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A Novel
by Luke Dumas
The acclaimed author of the "disorienting, creepy, paranoia-inducing" (Paul Tremblay, author of The Cabin at the End of the World) A History of Fear returns with a spine-tingling new thriller about a weight loss treatment with potentially murderous side effects.
Retail worker Emmett Truesdale has never fit the Southern California mold of six-pack, suntanned masculinity. Over three hundred pounds, he carries the weight of his childhood trauma and millennial ennui around his waist and in his soul. After trying every diet under the sun, he remains stuck—in his dead-end job, in love, and in his body.
Desperate for help, he enrolls in a clinical trial for a new weight loss product called Obexity. The treatment is as horrifying as the results are miraculous and as Emmett sheds pounds at superhuman speed, every part of his life improves overnight.
Unfortunately, Obexity comes with some killer side effects, including lost stretches of time and overwhelming cravings. Worse, people who were cruel to him have started disappearing and when the police warn of a cannibalistic killer on the loose, he fears that Obexity is turning him into a monster. But how can he give it up now that people are finally starting to treat him like he's human?
Nerve-racking, sinister, and at times surreal, Nothing Tastes as Good is an unputdownable thriller that combines The Substance with the best of Stephen King and keeps you guessing until the final page.
"Cannibal horror is having a moment, but this fails to stand out from the pack." —Publishers Weekly
"Gory, a touch campy, and superbly well timed for the current cultural moment." —Kirkus Reviews
"Nothing Tastes as Good is both a riveting novel and a commentary on our society's view of obesity, painting a poignant picture of Emmett's struggles as a fat person." —Booklist
"Luke Dumas takes aim at culture's fitness and image obsession, one that demonizes whoever isn't the capitalism-stamped-and-approved size and shape. Sharp, honest, unflinching, horrifying, Nothing Tastes as Good is a distinctly American nightmare and it's Luke Dumas's best book yet." —Paul Tremblay, New York Times bestselling author of Horror Movie and A Head Full of Ghosts
"A deliciously mean romp of a novel that eviscerates America's skinny obsession, using its sharpest canines. A true delight that shines insight on what it's like to be fat in a world obsessed with Instagram perfection." —Sarah Langan, author of Good Neighbors and A Better World
This information about Nothing Tastes as Good was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Luke Dumas is the USA Today bestselling author of The Paleontologist and A History of Fear. He is the winner of a 2024 Thriller Award, and his work has been optioned for film and TV. He was born and raised in San Diego, California, where he lives with his husband and dogs and works for a biomedical research institute.
If you liked Nothing Tastes as Good, try these:
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