Today’s Summer of Horror theme is “strange appetites”—books whose characters are consumed with unusual hungers. Many of these deal with cannibalism, but all deal with out of the ordinary culinary cravings. For this list, I have left off creatures like vampires and werewolves, otherwise it would be way too long! This is a mix of books I have read and books on my TBR, listed in (mostly) alphabetical order:
The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean. Strange appetite: books.
Carrying by Samantha Josephs. Strange appetite: I haven’t read this, but from the description I’m assuming the MC’s appetite isn’t normal at all! Have you read it?
The Dead Husband Cookbook by Danielle Valentine. Strange appetite: human flesh.
Eat the Ones You Love by Sarah Maria Griffin. Strange appetite: human blood.
The Flesh I Want by Todd S. Jordan. Strange appetite: a beautiful, blood soaked woman living at the bottom of a well demands wine, live animals, and who knows what else?
Greedy by Callie Kazumi. Strange appetite: Not sure, but I suspect there’s more to this than regular food…
A Healthy Appetite by Katie Huttlestone. Strange appetite: a vegetarian woman who joins a clinical trial for a cancer cure begins to crave meat—and not just animal meat.
The Lamb by Lucy Rose. Strange appetite: humans!
Milk, Bread, Teeth by Amy Twigg. Strange appetite: A woman with an insatiable appetite will consume almost anything…
The Eyes Are the Best Part by Monika Kim. Strange appetite: human eyes and more…
I’ve only read 2 – Book Eaters and This Delicious Death – but some of the others are on my tbr.
I don’t think I’ve ever read a book with cannibalism (unless I’ve blocked out the memory lol).
Looks like theres more cannibalistic horror around than I’d realised. The Flesh I Want sounds strange but intriguing. I’d never have guessed it was about a woman in a well. The cover for Carrying makes me uncomfortable somehow lol And I definitely need to hurry up and read Book Eaters. I just know I’ll love it when I finally do. Off the top of my head I can only think of Silence Of The Lambs and Hungerstone. The latters more vampirish in general but hunger is such a prominent theme that it does truly fit. Plus there were definitely some eating scenes that weren’t the norm for vampire fiction.
What a topic!! I can’t say I’ve read any of these… and while I think I’d read The Book Eaters, the rest would not be for me!
The Dead Husband Cookbook immediately sprang to mind so no surprise it made your list. And now I’m trying to think of others, which I know I must have read, bur none spring to mind!
Lynn 😀
I’ve been reading Junkyard Cats by Faith Hunter and they are cannibals.
I never thought that I would have an appetite for cannibal books, but I’ve read and enjoyed several of these. The Lamb was one that really surprised me. Can’t wait for more from the author.
As I don’t read horror I am of no help here!
Oh my, cannibalism as a questionable eating habit. 🙂 And characters consumed with unusual hungers… or consumed BY unusual hungers. Sorry… 🙂
What a wonderful topic. The only ones I’ve read are Eat the Ones You Love and This Delicious Death. I have a few of the others on my radar but now I’m not sure about the one demanding live animals. May have to skip that one.
I want to Nick Cutter’s The Troop, but now I can’t remember for sure if the hunger got that far.
Great list! You reminded me of The Dead Husband Cookbook which I loved. That one did keep you guessing, didn’t it!