Nothing Tastes as Good is a weird, dark, and emotionally unnerving horror-thriller that lingers long after you finish it. Retail worker Emmett Truesdale has never fit the Southern California ideal—over three hundred pounds, carrying childhood trauma and generational ennui, he’s stuck in a dead-end job and lonely love life. Desperate, he joins a clinical trial for Obexity, a revolutionary weight-loss treatment. The results are miraculous: Emmett begins to lose weight at superhuman speed, and suddenly his life starts improving. But Obexity comes with terrifying side effects: blackouts, compulsions, and a trail of people who’ve wronged him disappearing. As the police warn of a cannibalistic killer, Emmett begins to suspect he might be the one turning into a monster. The tension is relentless, even in quieter scenes, with a slow unraveling that’s far more unsettling than conventional jump-scare horror.
Emmett is painfully real. We live inside his head and can feel his shame, his hopes, and every desperate wish to be treated like a human being rather than a problem To be seen as himself and not as someone overweight. I felt this story was extremely relatable and while the beginning was slow, it ramps up climaxing with the ‘big’ events. I liked the added articles, social media posts, and third party interviews that were woven in-between Emmett’s narrative.
This book isn’t just about horror in the traditional sense. It’s about shame, loneliness, societal expectations of beauty, and the insidious grip of diet culture (hello Millennials). For readers who’ve ever struggled with food, body image, or the need to be seen and validated, Nothing Tastes as Good hits hard. It’s dark, disturbing, and emotional, with horror rooted in all-too-recognizable human experience. Trigger warnings for eating disorders and cannibalism.
AMAZON | GOODREADS | BOOKSHOP |★★★★
Nothing Tastes as Good comes out March 31, 2026. Thank you to Atria Books for my advanced copy in exchange for my review. If you liked this review, please let me know either by commenting below or by visiting my Instagram @speakingof.books.
