turned into a "before" picture by society.

Emmett worked well as a protagonist too. He’s funny, insecure, and desperate to finally feel comfortable in his own life and body. When he joins the clinical trial for the weight loss drug Obexity, you immediately know this cannot possibly end well. And yet I completely understood why he kept going even after things started getting very weird and very bloody.

The horror elements are there, but they’re sparse. This is more about paranoia, obsession, body image, social media, and the realization that people suddenly treat you better once you look different. Actually, some of the most uncomfortable moments weren’t the gore. It was seeing how differently people reacted to Emmett after he lost weight.

I also liked the mixed format with blog posts, interviews, and reports scattered throughout the story. It kept things moving and made the audiobook especially fun to listen to.

The final act gets pretty over-the-top, and I can't say I was a fan. The villains and their motivations turned paper-thin and shallow and the rushed ending disappointed. I'm ok with Emmett's fate, but not of the road that led to it. 

Anyway, it's a good book, and very engaging most of the time. Luke Dumas clearly had a lot to say about diet culture and self-worth, but never forgot to make it entertaining too. Maybe not especially scary, but definitely engaging, gross in places, and very hard to stop listening to.