Sure, you’d take a second helping.
When you sat down, everything looked so good that you sampled it all. Plate empty now, though, you want more of this and that and that, and a couple of desserts. You’ll diet tomorrow but right now — as in the new book, “Nothing Tastes as Good” by Luke Dumas, you just want more of everything.
Emmett Truesdale hated looking at himself in a mirror.
He hated looking at himself, period; at more than 300 pounds, even one peek sent him into the kitchen to drown his disgust in more food. Truth was, Emmett was larger than he’d ever been, and he was getting bigger.
It didn’t help that he hated his life.
A low-rung department-store employee, Emmett had been bullied and abused since he was a kid. His fat kept him from finding love with the boyfriend he craved. He wanted to be “normal” more than anything, so when he found a weight-loss ad online and he managed to talk his roommate-best-friend, Lizette, into going to a seminar with him, Emmett was hopeful for the first time in years.
Lizette said it was a scam but he was desperate. Losing weight would change everything. And so he signed up for Monstera’s Obexity EmaC-8 program.
And soon, the pounds started melting off. Two, four a day, and that gave Emmett enough confidence to create a social media account that eventually attracted thousands of followers. He began applying for better jobs, and he started dating again.
But Obexity wasn’t perfect.
Emmett was hungry all the time, hungry with a big “H.” Usually, he had a good memory — too good, maybe — but he started blanking out sometimes and his job suffered. And then there were the odd times when he woke up with blood on his hands, blood on his face, like he’d cut himself but there was no wound…
Prone to squeamishness? Then you can probably just move on right here, right now. “Nothing Tastes as Good” is almost (not quite) what you think it is although, admittedly, not quite as gory as it could’ve been.
Told through a common, sometimes profane, narrative, a series of blogs and news stories, and a diary of sorts, this novel’s plenty bloodstained, though author Luke Dumas kind of minimized the worst of it to make it more palatable for monster-loving readers The grimace-worthy stuff is teased on Page One — now you know — but the bulk of it comes later, after you notice the sharp allegory here, after readers get a total feel for Emmett’s self-loathing and inadequacy, and a big hint for why he’s overweight and insecure. Pay close attention to details when you’re reading this book, in fact, because there is no fluff in its story.
And maybe, probably, don’t read it with lunch.
If you devour monster novels, there’s a twist inside this one before it twists again and you’ll like that. Find “Nothing Tastes as Good” and get ready to take a bite. You won’t be able to help yourself.
“Nothing Tastes as Good” by Luke Dumas c.2026, Atria Books $29 352 pages