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.
"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
"Gory, a touch campy, and superbly well timed for the current cultural moment." —Kirkus Reviews
"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
"Nothing Tastes as Good as a violently visceral and emotionally raw horror novel like this one. Luke Dumas puts fatphobia under the biomedical microscope and blows it up to monstrous proportions." —Brian McAuley, USA Today bestselling author of Breathe In, Bleed Out
"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
"Deeply unsettling, complex, and visceral. Nothing Tastes as Good is a grotesque body horror that perfectly encapsulates the destructive pitfalls of our modern Ozempic era. It’s a book that will eat away at you with every page, leaving you hungry for more." —Liann Zhang, internationally bestselling author of Julie Chan Is Dead
"The recipe for Luke Dumas's savory new novel: the bones of a thriller, the juice of a satire, and the meat of . . . well, I wouldn't dare give away the secret ingredient. Season with Stephen King, garland with pepper-black comedy, and sink your teeth in. Nothing Tastes as Good is feverish and frightening (Dumas, one of today's most inventive novelists, also ranks amongst our most fearless), but it's unexpectedly moving, too: a book that forces us to assess how we assess—how we judge and diminish and make jokes, sport, even targets of others; how we reduce people like a sauce, dispose of them like leftovers. It's horrific yet humane, lurid but longing, part thriller and part cautionary tale and altogether delectable." —A.J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window and End of Story
“A searing, blisteringly aggressive critique of identity, queerness, and weight loss, this book shocked me and brutalized me in equal measure. Nothing Tastes as Good reminded me of when I watched The Substance for the very first time. I was enthralled, disgusted, and deeply moved.” —Eric LaRocca, author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke
