About the Book
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Authors:
- Maika Moulite
- Maritza Moulite
- Genres:
- Boy-Girl Romance
- Fantasy
- Paranormal
Cover Story: Waiter, There’s a Bezos in My Soup!
Drinking Buddy: Bon sante!
MPAA Rating: R (classism, cannibalism)
Talky Talk: (Use your) BRAINS!
Bonus Factors: Voodoo, The 1%
Bromance Status: See You On the Other Side
Cover Story: Waiter, There’s a Bezos in My Soup!
I’m just going to say it. There’s cannibalism in this book. But it’s extremely wealthy people being eaten, so it’s all in good fun. Something the family can enjoy.
The title is a bit of a misnomer, as main character Brielle doesn’t eat the rich. She just feeds little bits of them to others.
The Deal:
Brielle is the daughter of a Haitian immigrant. Her mother has wrecked her health working as a home health aide to the grandfather of a billionaire. And yet, Brielle’s mother cannot afford treatment for her own chronic pain. Brielle dreams of opening a fancy supper club, but what are the odds of that for a poor Haitian-American girl?
When Brielle accidentally gains access to the rich man’s phone messages, she secretly confirms a charitable donation he had no intention of making. But her little act of rebellion pulls her into the world of high finance, haute cuisine, and the interest of Preston, the scion of the wealthy family.
Oh, and Brielle is a zombie. Did I mention that? Because she is. A zombie, I mean.
Drinking Buddy: Bon sante!
So Brielle…is a zombie. Not the brain eating kind, but a ‘zombi’, the kind created by a Haitian sorcerer or ‘bokor.’ A slave laborer. Brielle doesn’t let this affect her day-to-day life or her job as a chef-in-training. She just has a kind of permanently zoned out aura, doesn’t smile a lot, and likes her meat extra, extra rare. She’s never been to Haiti, but has five half-sisters there that she’s never met in person. The sisters serve as kind of a Greek chorus, taking on the role of classical muses to inform the reader of the backstory. Brielle sometimes feels the odd one out, and it doesn’t help that she once heard her loving mother refer to her as a monster.
But hey, a girl has to eat, and Brielle is an up and coming chef. Someone who could really make waves with the right sponsor. Like, say, the rich heir to a wealthy family who is smitten with her. Someone like that.
MPAA Rating: R (classism, cannibalism)
Brielle ends up working as a fellow for Preston’s family’s business. And there she starts to schmooze and is soon hired to cater an exclusive dinner. But Brielle has a friend whose grandmother owns a funeral home, which serves the very wealthy. And with Brielle’s, shall we say, unique heritage, she adds some very special ingredients to the entrees. Ingredients that start to bend the very wealthy to her will.
That was certainly…something. And technically, they really were eating the rich. But I was hoping to see a 1%er roasted on a spit or something. Don’t tell me you’ve never thought about it.
Talky Talk: (Use your) BRAINS!
Strangely, the fact that Brielle is a zombie almost felt like a subplot, and could have been dropped without affecting the story arc. I’d almost prefer to see a realistic fiction story of a young, Haitian-American girl using her cooking skills to show up the rich and charming a wealthy young man. Either that, or an old school zombie woman caging and fattening up the wealthiest people until they were ready to simmer in their own vile musk. This felt like two books in one, and I preferred Brielle, the working class aspiring chef, rather than Brielle, creature of Haitian black magic.
Bonus Factor: Voodoo
We’ve all heard the tales of Caribbean magicians who practice secret arts brought over by their ancestors on slave ships. How they can cause harm to a foe by sticking pins in an effigy…or enslave someone by feeding them a secret concoction.
Back in Haiti, Brielle’s mother was married to such a wizard. And when she strayed from the marital bed, he cursed her lover into becoming a zombi. As it turns out, such a condition is hereditary, as Brielle and her mother soon realized.
Hollywood loves a good zombie, but the idea of the undead goes back for centuries, and is not laughed at in certain circles. Scoff at your own risk.
Bonus Factor: The 1%
Preston and his family live on an exclusive island off of Miami where people like Brielle’s family only set foot to work. Brielle’s mother lives in a permanent state of pain, thanks to injuries she received caring for Preston’s great-grandfather. She can’t afford the treatment that would make her pain bearable, and she knows that when the old man passes, she’ll be out of work. When Brielle is hired to intern at the family company, she hears the mutterings of ‘diversity hire.’ When Brielle’s mother asks for a day off to watch the live stream of her aunt’s funeral in Haiti, she’s brusquely told no. ‘Do they even have the internet in Haiti?’
Preston is impressed by Brielle’s cooking skills, tenacity, and aloof demeanor. Brielle isn’t immune to Preston’s looks, charm, and the fact he can fly her to Paris for lunch. But there’s a lot of blowback from both families, and quite frankly, the pairing seemed a little forced. She didn’t even feed Preston any corpse dust to make him fall in line.
Bromance Status: See You On the Other Side
An odd book that didn’t completely win me over, I’ll still be on the lookout for whatever these authors cook up next (metaphorically).
Literary Matchmaking
Want old school undead? Check out the compilation Zombies vs. Unicorns.
FTC Full Disclosure: I received a free e-copy of this book from the publisher, but no money or non-processed food.
This book sounds BANANAS!