Eat Your Heart Out

Eat Your Heart Out by Kelly Devos // 352 pgs

⭐⭐⭐⭐

In the next few hours, one of three things will happen.

1--We'll be rescued (unlikely)

2--We'll freeze to death (maybe)

3--We'll be eaten by thin and athletic zombies (odds: excellent)

Vivian Ellenshaw is fat, but she knows she doesn't need to lose weight, so she's none too happy to find herself forced into a weight-loss camp's van with her ex-best friend, Allie, a meathead jock who can barely drive, and the camp owner's snobby son. And when they arrive at Camp Featherlite at the start of the worst blizzard in the history of Flagstaff, Arizona, it's clear that something isn't right.

Vee barely has a chance to meet the other members of her pod, all who seem as unhappy to be at Featherlite as she does, when a camper goes missing down by the lake. Then she spots something horrifying outside in the snow. Something...that isn't human. Plus, the camp's supposed "miracle cure" for obesity just seems fishy, and Vee and her fellow campers know they don't need to be cured. Of anything.

Even worse, it's not long before Camp Featherlite's luxurious bungalows are totally overrun with zombies. What starts out as a mission to unravel the camp's secrets turns into a desperate fight for survival--and not all of the Featherlite campers will make it out alive.

--

I’m a zombie girl; give me any media with zombies in it and I’m down. I love the interpersonal conflicts that develop, and how these trapped characters need to learn how to survive. So when I saw this book I immediately added it to my TBR; a zombie outbreak in a fat camp with fat protagonists? Sounds awesome.

The different characters are all unique, and I personally love that movie character tropes define them in a meta way. I think it was also fun and added a cinematic atmosphere to the book that was very engaging. 

This book also surprised me with some character deaths; I knew one was going to happen as it is stated in the opening chapter, but there were several others that genuinely shocked me. I was surprised about how much I grew to like these characters and root for them to survive.

I also loved how much this book challenged fatphobia (despite getting a little preachy at times); the idea that society would rather turn fat people into these awful creatures than just exist is great commentary on fatphobia in general.