NOTHING TASTES AS GOOD by Luke Dumas – Review

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Nothing Tastes As Good by Luke Dumas
Published by Atria Books on March 31 2026
Genres: Adult, Horror
Pages: 352
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: Shocking, gross and eye-opening, Nothing Tastes As Good is both hard-hitting and wildly entertaining.

“We’re all hungry, aren’t we? You’ve made us all into monsters.”

I read my first Luke Dumas book a few years ago and enjoyed it (The Paleontologist), but Nothing Tastes As Good is so much better in just about every way. Dumas takes on some hefty themes—social media, the pharmaceutical industry, fat shaming and weight loss—and gives readers an outrageously horrific story that’s as entertaining as it is disturbing.

Emmett Truesdale has always struggled with his weight, and after a lifetime of trying diets and weigh loss schemes that never work, he’s convinced a magic weight loss bullet doesn’t exist. Until one day scrolling through Instagram, he sees an ad that catches his eye. A company called Monstera is launching a groundbreaking weight loss clinical trial for a drug called Obexity—with compensation for those who qualify. Emmett barely scrapes by at his minimum wage job at Target and could use the cash, and the chance to lose weight too? It sounds like a dream come true.

When Emmett is accepted into the clinical trial, he’s thrilled. Sure, there is that painful procedure to get things started, but after that, it’s only an injection once a month. He doesn’t even have to change the way he eats! And soon the pounds are dropping off, faster than he could have believed was possible. But that isn’t the only change Emmett notices. He’s starting to have memory lapses, and a couple of times he’s woken up covered in blood. When a few people go missing and their dismembered bodies turn up later, authorities blame it on an aggressive pack of coyotes. Emmett is hungry all the time, the kind of hunger that won’t go away. He knows the drug is responsible for it, but dropping out of the trial means he’ll gain all his weight back. The choice is almost impossible—stop the drug and return to his old, sad life, or keep taking Obexity and risk his new life imploding.

There’s a fair amount of graphic violence and body horror in Nothing Tastes As Good, so do be aware. Most of it revolves around Emmett’s obesity, and there is one horrific scene involving his stepfather Hank that I’m still not over yet. Strangely enough, although one of the elements in the story is cannibalism, there are very few on page scenes dealing with it, so that’s one trigger warning you really don’t have to worry about.

However, if you are sensitive to fat shaming, discussions about eating disorders and bullying surrounding those things, you might want to tread carefully. Emmett’s struggles with obesity color every aspect of his life, and the author doesn’t shy away from describing his unsuccessful attempts over the years to lose weight, as well as the terrible ways he’s treated by others. This is a very uncomfortable read, and I loved Dumas’ unflinching look at a subject I don’t see much in fiction. I saw a brief interview with the author who said he based the story on his own experiences with being overweight, and because of this Emmett’s journey felt intimately real.

The author adds another layer to his story by adding epistolary elements, like blog and Instagram posts, newspaper articles, and investigative reports. These worked well for filling in Emmett’s backstory, especially his complicated relationship with his family. He also chronicles his weight loss journey on social media once he starts using Obexity, and I loved the way his posts go from excited and upbeat to a growing sense of dread as he realizes that something terrible is happening to him. His growing audience, who at first are amazed and inspired by his transformation, eventually turn on him, illustrating the fickleness of being in the social media spotlight. The investigative reports do a great job of foreshadowing that something awful is coming as well.

Most of the characters are pretty awful, but a few are positive influences in Emmett’s life. His roommate Lizette is also obese, but in her case, she embraces her weight and insists that it’s simply who she is. I loved her body positivity, although she doesn’t have much luck trying to convince Emmett to feel the same way. There’s also Emmett’s mom, who appears to be wonderful mother on the surface. But in reality, Emmett thinks it’s her who pushed him to eat so much as a child and ultimately ruined his life.

Eventually everything goes to hell as Emmett finds himself deeper and deeper in trouble. Although this last section was over the top and a bit ridiculous at times, I loved every crazy second. Dumas even throws in a pretty cool twist that I did not see coming, and the ending was perfect—for a horror story, that is. This was so much fun!

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.