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minimicropup's review
adventurous
dark
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Setting the Scene: 🇺🇸 Set in a Virginia suburb and high school in 1995.
POV: We follow a handful of teen students and a teacher desperate to fit in.
Mood Reading Match-Up:
-Revenge with a sprinkling of body and food horror
-Hazing rituals descending into darkly comedic chaos
-Witching gone wrong magical realism
-Light themes and symbolism about friendship, cliques, coming-of-age, popularity, revenge and retribution, the power of food, belonging, and sacrifice.
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🐺 Growls, Howls, and Tail Wags 🐕
🗣️ Tale-Telling: The third person narrative was straightforward, almost like watching a movie. It was a well-balanced mix of detail, atmosphere, dialogue, and action.
👥 Characters: Both the students and teachers in this were a mix of almost-caricature yet surprisingly deep personalities, all marinated in dark humor and sarcasm.
🗺️ Ambiance: The settings were vivid but not overstuffed with details. Enough to set the scene and let your imagination do the rest.
🔥 Fuel: This ran on a dash of mystery, but mostly on retribution and action. The story blended magical realism with some paranormal elements, but it was less about the secrets or how the magic works, and more about how the characters can stop the madness. Morally grey characters all around –rooting for the villain didn’t feel right, but neither did rooting for the other characters!
🎬 Scenes: The pacing of this was like fast food in book form. It was brisk, with quick scene changes and a focus on immediate action without prolonged introspection or scheming. The descriptions of the horrors were surprisingly cinematic, transforming potentially cheesy (uh, literally and figuratively) scenes into spooky moments.
🤓 Random Thoughts: For me, the balance tipped a bit too much towards frantic planning and away from the actual horror elements. The dark comedy sometimes overshadowed the scares, but that’s just my personal preference. I’m not great with horror-comedy, I find they tend to be cringey and cancel out the best of both genres, but I felt no cringe with this book, so that’s a win!
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Content Heads-Up: Burn/fire injury. Murder. Body fluids/gore. Bullying. Hazing/rituals.
👀 Format: Kindle Unlimited
“Reviews are my musings 💖 powered by puppy snuggles 🐶 refined by my AI bookworm bestie ✨”
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury and Death
Moderate: Bullying and Body horror
jamietherebelliousreader's review against another edition
4.0
4 stars. This was absurd and so much freakin’ fun. A dead girl takes revenge by killing the people who killed her with food. Attack by croissants, chocolate, cotton candy and other foods and it was pretty awesome in its silliness. It felt like a cheesy (pun intended) horror movie from the 80s. There’s also witches involved and the killings are just so unique. I thought this book was a blast. It’s a quick and very entertaining read.
{Challenges completed:
✔For Love of a Book: I Went to the Zoo Challenge
✔For Love of a Book: Greatest Love Stories Challenge}
{Challenges completed:
✔For Love of a Book: I Went to the Zoo Challenge
✔For Love of a Book: Greatest Love Stories Challenge}
thatguyjae's review against another edition
dark
funny
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
bookwtch's review
4.0
Desperately wanting to fit in, varsity soccer player Cassie Adler reluctantly agrees to help play a prank on a new up-and-comer to the team; hoping to gain acceptance by her upper "popular" classmates for doing so.
When the prank goes horribly wrong, something dark is awakened. And it's very hungry.
I enjoyed this read so much!
A dash of gore, witchcraft, and revenge. Food Fright is a fun and campy novella that will horrify, have you laughing, and make you hungry all at the same time!
When the prank goes horribly wrong, something dark is awakened. And it's very hungry.
I enjoyed this read so much!
A dash of gore, witchcraft, and revenge. Food Fright is a fun and campy novella that will horrify, have you laughing, and make you hungry all at the same time!
thomaswjoyce's review against another edition
4.0
Okay, so perhaps you can surmise something about the story, the nature of the antagonist, from the cover and the occasional pun in the synopsis, and the title. You may think this would seem a little too silly to pull off. But give the book a chance and the author may just surprise you.
Teenage angst and cafeteria cliques (not only amongst the teenage characters) play a big part in the story, and Bell's depiction of the characters and how they interact with each other is wonderfully done. From tragic teen protagonist Cassie to the mysterious Home Economic teacher Ms Bower to bitchy alpha-mean girl Heather, Bell's characterisation was great and kept me gripped for the couple of hours it took to read the book.
Like a slice of rich chocolate cake, or apple pie and ice cream, this tale of witchcraft in a small Virginia town is satisfying and comforting. Great fun!
Teenage angst and cafeteria cliques (not only amongst the teenage characters) play a big part in the story, and Bell's depiction of the characters and how they interact with each other is wonderfully done. From tragic teen protagonist Cassie to the mysterious Home Economic teacher Ms Bower to bitchy alpha-mean girl Heather, Bell's characterisation was great and kept me gripped for the couple of hours it took to read the book.
Like a slice of rich chocolate cake, or apple pie and ice cream, this tale of witchcraft in a small Virginia town is satisfying and comforting. Great fun!
ciarasweeney's review against another edition
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75