This was exceptionally well written, but not an easy or light read. The main character and his flawed interpretations of the world and people around him felt vividly real and increasingly disturbing as the story went on. It fell a bit flat in the middle, but I'm glad I pushed through because it picked back up again. I almost dreaded coming back to the story at times - this is one to pick up when you're in a strong place and looking for something dark and psychological.

This was silly and fun, with a side-portion of heavy themes - and somehow the combo worked! The strong food theme running through the book might not be everyone's jam but after some initial scepticism I actually found I really liked it - it prompted some in-depth worldbuilding where the author had clearly thought a lot about how a society with food at its core would evolve culturally, religiously and politically, which resulted in some really original ideas! The cutesy lightness that all the cookery brought helped offset the gore and heavy themes that also made an appearance, and the unreliable-narrator-telling-their-story dual timeline thing worked The heavy and emotionally intense elements the story touched on were perhaps a little under-explored, their full weight never really felt. But that does fit plausibly into the time gap between the events and their retelling. The only major weakness was the plot itself - the big finale in particular and the opportunities it presented to the MC as a consequence of other people's bizarre and illogical choices required some heavy-duty suspension of disbelief, but I found I was enjoying the story enough that I didn't really begrudge it that in the end 😁